Factors Affecting Attraction: Filter Theory Flashcards
Which study explains attraction in terms of the attitudes and personalities of people rather than just focusing on physical appearance?
Kerchkoff and Davies:
- First we consider the field of availables (pool of potential partners who are accessible to us).
- From this we select the field of desirables via three filters of varying importance at different stages of a relationship.
What are the field of availables?
The pool of people accessible to us. Eg people we work with, go to school with, go to uni with etc.
What are the field of desirables?
A narrower field from the field of availables.
What is the complement of needs factor of the filter theory?
Not all personality characteristics need to be the same, we are often attracted to people who can give us what we lack. A dominating person may like a submissive person.
What is the proximity factor?
Most people will form a relationship with people close geographically. This is mainly due to chance they will meet, speak or generally become aware of one another.
What is the similarity factor?
Most will come into contact with people from the same social or cultural background. It is also the case for internal characteristics such as attitudes or personality traits.
What is the competence factor?
How intelligent one appears can be influential in how attractive they are.
In what order do factors go in in the field of desirables?
Social democracy: refers to populations. It refers to a wide range of factors all of which influence the chances of potential partners meeting each other in the first place (geographical location, social class, level of education, ethnic group and religion). Our meaningful and memorable interactions are with people who are nearby. The outcome of this filter is homogamy.
Similarity in attitudes: partners will often share important beliefs and values. There is a need for partners in the early stages of a relationship to agree over basic values. This encourages greater and deeper communications, and promotes self-disclosure.
Complementarity: the ability of romantic partners to meet each other’s needs. Two partners complement each other when they have the traits that the other lacks. Eg. One partner may enjoy making the other laugh, and in turn this partner enjoys being made to laugh. One partner may like to nurture and the other may like to be nurtured. They complement each other. Opposites attract in the later stage of a relationship. Complementarity is attractive because it gives two romantic partners the feeling that together they form a whole, which adds depth to a relationship and gives it more likely to flourish.
When is similarity in attitude important in a relationship
Only for couples who have been together less than 18 months.
What is the law of attraction in the similarity in attitudes level?
Byrne found that similarity in attitudes causes mutual attraction. Where such similarity does not exist it is found that often the relationship fades after only a few dates.
Strength: there is research support.
Winch found that similarities of personality, interests and attitudes between partners are typical of the early stages of a relationship but complementarity of needs increases in importance. This supports at least two of the filters proposed in filter theory and also suggests that the filters may determine the development of the relationship. This means that the validity of the theory has been supported in surveys of actual relationships.
Limitation: the lack of replication of the original findings.
It has been suggested that social change and difficulties in defining the depth of a relationship could be the reason for the lack of replicability. Kerckhoff and Davis assumed that partners together over 18 months were more committed. This may not be the case in all cultures or cases today. The overall applicability of filter theory (e.g. To other cultures and types of relationship) is therefore questionable.
Limitation: there are questions about the direction of effect.
Anderson et al found that cohabiting partners experienced emotional convergence, becoming more similar over time. Furthermore, it has been suggested that attitude alignment also takes place (i.e. Their attitudes change to become more similar to each other’s). This evidence suggests that similarities are the effect of having a relationship, rather than the cause, as suggested by filter theory.
Limitation: the theory lacks temporal validity.
As the dating world has changed and moved increasingly online, social demography has taken on less importance. For example, the likelihood of dating someone outside our culture has increased. This is not predicted by the initial level of filtering in the model. These social changes in dating bring into question the temporal validity of filter theory as a factor in attraction.
Limitation: complementarity may not be more important than similarity.
Anderson et al found that similarity does increase over time but complementarity is not a feature in all relationships. Davis and Rusbult discovered an attitude alignment effect in longer-term relationships, again suggesting that similarity is an effect of initial attraction and not the cause. This suggests that the complementarity filter may not be reached in the case of all relationships and therefore the validity of the filter theory is questioned.
