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Relationships Flashcards

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1
Q

Sexual selection

A

An evolutionary explanation of partner preference. Attributes or behaviours that increase reproductive success are passed on and may become exaggerated over succeeding generations of offspring.

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2
Q

Examples of traits that provide advantages for mating in humans

A

Aggression, greater height, certain facial and bodily features

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3
Q

Anisogamy

A

Refers to the differences between male and female sex cells (gametes)

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4
Q

Males (sperm)

A
  • Many (millions)
  • Small in size
  • Energetically cheap
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5
Q

Females (eggs)

A
  • Relatively few
  • Large in size
  • Energetically expensive
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6
Q

Intersexual selection

A

Between the sexes, the strategies that males use to select females or females use to select males (the preferred strategy of the female - quality over quantity)

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7
Q

Which sex is choosier?

A

Women

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8
Q

What do females typically choose in evolutionary theory?

A

A partner who can offer resources, who has money status and ambition

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9
Q

An example of the runaway process

A

If height is a male trait then, over successive generations of females, it would increase in the male population because females would mate with tall males, and over time, produce sons who are taller with each generation and produce daughters who have a greater preference for tall partners.

This may result in a feature becoming exaggerated over many generations.

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10
Q

Sexy sons hypothesis

A

Where a female mates with a male who has desirable characteristics, and this ‘sexy’ trait is inherited by her son. This increases the likelihood that successive generations of females will mate with her offspring

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11
Q

Intrasexual selection

A

Within each sex - such as the strategies between males to be the one that is selected (this is the preferred strategy of males - quantity over quality)

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12
Q

Dimorphism

A

The obvious differences between males and females

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13
Q

Which strategy gives rise to dimorphism?

A

Competition between males where the victor reproduces and gets to pass on his winning characteristics to the offspring

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14
Q

The optimum reproductive strategy for males

A

To mate with as many fertile females as possible. This is because of the minimal energy to produce sperm and the relative lack of post-coital responsibility

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15
Q

Buss (1989)

A
  • Carried out a survey of 10,00 adults in 33 countries (cross-cultural)
  • He asked questions regarding a variety of attributes that evolutionary theory predicts should be important in partner preference
  • Females placed more value on resources than males e.g. money/ambition
  • Males valued physical attractiveness and youth (good reproductive capacity) more than females
  • This highlights a difference in preferences between sexes
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16
Q

Clark and Hatfield (1989)

A
  • Male and female psychology students individually approached other students asking the question ‘Hi I’ve been noticing you around campus and I find you very attractive’
    Would you go on a date with me?
    Would you go back to my apartment?
    Would you have sex with me?
  • 75% of males said yes to the last question compared to 0% of females
  • This supports the view that women are choosier than men
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17
Q

Other factors influencing mate preferences aside from evolutionary explanations

A
  • Cultural factors such as the availability of contraception
  • Women’s greater role in the workplace means that they do not need to depend on men for their resources
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18
Q

Chang (2011)

A
  • Compared partner preferences in China over 25 years - some stayed the same and some changed
  • Shows that mate preferences are a combination between cultural and evolutionary influences
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19
Q

Support form waist-hip ratio (WHR)

A
  • Males show preference to a female with a body shape that indicates good fertility
  • Singh (1993, 2002) studied this in terms of WHR
  • Men generally find any hip and waist size attractive as long as the ration from one to the other are about 0.7
  • Wider hips, narrow waist - says that a woman is fertile but not pregnant
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20
Q

Support from lonely hearts adverts

A
  • Wayneforth and Dunbar studied lonely hearts advertisements in American newspapers
  • The researchers found that women more than men tended to offer physical attractiveness and indicators of youth (flirty, sexy, curvy, exciting)
  • Men offered resources more than women (successful, fit, mature, ambitious) and sought relative youth and physical attractiveness
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21
Q

Self-disclosure

A
  • Revealing personal information about yourself
  • Romantic partners reveal more about their true selves as the relationship develops
  • These revelations strengthen the relationship if used appropriately and builds trust
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22
Q

Altman and Taylor’s social penetration theory (1973)

