agape

n. a complex form of love involving feelings of tenderness; protectiveness; self-denial; and aesthetic preference for the features, gestures, speech, and other traits of a person. The term, which derives from a Greek word meaning “brotherly love,” is sometimes used to denote an unselfish love as taught by such religious figures as Jesus and the Buddha.

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Psychology term of the day

February 15th 2025

social relations model

a general framework used in studies of interpersonal perception in which a person’s behavior with a particular partner is considered to reflect aspects of the larger group to which the two individuals belong, as well as aspects of the individual emitting the behavior, aspects of the partner, and qualities unique to the two individuals’ relationship with one another. The model makes use of a round-robin rating design in which participants rate one another and their degree of perceptual accuracy in different areas is evaluated. Of particular interest are individual accuracy, or how well a person’s judgments of an individual correspond to how that individual tends to behave across interaction partners; and dyadic accuracy, or how well someone can uniquely judge how a specific individual will behave with him or her. [developed in 1981 by U.S. social psychologist David A. Kenny]