Relationships

Question 1

Trivers (1972)

Answer 1

Inter-sexual selection: preferred for females, quality over quantity.
- Emphasised females making greater investment during/after birth.

Question 2

Fisher (1930)

Answer 2

Sexy sons hypothesis: female mates with a male who has a desirable characteristic, ‘sexy’ trait is inherited by her son. Increases likelihood that successive generations of females will mate with her offspring.

Question 3

Buss (1989)

Answer 3

Carried out a survey of 10,000 adults, 33 countries
questions about age and variety of attitudes
Found: females have placed greater value on characteristics, males value reproductive capactiy
Findings reflect sex differences, anisogamy. Supporting predictions, findings applied to cultures.

Question 4

Clark and Hatfield (1989)

Answer 4

Showed female choosiness.
Male and Female students sent out to uni campus asked other students ‘would you go to bed with me?’
Found: 0% women agreed, 75% males agreed
Supports Evolutionary theory, females are choosier

Question 5

Bereczkei et al. (1997)

Answer 5

Women’s greater role in the work place, no longer dependant on men. Bereczkei argued social change is the reason behind preferences. (Paired with Chang et al.) .˙. mate preferences are outcome of evolutionary and cultural influences. Any theory that fails to account for this is a limited explanation.

Question 6

Chang et al. (2011)

Answer 6

Compared partner preferences in China over 25 years, some change but others remained the same
.˙. mate preferences are outcome of evolutionary and cultural influences. Any theory that fails to account for this is a limited explanation.

Question 7

Singh (1993, 2002)

Answer 7

Males show preference for a female body shape that signals fertility.
Studied waist-hip ratio, males find this attractive.
the combination of wider hips and narrow waist is attractive, it is an ‘honest signal’ that woman is fertile.

Question 8

Waynforth and Dunbar (1995)

Answer 8

Studied lonely hearts. opportunity to describe qualities then men and women desire.
Found women offer physical attractiveness, men offered resources and sought relative youth and physical attractiveness

Question 9

Altman and Taylors (1973)

Answer 9

Social Penetration Theory(SPT): gradual process of revealing ones inner self. Involves reciprocal exchange.
When someone reveals info about themselves they display trust.
Romantic partners ‘penetrate’ more deeply into each other’s lives.

Question 10

Altman and Taylor - self-disclosure

Answer 10

Breadth and depth - Both increase, partners become more committed. reveal superficial info first ‘low risk’.
Breadth refers to info which is ‘off-limits’ in early stage of relationship.
Relationship develops, self-disclosure becomes deeper ‘high risk’.

Question 11

Reis and Shaver (1988)

Answer 11

points out there must be reciprocal element to dislosure.

Partner responds in a that is rewarding i.e. increase in feelings and intimacy.

Question 12

Sprecher and Hendrick (2004) - Support for self-disclosure

Answer 12

P - Heterosexual dating couples
E - Found: strong correlation between measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure. Short men and women: more satisfied and committed w/ relationship
E - .˙. supports increase our confidence in the validity of theory - self-disclosure leads to more satisfing relationships

Question 13

Laurenceau et al (2005) - Support for self-disclosure

Answer 13

P - involved writing daily diary entries.
E - Found: self-disclosure and perception linked to higher levels of intimacy in LT married couples. Opposite true too.
E - .˙. supports increase our confidence in the validity of theory - self-disclosure leads to more satisfing relationships

Question 14

Hass and Stafford (1998) - Real life app

Answer 14

P - Self-disclosure can help people improve communication and increase intimacy
E - Found 57% of gay men and women said that open and honest self-disclosure was main way to maintain and deepen their relationship.
E - Real life app demostrates the value of psychological insights

Question 15

Tang et al (2013) - cultural differences

Answer 15

P - Increasing depth and breadth = more satisfying and intimate relationship = not for all cultures
E - Reviewed the research literature regarding sexual self-disclosure. USA = men & women self-disclose more sexual thoughts and feelings then in China
E - Self-disclosure = limited explanation, cannot generalise western cultures to others

Question 16

Self-disclosure and satisfaction

Answer 16

P - SPT claims Relationships more intimate as self-disclosures deepen and broaden
E - theories like Duck’s theory explain that we discuss and negotiate the state of relationship
E - These discussion involve deeper self-disclosures but may not be enough to rescue relationship

Question 17

Shackelford and Larsen (1997)

Answer 17

Found: people w/ symmetrical faces are more attractive
attracted to faces w/ neotenous widely seperated & large eyes, a delicate chin & small nose trigger protective or caring instinct.

Question 18

McNulty et al (2008)

Answer 18

Not only physical attractiveness at the start of a relationship. Found evidence that the initial attractiveness brought partners together & after marriage is an important factor

Question 19

Dion et al (1972)

Answer 19

found that physically attractive people are consistently rated as kind, strong, sociable & successful compared to unattractive. Behave more +vely to them = self-fulfilling prophecy.
Halo effect to describe how one distinguishing feature tends to have disproportionate influence on attributes.

Question 20

Walster (1966)

Answer 20

Proposed the matching hypothesis
People choose partners who are of similar attractiveness
Tick boxes for evolutionary, social, cultural and physiological reasons

Question 21

Cunningham et al (1995)

Wheeler and Kim (1997)

Answer 21

P - Psychically attractive is remarkably consistent across cultures.
E - Found: that female features of large eyes, prominent cheekbones, small nose, high eyebrows were rated highly attractive by white hispanic & Asian males. Physical attractiveness stereotype is also culturally pervasive
E - Wheeler & Kim found Korean & American students judged physically attractive people to be more trustworthy; strongly collectiveness

Question 22

Taylor et al (2011)

Answer 22

P - Studied activity logs of popular dating sites
E - Tested actual date choices
Online daters sought meetings w/ partners more attractive than them
E - They did not consider their own attractiveness

Question 23

Kerckhoff And Davis (1962)

Answer 23

compared attitudes and personalities of student couple in short term & long term relationships
Devised filter theory to explain how relationships form and develop

Question 24

Kerckhoff and Davis (1962) - 2nd Level of filter

Answer 24

Similarity in attitudes
found that this was important to the development of relationships
need for partners to agree in early stages (basic values)
Greater communication = more self-disclosure

Question 25

Byrne (1997)

Answer 25

describes the consistent findings that similarity causes attraction and the law of attraction

Question 26

Kerckhoff and Davis - 3rd Level of Filter

Answer 26

found the need for complementarity was more important for LT couples

Question 27

Levinger (1974)

Answer 27

P- Failed to replicate original findings
E - He put it down to social change, difficulties inherent depth of a relationship
E - Kerckhoff and Davis chose an 18 month cutoff to distinguish ST & LT, longer than this they were committed
L - Problems in applying filter theory to other heterosexual/individualist cultures nevermind homosexual partners

Question 28

Anderson et al (2003)

Answer 28

found in longitudinal study cohabiting partners became more similar in emotional responses over time - emotional convergence