Relationships Flashcards
Formation
Byrne and Clore (1970)
- Mutual attraction occurs when each person meets the others need, one may want financial security and the other love.
- Rewarding stimuli produce positive feelings in us as punishing stimuli produce negative feelings in us- people are the stimuli.
- According to operant conditioning, we are likely to repeat any behaviour we find rewarding. R/N satisfaction theory suggests that we enter relationships because the presence of some individuals is reinforcing.
- We also like people we associate with pleasant experiences e.g. if we meet someone when we are happy we are more likely ti find them attractive than when we are unhappy. (classical conditioning)
- R/N states the balance of positive and negative feelings are crucial in the formation of a relationship- when positives outweigh negatives a relationship is formed.
1) disimilarity
2) similarity
- Similar personality traits
- attitude alignment.
Evaluate Formation
- Griffit and Guay (1969): ppts more likely to rate an experimenter higher if the interviewer had been explicitly positive.
- Speakman (2007): similar levels of body fat
- Hayes (1985): we gain satisfaction from giving as well as receiving. therefore R/N is limited
- Lott (1994): R/N is culturally biased to mor eindividualist cultures as in some cultures women are more focused on the needs of others. (arranged marriages)
- Aron (2005): the brain reward system being associated with romantic love is an evolutionary adaption. it meant our ancestors could focus their energy on specific individuals therefore speeding up the mating process.
Maintenance
Thibualt and Kelley (1959)
-At the center of the theory is the assumption that all behaviour is a series of exchanges; individuals attempt to maximise their rewards and minimise their costs. people will exchange resources with the expectation they will earn a profit. Rewards from a relationship may be sex, gifts, security and losses may be financial, emotional or time.
SET states the commitment to a relationship is dependent on the outcome: Rewards-costs=outcome.
- in order to judge whether a relationship or person offers something better or worse than we might expect; a comparison level is proposed. This is the standard by which we judge our relationship. It is a result of previous experiences and expectations. If we judge the potential profit in a relationships exceeds the CL, we will see them as a romantic partner.
- comparison levels for alternatives- A person weighs up potential increase in rewards from a different partner, minus any costs of ending a relationship. A new relationship will be formed if the rewards are higher
- Walster (1978)
- inequity
- subjective
- inputs/outputs
- equal in terms of costs/rewards
Evaluate Maintenance
- Rusbult and Martz (1995): explains why women stay in abusive relationships. investments are high (kids) and alternitives are low (no where to go) it is considered a profit to stay.
- Simpson (1990): ppts asked to rate members of the opposite sex. those in relationships gave lower scores…CL.
- Clark and Mills (1979): not economics in romantic relationships. business [exchange] and communal [needs and equity].
- Moghaddam (1998) economic theories reflect western cultures as they are more mobile and used to S-T relationships
- Goffman and Levenson (1992): IBCT aims to increase the number of positive exchanges within a relationship. 2/3 reported improvement.
Breakdown
BREAKDOWN- dissatisfaction
INTRAPSYCHIC PROCESS- brooding focus on the relationship, nothing is said, relationship can be ended at this point.
DYODIC PROCESS- confront partners and begin to discuss feelings and the future, can be saved
SOCIAL PROCESS- support seeking from third parties , take sides, speed up dissolution
GRAVE DRESSING- justification, present themselves in a positive way
RESURRECTION PROCESS- redefine themselves, prepare for new relationships.
lack of skills, stimulatiion and maintenance difficulties.
Evaluate Breakdown
- Tashiro and Frazier (2003): undergrads who had recently broken up. they reported personal growth and a clearer future
- Shaver (1985): going away places is most common strain
- Akert (1998): women want to remain friends and men want to lead
- Cina (2003): 50 couples who received CCET training reported high marriage quality.
- ethics
Sexual Selection
Darwin (1875)
-Intrasexual selection is mate competition. members of one sex compete with each other for access to members of the opposite sex. The victor, and the trait that allowed it to succeed, will be passed on.
-Intersexual selection is mate choice. This involves the preferences of one sex for members of the opposite sex who posess certain qualities. The preferences of one sex determines the areas in which the other sex must compete (looks, finance e.t.c.)
Humans are pre-programmed to attend displays of these important indicators.
-Short term mating strategies have evolved specifically for ST mating success; for example Buss found that men have evolved a desire for sex earlier in the relationship, but females do not. This is because over a year women can only produce one child, however a man can produce infinate.
-Long term mating strategies have evolved as in long term relationships both parents must invest heavily in offspring. This has led to high levels of chosiness as poor long term mate choice could have a negative effect on resources. Buss states women must be more choosy as they have obligitary biological investments in their children.
