Relationships Flashcards
Trivers (1972)
Inter-sexual selection: preferred for females, quality over quantity.
- Emphasised females making greater investment during/after birth.
Fisher (1930)
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.
Buss (1989)
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.
Clark and Hatfield (1989)
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
Bereczkei et al. (1997)
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.
Chang et al. (2011)
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.
Singh (1993, 2002)
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.
Waynforth and Dunbar (1995)
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
Altman and Taylors (1973)
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.
Altman and Taylor - self-disclosure
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’.
Reis and Shaver (1988)
points out there must be reciprocal element to dislosure.
Partner responds in a that is rewarding i.e. increase in feelings and intimacy.
Sprecher and Hendrick (2004) - Support for self-disclosure
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
Laurenceau et al (2005) - Support for self-disclosure
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
Hass and Stafford (1998) - Real life app
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
Tang et al (2013) - cultural differences
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
Self-disclosure and satisfaction
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
Shackelford and Larsen (1997)
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.
McNulty et al (2008)
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
Dion et al (1972)
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.
Walster (1966)
Proposed the matching hypothesis
People choose partners who are of similar attractiveness
Tick boxes for evolutionary, social, cultural and physiological reasons
Cunningham et al (1995)
Wheeler and Kim (1997)
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
Taylor et al (2011)
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
Kerckhoff And Davis (1962)
compared attitudes and personalities of student couple in short term & long term relationships
Devised filter theory to explain how relationships form and develop
Kerckhoff and Davis (1962) - 2nd Level of filter
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
