The formation of romantic relationships
- Created by: Rosie
- Created on: 30-03-13 15:10
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- The formation of romantic relationships
- Similarity
- Byrne, Clore and Smeaton (1986)
- Suggests that we are attracted to those with similar personality types and attitudes
- It has also been suggested that attitude alignment occurs during relationships
- Condon and Craner suggest that a higher similarity gives a lower chance of rejection and that's what we're attracted to (Supporting)
- Caspi and Hebner supported this - they looked at real marriages and found that the more similar couples were happier
- However, Rosenbaum suggests that we look for dissimilarity first and avoid it.
- This suggests that there are more factors influencing the formation.
- Reward satisfaction theory
- Repetition of behaviours that make us happy, or that we associate with good times, e.g if you meet someone at a party.
- Byrne and Clore (1970)
- Shown by Vietch and Griffith's radio study - people listened to good or bad news whilst talking to someone and it influenced their opinion of that person
- This shows that the associations of good/bad news can influence a relationship being formed. (S)
- Culturally bias - based on Western ideas of relationships
- Reductionism, Determinism and can be explained using the Evolutionary theory.
- Often rely on lab experiments which lack mundane realism and only look at short term situations
- This means they cannot be generalised to every day life of the whole population, and they don't necersserily represent the real actions of people
- But
- Caspi and Hebner supported this - they looked at real marriages and found that the more similar couples were happier
- But
- This means they cannot be generalised to every day life of the whole population, and they don't necersserily represent the real actions of people
- Similarity
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