1] resources
2] able to physically protect her and children
3] show promise as a good parent
4] minimise costs
Evaluate Sexual Selection
- Buss and Schmitt (1993): men appear to lower their standards before sex and increase them after. this shows an evolved adaption to bring about a hasty departure- ST mating
- Penton-Voak (1999): female mate choice varies with menstrual cycle. with a more feminine face being preferred when leas fertile and a more masculine face when least fertile.
- Miller (2007): lap dancers got more tips when in oestrus.
- Clark and Hatfield (1988): collage campus experiment M-50,69,75 W-50,6,0
- Greiling and Buss (2000): gender bias in studying sexual selection. Woman could benefit from S-T mating as it will result in more diverse offspring.
Parental Investment
“any investment by a parent in an offspring that increases the chance that the offspring will survive at the expense of that parents ability to invest in any other offspring” Trivers 1972
- parental investment is different in men and women. The investment made by women is considerably greater than males e.g. a female produces less gametes so that less chances at reproduction. Similarly, a woman has parental certainty, meaning she knows the child is her own .
- Females invest more as babies are dependent on them. As brain size increases, childbirth became more difficult; this resulted in babies being more more immaturely than in other animals. This means the child is dependent for resources e.g. breast-milk
- the minimum obligitary investment by men is a lot less. one reason for this is that a woman can only produce a limited number of children, but a man can produce possible infinite. in addition, the mother has to carry the child inside her., but a man can leave after fertalisation.
- males also have to be sure to protect themselves from cuckoldry.
- This can also lead to jealosy in both partners, men are more jealous of sexual acts [cuckoldry] and women or emotional [resources]
Evaluate Parental Investment
- adoption
- Daly and Wilson (1988): females benefit from cuckoldry > increase gene pool
- Animal studies- Chimpanzee males do not invest this shows a dramatic evolutionary change/ adaption.
- Anderson (1999): men do not discriminate biological children and step children
- Context: times are changing- male paternity care
The influence of childhood on adult relationships
- Shaver romantic love is an intergration of 3 behavioural systems aquired in infancy; attachment, caregiving and sexuality- this is gained through the internal model by Bowlby. Later relationships are a continuation of early attachment with the primary caregiver. this figure leads the infant to expect certain things from future relationships.
-some children struggle in relationships, they reject or resist mutual intimacy. This may be a result of an attachment disorder, the cause of these disorders are unknown, but abuse and neglect are blamed.
The disorder will lead to a lack of responsiveness or over-familiarity and has been linked with psychological impairment in later life.
- Children also learn from their experiences with other children. they develop a sense of their own value as a result of their interactions. these interactions effect their adult relationships for example learning trust, acceptance and having someone to confide in.
- Similarly, in adolescents children form different attachments. attachment shifts from parents to peers, and from peers to romantic relationships. These attachments allow a child to gain an emotional and physical intimacy that is different from parents.
Evaluate The influence of childhood on adult relationships
- Fraley (1998): correlation of +0.10 to +0.50 with attachment types to later relationships.
- Kirkpatrick and Hazan (1994): found that relationship brekaups were associated with a shift from secure to insecure.
- Roisman (2004): found no relationship between dating at 20 and dating at 30.
- determanism
- Aminals: monkeys reaised with inadequate peers showed inappropriate social and sexual behavious.
The Influence of culture on romantic relationships
Western cultures have relitively easy geographical and social mobility. this means that on a daily basis we interact with a large number of people and therefore have a higher degree of choice in romantic relationships.
Non-western cultures have less geographical and social mobility and therefore interact with less people so have less choice. interactions are rare, so are based on other factors such as family.
-Western cultures place importance on the rights and freedoms of individuals, with happiness seen as important. Individualist cultures place importance on freedom on choice.
In non-western cultures the group tends to be the primary concern, members of collective societies place importance on the group.
-The importance of romantic love is different amoungst cultures. individualist cultures are based on freedom, so see love as important in a romantic relationship.
However, in cultures where extended families are seen as most important, love may be considered a luxury
Evaluate The Influence of culture on romantic relationships
- Moore and Leung (2001): found differneces between anglo-australian and chinese-australian student. AA were more casual and AC were more romantic
- Myers (2005): found no difference in marital satisfaction between arranged marriages in India and non-arranged marriages in the US
- Pinker (2008): romantic love has evolved to premote survival and reproduction
- Cultural bias in research and methods developed in one culture cannot be used in another- validity
