Relationships

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  • Created by: Kerry
  • Created on: 31-03-15 11:05
Who developed a breakdown of relationships theory?
Duck and Rollie
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Why was their theory different from other theories?
Focussed on processes that typify relationship breakdown rather than distinct stages that couples go through
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What are the 6 phases that they identified?
Breakdown phase, Intrapyschi processes, Dyadic processes, Social processes, Grave dressing processes and Resurrection processes
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What happens in the first process (breakdown stage)?
Individual in relationship considers ending relationship - relationship will end if things dont improve
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What happens in the 2nd process (intrapyschic processes)?
Individual sees their partner in a negative way and will become socially withdrawn
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What happens in the 3rd process (dyadic processes)?
Couple air and dispute their problems, effective communication may save the relationship
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What happens in the 4th process (social processes)?
Make public their plans to break up, friends and family may mend or delay the conclusion. Each partner justifies the break up
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What happens in the 5th process (grave dressing proccesses)?
Official account of split is formulated - may differ between each partner as want to place themselves in a good light in order to get a new partner
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What happens in the 6th process (resurrection processes)?
Individuals move on and think about what they want in a new relationship
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What is a positive criticism of the resurrection process?
Represents positive view of a relationship breakdown, highlights the potential for personal growth. Realistic as many people benefit from leaving relationships. Theory is more valid as phase is true to life and representative of real relationships
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What was Akert's study?
Role is most important predictor of impact of relationship, those who dont initiate = miserable and lonely, those who do = less upset and stressed. Individuals may go through different stages depending on if they initiate the break up
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How is the theory heterosexually biased?
Developed from experiences of individuals in heterosexual relationships, may not represent experiences of other groups e.g. gay or lesbian.
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What are RWA of the model according to Duck?
Topics people discuss relate to what stage they are in, possible to intervene and prevent breakdown. Individuals in intrapsychic stage may be encouraged to think positively about partner
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Who developed the equity theory for the maintenance of relationships?
Walster
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What does it see relationship behaviour as? (similar to SET)
Series of exchanges where the individual tries to maximise rewards and minimise costs
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How does it differ from SET?
Goal is to acheived perceived equity rather than profit
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What happens when there is inequity?
Over or under benefitting leads to dissatisfaction due to inequity, recognising inequity can prevent breakdown if changes are made to re-establish equity
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How does equity differ from equality?
Individuals can put in different amounts but still have an equitable relationship
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Is the comparison level used?
May be used to compare relationships, determines if it is worth pursuing current relationship or if they should start another one
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What was Argygle's study?
People in relationships dont think in terms of rewards/costs unless their dissatisfied. Implies equity in a conscious way isnt a valid explanation of relationship maintenance
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What was Dainton's study?
219 individuals in relationships, those in inequitable relationships had low satisfaction but motivated to return to equitable state to maintain relationship. Therefore equity main factor in satisfaction and maintenance
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What was Feeney et al's study?
Equity not as important in real life, relationships are more sophisticated and cost/benefit analysis is too simplistic. Therefore theory is unvalid
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What else does Feeney et al suggest about equity theory?
It is reductionist - too simplistic a way to explain real life relationships
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Who developed social exchange theory?
Thibaut and Kelly
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What do they see relationship behaviour as?
Series of exchanges based around rewards, benefits and costs
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What does each individual do in a relationship?
Attempts to maximise rewards by minimising costs, this increases profit
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What are costs?
What an individual views as a loss due to being in the relationship e.g. time
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How is the relationship maintained?
Maintained as long as the individual perceives they are making a profit
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What is the comparison level?
Compare relationship to expectations and past relationships to determine the value of exchanges
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What is the comparison level for alternatives?
Compare relationship to alternatives, if alternative seems better value they may be motivated to change
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What was Mills and Clark's study?
Identified communal couple - give out of concern and exchange couple - mental record of who is ahead. Different types of relationships, cannot apply SET to all - not universal. Unlikely it could be applied in non-western cultures
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What was Hatfield's study?
Looked at people in relationships who over/under benefitted. Under benefitters = deprived and angry. Over benefitters = guilty and uncomfortable. Not everyone strives for profitable relationship
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What are RWA of this theory? (Rusbult and Martz)
SET can explain why people remain in abusive relationships. When investment is high (children, security) and alternatives are low (homeless, poor) - abusive relationship is profitable and motivated to stay in relationship
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Who developed the reward/need satisfaction model for formation of relationships?
Byrne and Clore
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What does the model suggest?
Realtionships are formed according to the behaviourist principles: operant and classical conditioning
