Formation and maintenance of relationships
- Created by: 08rmorris
- Created on: 10-04-15 11:37
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- Formation and maintenance of relationships
- Selfish reasons
- 1. Reward/need satisfaction theory states that we form friendship to receive rewards or reinforcement from others
- 2. Relationships provide rewards (approval, sex, status, love, money, respect) that satisfy our social needs (for self-esteem, affiliation, dependency)
- 3. so, in terms of operant conditioning, being in a relationship is positively reinforced because it's rewarding
- 4. Byrne and Clore's (1970) Reinforcement-Affect theor suggests that both operant and classical conditioning okay a part in relationships
- The theory states that we learn to associate people with positive or enjoyable situations, even if they are not directly rewarding us in these instances
- Economic theories consider relationships to be a trading process
- Social exchange Theory
- S.E.T. (Thibault and Kelley, 1959) suggests that people try to maximise rewards (e.g. attention, self-esteem, happiness) from a relationship and minimise costs (e.g. time, effort, emotional support)
- 2. If the relationships is to continue, then the rewards must not be outweighed by the costs - we should end up in profit. So, relationships are formed using a sort of 'cost-benefit' analysis.
- 3. But if we are striving to get more and give less, this may result in an unequal relationship
- Equity theory
- 1. Equity theory suggests that people expect relationships to be fair and equal
- 2. They want to receive rewards from relationships that are in balance wight he rewards they provide for the other person
- 3. If a relationship is unequal or unfair then it produces discomfort and distress in both partners, even if you are the one getting more and giving less
- 4. The disadvantaged person may try to make things fairer if it seems possible
- Social exchange Theory
- Relationships can be perceived very differently
- Hatfield et al (1979) asked newlyweds to assess what they and their partner contributed to the relationship and their level of contentment with the marriage:
- The least satisfies were those who were under-ebenfited (unhappy about giving the most)
- The next least satisfies were those who were over-benefited (perhaps they felt guilty about giving the least). Equal relationships were most satisfied
- There may be sex differences in how we feel about unequal relationships. Argyle (1988) found that:
- Over-benefited men were almost as satisfied as those in equitable marriages.
- Over-benefited women, however, were much less satisfied than women in quell relationships
- Hatfield et al (1979) asked newlyweds to assess what they and their partner contributed to the relationship and their level of contentment with the marriage:
- Selfish reasons
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