The Formation of Romantic Relationships

AO1

REWARD/NEED SATISFACTION THEORY

-We are attracted to people who we find satisfying or gratifying to be with.

-We are motivated to seek rewarding stimuli... What we find rewarding may be what makes up our unmet needs. 

-Mutual attraction occurs when each partner meets the other person's needs.

-Rewarding stimuli produces positive feelings... punishing stimuli produces negative feelings (operant conditioning) Us associating them with positive reinforcement makes them more attractive to us.

-We also like people who are associated with pleasant events. Meeting someone when were happy makes us associate them with a positive event and find them more attractive in turn. 

AO2

-Supporting evidence for people liking someone because direct reinforcement is provided. Participants were evaluated on a creative task bu am experimenter and then asked to rate how much they liked the experimenter. The ratings were always highest when the participant had recieved a positive evaluation on the task.

-Greater FB use positively correlated with positive and negative indicators of relationship satisfaction. 

-Participants measuring very high on a self-report…