Relationships

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Sexual selection

  • Inter-sexual selection = The preferred strategy of the female - Quality over quantity. A females optimum mating strategy is to select a genetically fit partner who is able to provide resources.
  • Intra-sexual selection = The preffered strategy of the male - Quantity over quality. A males optimum mating strategt is to mate with as many fertile females as possible.
  • Clark and Hatfield (1989) Campus students asked other students 'will you go to bed with me tonight? 0% of femlaes said yes, 75% of males said yes.
  • Buss (1989) Survey of 10,000 adults in 33 countries. Females placed greater value on resource-related characteristics than males did.
  • Singh (1992,2002) Males find waist to hip ratios of 0.7 attractive as they indicate fertility but not pregnant.
  • American lonely hearts research, Women offered physical attractiveness and me offered resources.
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Self-disclosure

  • Reciprocal exchange of personal information allows a greater understanding of eachother. As a relationship evolves, the breadth and depth of information increases.
  • Specher and Hendrick (1998) Strong correlation between satisfaction and self-disclosure in heterosexual couples.
  • Hass (1998) 57% of gay couples said that honest self-disclosure was the way they maintained their committed relationship.
  • People from individualist countries self-disclose more sexual thoughts than in collectivist countries.
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Physical attractiveness

  • Halo effect = Physical attractiveness has a disproportionate influence on our judgements of a person's attributes.
  • Matching hypothesis = We are attracted to people of the same level of attractiveness as ourselves.
  • Palmer nad Peterson (2012) Physically attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgeable than unattractive people.
  • Correlation in ratings of attractiveness between romantic partners.
  • Taylor (2011) Dating websites. Online daters sought meetings with potential partners wo were more attractive than themselves.
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Filter theory

  • Social demography = Factors that affect the chances of potential partners meeting eachother. 
  • Similarity of attitude = We find partners who share our basic values attractive.
  • Complimentarity = Similarity is replaced by the need for your partner to balance your traits with opposite ones of their own.
  • Winch (1958) The three filters are typical in the early stages of a relationship.
  • Online dating has reduced the impact of social demography.
  • Filter theoyr suggests that people are initially attracted to eachother because they are similar but longitudinal research shows that couples became more similar over time.
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Social exchange theory

  • Comparison level = Amount of reward you believe you should get. Cl is high, the relationsip is worth pursuing.
  • Comparion level for alternatives = Is there greater rewards in another relationship.
  • Stages of relationship development
    • Sampling stage - Explore rewards and costs.
    • Bargaining stage - Exchange rewards and costs.
    • Commitment stage - Rewards and costs become predictable.
    • Institutionalisation - Rewards and costs have been settled.
  • Theory fails to distinguish between exchange behaviours (keep track of exchanges) and Communal relationships (Not kept track)
  • Argyle argues that we dont meausre rewards and costs until we are dissatisfied.
  • SET ignores equity.
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Social exchange theory

  • Comparison level = Amount of reward you believe you should get. Cl is high, the relationsip is worth pursuing.
  • Comparion level for alternatives = Is there greater rewards in another relationship.
  • Stages of relationship development
    • Sampling stage - Explore rewards and costs.
    • Bargaining stage - Exchange rewards and costs.
    • Commitment stage - Rewards and costs become predictable.
    • Institutionalisation - Rewards and costs have been settled.
  • Theory fails to distinguish between exchange behaviours (keep track of exchanges) and Communal relationships (Not kept track)
  • Argyle argues that we dont meausre rewards and costs until we are dissatisfied.
  • SET ignores equity.
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Equity theory

  • It's not the size or amoutn of rewards and costs, it is the ratio of the two together.
  • Utne (1984) Survey of 118 recently married couples. Couples who considered their relationship equitable were more satisfied.
  • Couples from a collectivist culture were most satisfied when they were overbenefitting, Individualist cultures were more satisifed when there was equity.
  • People labelled as benevolents are prepared to contribute more than they get out, People labelled as entitleds believe they shoul be overbenefitted.
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Rusbult's investment model

  • Satisfaction and comparison with alternatives = Extent to which partner feel the rewards of the relationship exceed the costs, and whether they could recieve better rewards elsewhere.
  • Investment size = Resources associated with a relationship.
    • Intrinsic investment - Resource put direclt into the relationship
    • Extrinsic relationships - Resources that weren't previously in the relationship but are now strognly associated with it.
  • 52 studies of 11,000 people. All three filters predicted commitment,
  • Explains abusive relationships
  • Extension to the model to couples future plans. Model fails to recognise the true complexity of investment.
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Duck's phase model

  • Intra-psychic phase = Focus on cognitive processes. Partner mulls over their dissatisfaction privately.
  • Dyadic phase = Focus on interpersonal processes between the two partners. 
  • Social phase = Focus on wider processes involving the couple's social networks.
  • Grave-dressing phase = Couples spin a favourable story after the breakdown to tell the public.
  • Fifth stage - Ressurection phase, Ex-partner turn attention to future relationships using experiences gaines from their previous relationship.
  • Retrospective methodology can produce bias, unreliable information.
  • Model helps to explain how the breakup can be reversed.
  • Relationships in individualist countries are generally voluntary and frequently come to an end, those in collectivist countries are likely to be obligatory and in some cases arranged and less likely to end.
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Virtual relationships

  • Reduced cues theory = CMC relationships are less effective as they lack non-verbal cues which leads to depersonalisation.
  • Hyperpersonal model = CMC relationships are more effective as they begin quicker and lead to greate self-disclosure.
  • Absence of gating = Physical attractiveness and social anxiety can act as gates in FTF realtionships.
  • Non-verbal cues are different rather than absent in CMC, Timing of responses and acrostics can be used.
  • Online discussion forums - Users asked direct probing and intimate questions.
  • Many types of CMC meaning different platforms have different levels of interactions.
  • Relationships are often multi-modal.
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Parasocial Relationships

  • Entertainment social = Celebrity's are viewed as a source of entertainment.
  • Intense personal = Frequent obsessive thoughts towards the celebrity.
  • Borderline pathological = Uncontrollable fantasies and extreme behaviours.
  • Absorption-addiction model = Parasocial relationships occur as a result of deficencies in peoples lives.
  • Absorption = Seeking fulfilment in a celebrity motivates the individual to focus their attention on the celebrity.
  • Addiction = The individual needs to sustain their commitment to feel closer involvement.
  • Maltby (2005) Link between celebrity worship and body image in teens. Intense-personal teens had poor body image.
  • McCutcheon (2006) Participants with insecure attahcments were no more likely to develop parasocial relationships.
  • Self-report method generates bias.
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