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What does operant conditioning suggest?
Behaviours followed by desirable consequences become more frequent. If behaviour is followed by undesirable consequence it becomes less frequent
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How does this relate to relationships?
Relationships are positively reinforced - sex, companionship etc. Also negatively reinforced - not alone or sad. We are directly rewarded by having needs met, increases chance of relationship forming
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What is classical conditioning?
Neutral stimulus is paired with stimulus that produces a response, over time the neutral stimulus will also give the response
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Give an example of this
Party is stimulus that causes a happy response, meeting the same person at parties will cause them to be associated with a happy response. More likely to form a relationship with them
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How does classical conditioning differ from operant conditioning?
Provides us with INdirect rewards as people become associated with pleasant circumstances/responses
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What was Aron et al's study?
MRI scans, 17 individuals "intensely in love". Dopamine areas of brain associated with reward activated when p was shown photo of the person they loved compared to someone they didnt. Amount of activity correlated to how in love they were
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What was Hay's study?
Degree of mutual liking needed for friendship formation, RNS model focusses on reward not reciprocity. Suggests RNS ignores some factors like equity
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How is the RNS model deterministic?
Suggests that when others provide rewards/are associated with rewards relationships form. In absence of rewards no relationship forms. Implies behaviour is determined by rewards and not free will
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Do all rewards = relationships?
No, evolutionary theory suggests sex is a reward. Therefore, having sex should prompt a relationship formation as it is a reward. Doesnt as one night stands exist. Therefore formation of relationship influenced by other factors than rewards
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What does evolutionary theory see relationships as?
Being in a relationship is an adaptive behaviour, enhances reproductive fitness for both sexes
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What did Perilloux & Buss develop?
Explanation of why evolution has shaped behaviour of rejectors and rejectees differently
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What is their view on emotional investment?
More costly for women to lose stability of relationship - dependent on resources of male. Female rejectees experience higher emotional costs
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What is their view on committment?
Women value emotional commitment, may use an increase in commitment as a strategy to maintain a relationship
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What is their view on infidelity?
Can be deliberate attempt to break up with poor quality mate, infidelity more valuable to men as sexual variety enhances reproductive fitness
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What is their view on reputation?
Rejectors can be seen as cruel, rejectee seen as victim - damage rejectors chance of finding a new mate. Rejectors try to be seen as compassionate as possible
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What was Perilloux & Buss' study?
98 students, gender differences in coping found. Females more likely to use shopping for appearance enhancement, men used increase in commitment to prevent breakdown
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What was a positive of this theory related to gender differences?
Considers gender differences - females lose more if they show partner commitment, males engage in sex with other partners quickly after breakup to find an alternative
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What did Nichols suggest was a disadvantage of the theory?
Ignores proximate causes of behaviour, e.g. how modern culture influences behaviour
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Why is this theory reductionist?
Behaviour of individuals in a relationship is reduced down to a simple adaptive behaviour, when in reality it is affected by a greater range of factors
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What is intrasexual selection?
Competition for mates between individuals of the same sex - males compete with males for access to female mates
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What is intersexual selection?
Competition between males and females for the best mate
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How does sexual selection differ from natural selection?
May actually inhibit individuals chances of survival
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What is an indicator?
Characteristic that signals an individuals quality as a mate - characteristic likely to be passed on to offspring
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What is provisioning and who is it important to?
Abiity of potential mates to offer valuable resources, important to females as generous male is more likely to share resources with family and provide for partner/offspring
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What type of preference do humans have?
Facial preference - indicates good genes which is preferred by mates as has potential of passing them onto offspring
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Why might male mating strategies be short term but womens not?
Men acheive greatest reproductive success by impregnating many women, females that have casual sex can damage reputation
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What did Clark and Hatfield find about casual sex?
Male and female students, approached by stranger of opposite sex and asked for sex. 75% of males accepted, 0% of males did. Supports that males have evolved a motivation for casual sex but women havent
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What did Hill and Kaplan find about provisioning?
Attractiveness of provisioning trait shown in polygynous hunter-gather societies. Best hunters have most wives and more likely to have extra marital affairs. More valid as applies to more than one culture
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What is a negative of the preference part of this explanation?
People express preferences for ideal partner, accept they have to compromise when it comes to real life partner.
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How is this explanation reductionist?
Reduces human reproductive behaviour down to simple behaviours that tend to be evolutionary
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What does Trivers define parental investment as?
An investment a parent makes in individual offpsring, increases that individuals chance of survival at the cost of parents ability to invest in other offspring
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Who invests more?
Women
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What do women invest?
