Close relationships: social theories

Question 1

four types of social reward (Hill, 1987)

Answer 1

• positive stimulation
• attention
• emotional support
• social comparison

Question 2

reinforcement effect model of interpersonal attraction (Clore & Byrne, 1974)

Answer 2

• we prefer to interact with others who provide emotional rewards
• gravitate positive experiences

Question 3

social exchange theory (Kelly & Thibaut, 1978)

Answer 3

• maximise gain

- minimise loss

Question 4

equity theory (Hatfield, Rapson & Bensman, 2011)

Answer 4

relationship more likely to be successful when both partners enjoy the same ratio

Question 5

communal relationship (Clark & Mills, 1979)

Answer 5

• people are concerned with the welfare of others and give without expecting anything in return
• characterised by more sharing and compromise, less coercion

Question 6

caveats

Answer 6

• social reward: feelings good for meeting ones obligations

- benefits received because the partners needs are met

Question 7

Two factor theory (Schachter & Singer, 1962)

Answer 7

-the evolutionary psychology of close relationships

Question 8

evolutionary perspective of attraction

Answer 8

• natural selection vs sexual selection
• facial attractiveness
• perceived and actual benefits of physical attractiveness
• body attractiveness
• personality attractiveness
• risk-taking as a mating strategy

Question 9

natural selection vs sexual selection

Answer 9

(Darwin, 1859)
-NS= individuals in a population naturally vary
-some traits are better suited to the environment
-individuals with adaptive traits are more likely to survive and reproduce
(Darwin, 1859)
-SS= some elaborate non-adaptive traits are associated with mating success
-risk of possessing trait decreasing survival out weighted by reproductive benefits

Question 10

sexy son hypothesis

Answer 10

• woman find some men more physically desirable because they have good genes that can be passed on to their sons
• the woman’s sons will then have greater reproductive success due to their attractiveness
• Sela et al., 2015 found that how attractive woman perceived their partner to be to other woman predicted orgasm likelihood

Question 11

non-physical traits

Answer 11

humour, creativity, intelligence

• evidence that humour is associated with attractiveness for short-term mating (when females rate males), but humour is not related to attractiveness when ,males rated females (Cowan & Little, 2013)
• woman orgasm more frequently with high humour males, as well as males who were ‘nice smelling, faithful, creative and warm’ (Sherlock et al., 2016)
• Kaufamn et al., 2018 argues we need better validated measures and more robust to determine whether these are sperate constructs

Question 12

mis-matched relationships

Answer 12

everyone has different preferences
twin studies suggest a genetic basis for mate preferences as twins have very similar preferences
-but twin often end up with very different long-term partners
-suggesting people are not ending up with partners who match their preferences
-Griffith, Pryke and Buttermer (2011) found that monogamous female Gouldian Finches (Erythrura gouldiae) who paired with a low-quality male had three times higher levels of stress hormones compared to finches who paired up with a high quality male