Relationships Flashcards
What are the 5 aspects of sexual selection?
Parental investment Sexual selection Intersexual selection Intrasexual selection Anisogamy
What is parental investment?
The amount that the female and male invest in their offspring
Evolutionary psychology argues that there’s an imbalance between what the mum and dad invest in their kids
What is sexual selection?
Explains why some characteristics might appear disadvantageous actually cause an advantage in human reproductive behaviour because the characteristics are attractive to potential mates
What is intrasexual selection?
The males have to compete with other males for the opportunities to mate with the females.
The winner of the competition reproduces and gets to pass on this to his offspring the characteristics that contributed to his victory
What is anisogamy ?
Differences between male and female sex cells
The sex which invests the most in producing offspring becomes a limiting resource over which the other sex will compete
What is intersexual selection?
Women are choosy - they devise a set of criteria to establish which mate would boost her reproductive success the most
Evaluate evolutionary explanation for relationships
Ignores social and culture influences
Gender bias
What is self disclosure?
Most people are careful about what they disclose. If disclosure is used wisely and effectively then it really can help the course of love to run smoother
What is the social penetration theory?
When one person reveals some personal information about themselves, this indicated and displays trust towards the other person.
The other partner must also reveal sensitive information
As each partner increasingly reveals more and more information about one another, romantic partners “penetrate” more deep into each other’s lives
What are the levels of self disclosure ?
1) superficial
2) intimate
3) personal
4) core
What does breadth and depth of self disclosure mean?
As depth and breadth increases, commitment increases
Low risk information is revealed early on
High risk information comes as relationship progresses
If we reveal too much too soon, relationship will possibly be threatened
What is reciprocity of self disclosure ?
For a relationship to develop, as well as increase the breadth and depth, there needs to a reciprocal element to disclosure
Evaluate self disclosure
Practical applications - improve communication
Cultural differences
What is the Halo effect ?
Pre conceived ideas about the personality traits attractive people must have, almost universally positive
Attractive people - rated kind, strong, sociable and successful
What is the similar attractiveness hypothesis ?
Ideally, we want a perfect partner. As this is not possible we compromise. Become matched to somebody who keeps at matches what we want
Evaluate physical attractiveness explanation
Individual differences
Cultural influences
Ignores the role of the 3rd party
What is the filter theory?
The first filter revolves around the fact that we only meet a fraction of people living in our area- proximity filter
Most of those we meet tend to be of a similar social class, ethnicity group - similarity filter
The third filter is based on psychological factors - internal filter
Evaluate filter theory
Festinger et al
Anderson
Kerkoff and Davis
Evaluate factor affecting attractiveness
Reductionism - ignores biological factors
Individual differences - ignores the influence of early childhood experience
Theory outdated - gender roles have changed
Determinism - unconscious decisions
What does the social exchange theory involve?
Operant conditioning Rewards and costs Satisfaction Comparison level Comparison level for alternatives 4 stages of relationship
What is the idea of profit and costs ?
Partners are always trying to maximise their profit and minimise their cost
What does satisfaction depend on?
It depends on the outcome - the balance between rewards and costs
What is the comparison level?
We develop a standard of which we compare all our relationships against
It is formed based on all our experiences plus our view of what we might exchange
If we judge the potential profit of a new relationship to exceed our comparison level then the relationship will be judged as worthwhile
What is the comparison level for alternatives ?
Where we weigh up a potential increase in rewards from a potential partner