A
  • Self-disclosure is the main concept
  • Focuses on how relationships develop
  • Relationships are a gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone - they are a reciprocal exchange
  • As each partner increasingly reveals more information about one another, romantic partners ‘penetrate’ more deeply into each other’s lives
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23
Q

6 levels involved in social penetration theory

A

1) Biographical data (age, gender, name)
2) Preference in clothes, food and music
3) Goals and aspirations
4) Religious convictions
5) Deeply held fears and fantasies
6) Concept of self

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24
Q

Breadth and depth

A
  • Use the onion layers to explain this
  • As both breadth and depth increases, romantic partners become more committed to one another
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25
Q

When is low risk information revealed in a relationship?

A

Early on

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26
Q

When is high risk information revealed in a relationship?

A

As the relationship develops

27
Q

An example of low risk information

A

Favourite colour

28
Q

Examples of high risk information

A

Political views
Painful memories and experiences

29
Q

Reis and Shaver (1988) Reciprocity of self-disclosure

A
  • For a relationship to develop, as well as increase in breadth and depth, there needs to be a reciprocal element to disclosure
  • There must be a balance of self-disclosure between both partners in a successful romantic relationship
30
Q

Sprecher and Hendrick (2004)

A
  • Studied heterosexual dating couples and found strong positive correlations between several measures of relationship satisfaction and self-disclosure
31
Q

Limitations - Sprecher and Hendrick (2004)

A
  • As it is a correlational study, it doesn’t show causation
  • Not representative as as it only studied heterosexual couples
  • Social desirability bias
32
Q

Laurenceau (2005)

A
  • Used a method that involved writing daily diary entries
  • Found that self-disclosure in a partner were linked to higher levels of intimacy in long-term married couples.
  • This supportive evidence increases the validity of the theory that self-disclosure leads to more satisfying relationships
33
Q

Real life application - self-disclosure

A
  • Research into self-disclosure can help people who want to improve communication in their relationships
  • Romantic partners probably use self disclosure deliberately and skilfully to increase intimacy and strengthen the bond
34
Q

Hass and Stafford (1998)

A
  • Found that 57% of gay men and women said that open and honest self-disclosure was the main way they maintained their relationships
35
Q

Tang et al (2013)

A
  • Reviewed research regarding sexual self-disclosure and concluded that men/women in USA disclose significantly more than men/women in China (collectivist vs individualist cultures)
  • Self-disclosure is not a universal theory
36
Q

Self-disclosure and satisfaction

A
  • Theories of relationship breakdown often recognise how couple discuss and negotiate the state of their deteriorating relationships in an attempt to save it or return it to an earlier level of satisfaction
  • This goes against self-disclosure theory as sometimes self-disclosing about intimate thoughts (e.g. why you don’t like them) will lead to a weakening of a relationship not strengthening
37
Q

The importance of physical attractiveness - evolutionary explanations

A
  • Evolutionary explanations of attractiveness state that traits associated with attractiveness act as indications of good health
  • Choosing an attractive partner is the best way of ensuring a healthy partner and a healthy child
38
Q

Baby face hypothesis

A
  • Adults may have evolved a preference for baby features because this ensures that we care for our young and for this reason, features elicit attraction
  • If they are younger, they are more likely to be able to have children
39
Q

Facial symmetry is…

A

Attractive

40
Q

McNulty (2008)

A

Found evidence that the initial attractiveness that brought the partners together continued to be an important feature of the relationship after the marriage, for at least several years.

41
Q

The Halo Effect

A

Describes how one distinguishing feature (physical attractiveness in this case) tends to have a disproportionate influence on our judgements of a person’s attributes.

