Relationships - Full topic notes

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Sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour

Anisogamy = The differences between male and female sex cells. 

Male gametes are extremely small, highly mobile and created continuosly in vast numbers through little energy expenditure.

Female gametes are relatively large, static and produced for a limited time using a large investment of energy.

Inter-sexual selection

The preferred strategy of the female - Quality over quantity.

Due to the large investments made by a mother in the birth of her offspring, it pays to be choosy. A females optimum mating strategy is to select a genetically fit partner who is able to provide resources.

Clark and Hatfield (1989)

Campus students asked other students and asked 'Will you go to bed with me tonight?'. 0% of females said yes, 75% of males said yes.

Intra-sexual selection

The preferred strategy of the male - Quantity over quality.

Competition between males to be able to mate with a female, where the winner gets to pass on his winning chracteristics onto his offspring. A males optimum mating strategy is to mate with as many fertile females as possible.

Buss (1989) 

Survey of 10,000 adults in 33 countries. Females placed greater value on resource-related characteristics than males did. Males valued capacity and preferred younger mates.

Due to social changes, women no longer have to rely on men for financial resources.

Singh (1992,2002) Males generally find any hip and waist sizes attractive aslong as the ration of one to the other is 0.7. These are indicators of a fertile but not pregnant woman.

American Lonely hearts research - Women offered physical attractiveness and men offered resources.

Self-disclosure

Altman and Taylor's (1973) social penetration theory has self-disclosure as one of its major concepts in the development of a relationship. The reciprocal exchange of personal information allows a greater understanding of eachother. As a relationship evolves the breadth and depth of self-disclosure increases and more personal information is shared.

Specher and Hendrick (2004) found strong correlations between satisfaction and self-disclosure in heterosexual couples.

Hass (1998) 57% of gay couples said that open and honest self-disclosure was the way they maintained their committed relationship.

People from individualist countries self-disclose more sexual thoughts and feelings than those in collectivist countries.

Physical attractiveness

The halo effect = Physical attractiveness has a disproportionate influence on our judgements of a persons's attrubutes.

Matching hypothesis = We are attracted to people who approximately match us in physical attractiveness.

Palmer and Peterson (2012) physically attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgeable and competent than unattractive people.

Correlation in ratings of attractiveness between romantic partners.

Cunningham (1995) What is considered physically attractive is consistent across cultures. 

Taylor (2011) Studied dating websites. Online daters sought meetings with potential partners who were more attractive than themselves.

Filter theory

1st filter, Social demography = Factors that affect the chances of potential partners meeting eachother. (geographical location, social class,race etc)

2nd filter, Similarity in attitudes = We find partners who share our basic values attractive. 

3rd filter, Complimentarity = Similarity is replaced…

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