The Christmas holidays are a time when people are used to exchanging gifts. Of course, Male-Female Relationships our giving mood should not be limited to this and its consumer dimension, but we should reflect on how we can be more giving in every way, giving our loved ones more time, attention and love beyond specific material gifts.
Nevertheless, since it’s this time of year, let’s see what happens to our psychology in relation to the exchange of gifts. We have all received in our lives beautiful and less beautiful gifts from FlirtWith tasteful and bad taste, useful and useless. And it seems that we remember very well the gifts we have received and even more the emotions we have felt in the moments when they were given to us.
The holidays are quite a charged time practically and emotionally and this whole gift thing seems to add its own little stone to the pressure we feel. How many times have you found yourself stressing over what to get a loved one? Why does giving a gift put us in a process of stress and anxiety? How do we feel when we put it under the tree and even more when the other person unwraps it? How do we feel when we see the other’s gift? Gifts make us feel anxious because what we offer and receive is not just a gift but much more a symbol.
Gifts are Symbols of Both Relationships
They Reveal the Nature of the Connections we have with others. This is also why we remember all the gifts we have received – the “good”, the “bad” and the “ugly”. In his article, “The Social Psychology of Gifts” Barry Schwartz writes that “gifts are one of the ways in. Which the images others have of us are communicate. Of course, the gift “not only reveals. The image of the person who gives it to us. But also exposes his character and way of thinking”.
Christmas gifts in particular create more anxiety for us not only because. They are revealing, but also because they are an exchange. We fear receiving the “bad” gift as much as giving it. Especially when it comes to our partner. So is it interesting to see how gifts affect our relationships, especially emotional ones. And how women and men react to them?
Research shows that the two sexes view gifts differently. Jeff Huntsinger, professor of psychology at Loyola University Chicago, and his colleagues in their study published in the journal Social Cognition (2008) investigated how gifts affect relationships. In the study, people, through a series of experiments, were led to believe that they had received a “good” or “bad” gift from their partner, and then to state their opinions about the partner and their relationship.
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It appeared that regardless of whether the gift was “good” or “bad”, the women believed that their partner was quite similar to them and that as a couple they would stay together for a long time. Men, on the other hand, had a more negative reaction to the “bad” gift and were more likely to believe that their partner was quite different from them and to predict that the relationship would end sooner.
In other words, the “bad” gift made men “reconsider” the way they viewed the relationship, while women were more inclined to “neutralize” the “interpersonal threat” posed by the “bad” gift. They were unwilling to revise their perspective on the relationship. Surprisingly, women didn’t FlirtWith.com respond to the “good” gift either with particular enthusiasm about what it meant for the relationship.
In general, it seems that the gift “means” more to men in the sense. That they draw more conclusions from it about the compatibility of the relationship and therefore. Its ability to last over time. And women tend to “protect” the relationship, considering. That even a “bad” gift doesn’t mean much, but seen from. The other side, this is perhaps the reason why even a “good” gift doesn’t excite them in terms of the relationship .
And then they say that women analyze everything… here, however, it seemed the opposite. One interpretation is that women raise psychological defenses and resistances to anything. That seems to “threaten” the perception we have of our relationship, in other words we prefer to see things more “rosy”.
Certainly, however, more research is needed to arrive. At more reliable findings since these are only the results of a single study. The interesting thing is, as Huntsinger says. That gifts can act as a sign. That we understand the other person.”
After the above men you may feel more reassured… Whatever you get her, she is not going to “sweat her ear”. Now for you girls, what can I say… again we fell into trouble!!
Anyway, don’t despair… Psychology can help here too with some useful tips. And the most valid of them is:
1) Get him What He Wants. – Male-Female Relationships
You may like the idea of putting a lot of thought into finding. The perfect gift for your partner, but research shows that our belief that “it’s the thought that counts” is probably wrong.
It has been found that only when the recipient does not like. The gift, does he begin to evaluate our intention – in the sense of “why did we get him such a bad gift”. Male-Female Relationships
So putting thought into what we’re going to get is something. That can be protective for us but won’t necessarily increase the other person’s appreciation of the gift.
According to the researchers, “if we want to make the recipient of the gift happy. So that he feels truly grateful, the best thing to do is to give him what he wants.”
Now as far as the thought we put in is concerned, it is we ourselves. Who stand to reap the greatest benefit, since these thoughts can make us feel closer to the person to whom we are going to give the gift.
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2) Give an Experience
Research shows that experiences make us happier than material possessions. This is because humans tend to get used to the things. We see every day, so that our initial excitement fades over time. On the contrary , experiences still bring us joy as we recall them.
In this way, the chances of “failure” are reduced since by giving. The other person an experience that is close to their interests and desires, we can show them how well we know them.