Formation of romantice relationships

(A01) Bryne & Clore 1970 - Reward/Need satisfaction theory

Suggest we're attracted to those who we fing satisfying or gratifying. We are motivated to seek rewarding stimuli and avoid punishing. Mutual attraction occurs when each partner meets the others' needs.

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(A01) Rewards & punishments - Bryne & Clore 1970

Suggets we enter relationships because the presence of some people is directly associated with reinforcement (mkaing us happy), making them mroe attractive to us.

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(A01) Attractiont hrough association - Bryne & Clore 1970

We also like those wssociated with pleasant events. If we meet someone when in a good mood, we're much more inclined to like them. A previously neutral stimuli can become positively valued through association with pleasant events.

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(A01) What do Bryne & Clore 1970 suggest about balance?

There should be a balance of positive and negative feelings in a relationship. If the positive outweigh the negativem we are more likely to develop & succeed whereas more negative feeling are likely to fail.

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(A02) Griffitt & Guay 1969

PP's were evaluated on a creative task by an experimenter and asked to rate them. Ratings were highest when the experimenter postively reinforced their performance.

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(A02) Sheldon et al 2011

Discovered greater facebook use was + correlated with positive and negative indicators of relationship satisfaction. 'Disconnected' people use facebook more as a coping strategy for lack of satisfaction in relationships.

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(A02) Aron et al 2007

found that those reporting high on a self-report questionnaire of romance, showed strong activity in certain brain areas. (ventral tegmental area). Early, intense love had raised activity in subcortical reward regions in brain, rich in dopamine.

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(A02) Cate et al 1982

asked 337 people to asses their current relationship in reward levels and satisfactino. Reward level was superior to all other factors in satisfaction.

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(A02) Hays 1985

This theory only expolores RECIEVING of rewards. Hays found that we gain satisfaction from giving as well as recieving.

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(A02) Evolution - Aron et al 2005

Suggests the brain reward system associated with romantic love probably evolved for ancestors to focus on courtship to certain people. Love at first sight is a basic mammalian response our ancestors inherited to speed up mating process.

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(A02) Culture Bias - Lott 1994

Doesnt account for culture and gender differences. Lott suggetss in many cultures, women focus mroe on others' needs rather than recieving rewards. Suggesting this theory is not universal.

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(A02) Mundane realism (however, Caspi & Herbener 1990)

Most studies in this area are lab studiesm don't necessarily show that the principles of need satisfaction apply to real life. However, Caspi & Herbener found this does occur on real-life couples.

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(A01) Matching Hypothesis - Walster et al 1966

Suggested we're attracted to those with features similar to our own, including IQ and social standing.

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(A01) Matching Hypothesis - Walster et al 1966 (self-esteem)

He suggested that if our self-esteem is low, we'll aim for someone less likely to reject us. Yet if self-esteem is high, then we will most likely seek someone we believe is 'out of our league'.

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(A02) Computer Dance, Method - Walster et al 1966

752 students, each student assessed on attractiveness by number. Randomly paired by computer. Completed questionnaires about the dance and their dates on the night and again, 2 days later.

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(A02) Matching Hypothesis, Findings - Walster et al 1966

Main factor was happiness. 6 months later, pp's who were paired with similar attractiveness were more likely to see one another again.

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(A02) Silverman 1971

Couples (18-22 & unmarried) observed in social places: bars, social events. 2 male/2 female acted as observers and rated opposite sex on 5* scale. Found more similar attractiveness, happier they seemed and more physical intimacy displayed.

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(A02) Support & Weakness - Silverman 1971

It has high ecological validity as it was a natural experiment. HOWEVER - experimenter bias is in play.

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(A02) Aronson et al 1966

Supporting research = When using homosexual couples, physical attractiveness was still found to be physical attractiveness when seeking a mate.

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(A02) Caspi & Herbener -

Support = Married coupels with similar personalities tend to be happier than couples with less similarity.

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(A02) Condon and Crano 1988

We assume that people similar to us are more likely to like us, by ruling out mismatched people, we lessen the chance of being rejected.

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(A02) Culturally Specific

This is based upon mate seeking in a singular culture and so may not be able to be applied in another, non-western culture. = BIAS

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(A02) Yoshida 1972

Limits = pointed out that by simply observing attractiveness, it represents a very narrow view of factors that are impotant to relationship formation, as factors like self-concept or financial wellbeing may be equally important.

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(A02) Speakman et al 2007

Support = found that people often choose partners similar in levels of body fat

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Formation of romantice relationships

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