Factors affecting attraction in romantic relationships Flashcards
Factors affecting attraction
Self-disclosure
Jourard (1971)
Relationships are formed on the basis of trust
Revealing info= intimacy
Onion Metaphor
We have layers to getting to know someone
Peeling them layers= more personal
BREDTH + DEPTH- The wider the onion the more you need to know someone
Lower risk info is on the outside and the further you ‘peel back’ the more high risk info
High risk info may put people off and force them to disclose information
Altman + Taylor
Social Penetration Theory
Self-disclosure has to be equal (Comprimise)
Gradually revealing info and emotions
Reis + Shaver
Reciprocity
Suggests there needs to be a balance of self disclosure
Even exchange
Leads to greater intimacy
Sprecher and Hendrick (2004)
Strong correlation between self-disclosure and satisfaction
High self disclosure= High satisfaction
m+f who used self-disclosure + believed in their partners were more satisfied
Laurenceau et al (2005)
Used a method where ps wrote a daily diary
Found self disclosure and perceptionof self disclosure were linked to high levels of intimacy in long term married couples
Increases the validity of the social penetration theory
Self disclosure evaluation
- Self disclosure won’t “save a relationship” and other factors need to be taken into account
- Diary entries (self-report)
- Correlational not causation
- Can’t generalize to homosexual couples
- Ethnocentric as it only focuses on Westernized cultures
+ Real life application - marriage counselling
Hass + Stafford
57% of gay men and women said open and honest self-disclosure was the main way they maintained, deepened, connected and committed to relationships
Hass + Stafford
57% of gay men and women said open and honest self-disclosure was the main way they maintained, deepened, connected and committed to relationships
Tang et al (2013)
Some research isn’t applicable to some cultures
Individualistic cultures are more sexual than collectivist so research isn’t generalisable
The Halo effect (Thorndike, 1920)
“Beauty bias”
Cognitive bias where our perception of someone is influenced by their traits (EG: Looks)
Palmer + Peterson (2012)
Rate attractive and unattractive people in terms of how politically competent they were believed to be
Ps tended to act more positively towards attractive people
Dion et al (1972)
Attractive people are consistently rates as successful, kind and sociable compared to unattractive people
Cognitive bias
We idolise attractive people
Unattractive people are more used to rejection
Beauty and performance aren’t correlated
McNulty et al (2008)
Initial attractiveness brought couples together and continued to be important even after marriage or several years
The Matching Hypothesis
Tendency to develop relationships with people who are approx the same attractiveness
A balance between trying to not get rejected and most attractive
Walster et al (1966)
-Students randomly matched to blind dates at a dance
-Before each took a personality and aptitude test
After; students rated their dates
-Only thing that mattered was their physical attractiveness
Females who were rated higher were asked out on a second date by lower-rated men
X DOES NOT SUPPORT THE MATCHING HYPOTHESIS
Taylor et al (2011)
Studied the logs of a popular dating site
Online daters sought meetings with people who were physically more attractive
= not considering their own attractiveness
X DOES NOT SUPPORT THE MATCHING HYPOTHESIS
Sex differences in sexual attractiveness
MELTZER (2014) Husband has more satisfaction when wife is more attractive but women don’t really care
PASCH + BRADBURY (1998) Both m+f partners who were more supportive, trustworthy and warm= more satisfied
Silverman (1971)
Couples observed in natural dating
Observed those with the dame physical attractiveness and they appeared more happy and showed more intimacy
(NOT fully reliable as its only an observation)
Murnstein (1973)
Photographs of couples who were seen to have the same level of attractiveness
The Filter Theory
Kerckhoff + Davis (1962)
Once we meet someone we engage in the 3 stages of filtering:
- Social demographic
- Similarity and attitudes
- Complimentary
Level one: Social demographic
Many factors such as:
-Proximity
-Social class
-Level of education
-Level of education
-Ethnicity/religion
Narrows down partner choice
Homogamy: We are more likely to form a relationship with someone who is socially and culturally similar
Level two: Similarity and attitudes
Look for partners with similar psychological factors and beliefs
“Field of desirables”
Important in short-term relationships
BYRNE(1997)- Law of attraction
Presence and absence of similarities are discovered through self-disclosure= Having little in common leads to no relationship developing
Level three: Complimentary
The ability for partners to meet each others needs
Compliment each other
“You complete me”
Opposites attract
KERCKHOFF + DAVIS: More important in long term relationships
When together they make a whole and it adds ‘depth’ to their relationship (Onion metaphor)
Short-term relationship
Less than 18 months
Long-term relationship
More than 18 months