42
Q

Dion (1972)

A

Found that physically attractive people are consistently rated as kind, strong, sociable and successful compared to unattractive people

43
Q

Palmer and Peterson (2012)

A
  • Research to support to Halo Effect
  • Found that physical attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgeable and competent than unattractive people
  • The Halo Effect was so powerful that it persisted even when participants knew these ‘knowledgeable’ people had no idea particular expertise
44
Q

Towhey (1979)

A
  • Gave males and females a set of photos and biographical information about people and asked them to judge how much they would like a target individual based on the photograph
  • Participants also completed a questionnaire (the MACHO scale) designed to measure sexist attitudes and behaviours
45
Q

People who scored highly on the MACHO scale were…

A

Significantly more influenced by the physical attractiveness of the target when making their judgements of likeability

46
Q

Low scorers on the MACHO scale were…

A

less influenced or not influenced by physical attractiveness when making their judgements

47
Q

An example of why the Halo Effect can be dangerous

A

There are dangers for democracy if politicians are judged as suitable for office just because they are considered physically attractive by enough voters

48
Q

The Matching Hypothesis

A
  • The matching hypothesis in psychology argues that people are more likely to form and succeed in a committed relationship with someone who is equally socially desirable, typically in terms of physical attraction.
  • People choose romantic partners who are roughly of similar attractiveness to each other
49
Q

Feingold (1988)

A
  • Research supporting the matching hypothesis
  • After carrying out a meta-analysis of 17 studies, found a correlation in ratings of attractiveness between romantic partners
  • This is especially supportive of the matching hypothesis as the studies looked at actual partners which is a more realistic approach
50
Q

Computer dance study (Walster, 1966)

A
  • Research contradicting the matching hypothesis
  • 752 students bought welcome week tickets for a computer dance
  • When they bought the tickets they were told that information they gave about themselves would be fed into a computer and this would provide an ‘ideal match’ date
  • In fact they were randomly assigned any partner
  • When students were giving their data (when they booked their ticket) an unseen observer marked them on attractiveness
  • After spending two hours with dates, students were asked how much they liked their partner
  • Those who were physically attractive were liked the most. Men asked out a partner if they found her attractive, regardless of how attractive they were themselves
51
Q

Taylor (2011)

A
  • Research contradicting the matching hypothesis
  • Studied the activity logs of a popular online dating site
  • This was a real life test of the matching hypothesis because it measured actual date choices rather than preferences - this is keeping in line with the original hypothesis which concerned realistic as opposed to fantasy choices
  • Online daters sought meetings with potential partners who were more attractive than them. It seems they did not consider their own level of attractiveness when making decisions about who to date
52
Q

Cunningham (1995)

A
  • Found that female features of large eyes, prominent cheekbones, small nose, high eyebrows were ass highly attractive by white, Hispanic and Asain males
53
Q

Wheeler and Kim (1997)

A
  • Found that Korean and American students judged physically attractive people to be more trustworthy, concerned for other people, mature and friendly
  • The stereotype is just as strong in collectivist cultures as it is in individualist cultures
54
Q

Filter theory

A

Filter theory is an explanation of attraction proposed by Kerchoff and Davies (1962). This theory suggests that people develop relationships by applying a series of filters, such as similarity of social demographic factors and attitudes and complementarity of needs to narrow down the pool of available candidates.

55
Q

The order of the 5 filters in filter theory

A

1) Proximity
2) Physical attraction
3) Similarity
4) Complementarity
5) Competence

56
Q

Proximity filter

A

Most people will form a relationship with people close to them geographically. This is mainly due to chance that they will meet, speak or generally become aware of one another. The key benefit of proximity is accessibility.

57
Q

Similarity filter

A

Most people will come into contact with people from the same social or cultural background. This can also be the case for internal characteristics such as attitudes or personality traits.

58
Q

In what stage of the relationship is similarity of attitudes most important?

A

Similarity is most important in the development of romantic relationships for couples who had been together less than 18 months (Kerckhoff and Davis (1962))

59
Q

Byrne (1997)

A

Has consistent finding that similarity causes attraction as the law of attraction. If such similarity does not exist it turns out partners have very little in common.

60
Q

Physical attraction in terms of filter theory

A

How good looking someone is has been found to be one of the most important factors in initial relationship formation, as well as longer lasting relationship.

61
Q

Complementarity filter

A

Not all personality characteristics need to be the same. We tend to be attracted to people who can give us what we lack. This filter concerns the ability of romantic partners to meet each others needs’

62
Q

When is the need for complementarity more important? (Kerckhoff and Davis)

A

For long term couples

63
Q

Competence

A

How intelligent and competent one appears can be influential in how attractive they are

Psychology (15 decks)

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