Egg - more costly to produce (have fewer/limited), carries baby - impacts lifestyle, moods, health etc, dependency - child depends on woman for food after birth, invest after birth not just during - cannot run away
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What do men invest?
Father potentially unlimited offspring, walk away after fertilisation if they want, at risk of cuckoldry as cannot be sure he is the father, can leave when child has been born
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What did Buss suggest about responding to these problems?
Sexual jealousy, different sexes concerned about different types of infidelity because of this. Men - sexual and women - emotional
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What does the evolutionary approach/Rowe suggest about PI?
Mens PI depends on personal/social conditions and not evolutionary factors. e.g. personality/characteristics of child. Therefore evolutionary approach limited to explain PI as ignores these factors
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What was Anderson's study?
Help to children by father/stepfather - measured this in terms of time spent with child and financial support. Men didnt discriminate between children. Challenges PI which suggests men invest more in biological children
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What did Geary et al find relating to why men fear cuckoldry?
Women want high quality genes/resources - extra marital affairs with higher quality mates. Gain benefits - social support, better genes. Therefore main factor in differing PI is paternity/cuckoldry risk
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What did Bowlby suggest about child development?
Child develops IWM based on interactions with primary caregiver, influences expectations of later realtionships. Child relationships likely to affect romantic relationships
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What did Hazan and Shaver conduct?
Love quiz - find experiences of romantic relationships, asked for list of adjectives to describe parent relationships
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What did they find?
Strong relationship between: childhood/adulthood relationship type, secure relationships last twice as long as insecure, secure adults believed in love, insecure doubted true love
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What are AO3 points to this study?
Self report, culture bias, volunteer sample and demand characteristics
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What did Feeney and Noller find?
Individual secure in one relationship but insecure in another, attachment styles different across different relationships and cannot compare relationships
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What was Fraley's meta analysis?
Found weak correlations between early attachment type/later relationships. Reason for low correlation is because insecure-avoidant was unstable
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What is a negative of using retrospective data?
Studies rely on recall of p's childhood, some can be eldery - H+ S quiz has p's that were 80yrs old. Memory is less accurate so results are less valid
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What is a negative of using self report methods?
Social desirability bias - want to give good impression of how secure their relationship is, may lie which affects results. Results are less reliable
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Why is research in this area deterministic?
Suggests early experiences have fixed influence on later relationships, some insecurely attached children have happy relationships. Research ignores the role of free will
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What did Qualter and Munn suggest was the impact of peer relationships?
Children learn from others, way a child thinks about themselves is determined by specific experiences they internalise. Develop sense of own value - determines approach to relationships. Peer relationships crucial to outcome of adult relationships
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What was Thompsons study?
Childhood cancer survivors - satisfaction/duration of relationships not altered. More distress when relationships ended, more severe for those that had more severe treatment. Peer relationships dont affect adult relationships
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What was Kirschler et al's study?
Adolescents who dont develop peer relationships/close to family - difficulty establishing autonomy and forming adult relationships. Peer relationships more important than family relationships as help us learn how to establish a relationship
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What was Haynie's study?
Significant link between romantic involvement and deviant behaviour in adolescents. Deviant behaviour increased by 35% in adolescents in regular relationships. Not always a positive thing
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What is the difference between collectivist and individualist cultures?
Individualist - emphasis on independence of individual, their personal goals, collectivist - emphasis on interdependence and acheiving collective goals
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What does this do to relationships?
Individualist - focussed on personal desires, romantic love more important than needs of family. Collectivist - reason for marriage related to £, concerned with sharing resources with family
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How does an urban environment affect relationships?
Larger choice of partner, fewer restrictions, less urbanised areas have less choice and arranged marriage is more likely to occur.
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How does social mobility affect relationships?
Some societies arrange marriages and some religions restrict the partners that individuals can have
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What did Huang find?
Individualistic ideals are increasing in Asian countries and more people are getting divorced, young people more focussed on their desires rather than family and want love
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What did Li et al find?
Very little differences in relationship attitudes between people from china (collectivist) and people from canada (individualist)
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What did Myers et al find?
Love not a good indicator of marital success, compared arranged marriages from collectivist cultures to US marriages - no significant difference.
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What did Moghaddam and Gibbons find about culture bias?
Ethnocentric views affect perspective due to western ideals. Indigenous researchers need to be involved to prevent culture bias. Suggests research with western researchers is culturally biased
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Why was their theory different from other theories?

Back

Focussed on processes that typify relationship breakdown rather than distinct stages that couples go through

Card 3

Front

What are the 6 phases that they identified?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What happens in the first process (breakdown stage)?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What happens in the 2nd process (intrapyschic processes)?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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