Relationships Flashcards
What is anisogamy?
Anisogamy means two sex cells (or gametes) that are different coming together to reproduce. Men have sperm cells, which are able to reproduce quickly with little energy expenditure and once they start being produced they do not usually stop until the man dies. Female gametes (eggs or ova) are, in contrast, much less plentiful; they are released in a limited time frame (between puberty and menopause) and require much more energy to produce.
Females will therefore tend to seek a man who displays characteristics of physical health and is a high status individual who controls resources within the social group.
What is Intersexual selection?
Intersexual selection is when one gender makes mate choices based on a specific characteristic in the other gender: e.g. peahens choosing peacocks with larger tails. As a result, peacock tails become larger across the population because peacocks with larger tails will mate more, thus passing these characteristics on.
What is intrasexual selection?
Whilst females prefer quality over quantity, anisogamy suggests that men’s best evolutionary strategy is to have as many partners as possible. Intrasexual selection refers to competition between members of the same sex for access to a mate of the opposite sex. Whatever characteristics led to success in mating will be passed onto the next generation, thus becoming more widespread in the gene pool.
Outline Buss’ research into sexual selection and how it supports sexual selection and a weakness of it.
+ Buss (1989) conducted a survey of over 10,000 adults in 33 countries and found that females reported valuing resource-based characteristics when choosing a male (such as their jobs) whilst men valued good looks and preferred younger partners more than females did.
Although the size and scale of Buss’s work is impressive, his use of questionnaires could lead to social desirability bias with participants answering in socially desirable ways rather than honestly. Also, 77% of participants were from Western industrial nations which means Buss might have been measuring the effects of culture rather than an evolutionary determined behaviour.
What is Clark and hat fields research into sexual selection?
Clark and Hatfield (1989) conducted a now infamous study where male and female psychology students were asked to approach fellow students of Florida State University (of the opposite sex) and ask them for one of three things; to go on a date, to go back to their apartment, or to go to bed with them.
About 50% of both men and women agreed to the date, but whilst 69% of men agreed to visit the apartment and 75% agreed to go to bed with them, only 6% of women agreed to go to the apartment and 0% accepted the more intimate offer.
How is the evolutionary approach deterministic?
The evolutionary approach is deterministic suggesting that we have little free-will in partner choice. However, everyday experience tells us we have do some control over our preferences. Evolutionary approaches to mate preferences are socially sensitive in that they promote traditional (sexist) views regarding what are ‘natural’ male and female roles and behaviours.
How are homosexual explanations a limitation of the evolutionary explanation?
Finally, evolutionary theory makes little attempt to explain other types of relationships, e.g. gay and lesbian relationships, and cultural variations in relationships which exist across the world, e.g. arranged marriages.
What is self disclosure?
This refers to the extent to which a person reveals thoughts, feelings and behaviours which they would usually keep private to a potential partner. This increases feelings of intimacy.
In the initial stages of a relationship, couples often seek to learn as much as they can about their new partner and feel that this sharing of information brings them closer together. But can too much sharing scare your partner away? Is not sharing very much information intriguing or frustrating?
What factors did Altman and Taylor identify within disclosure?
Altman and Taylor (1973) identified breadth and depth as important factors of self-disclosure. At the start of a relationship, self-disclosure is likely to cover a range of topics as you seek to explore the key facts about your new partner “What do you do for work”, “Where did you last go on holiday”, but these topics are relatively superficial.
As the relationship develops, people tend to share more detailed and personal information, such as past traumas and desires for the future. If this sharing happens too soon however, an incompatibility may be found before the other person has reached a suitable level of investment in the relationship. Altman and Taylor referred to this sharing of information as social penetration.
What did Altman and Taylor identify as an important aspect of social penetration?
An important aspect of this is the reciprocity of the process, if one person shares more than the other is willing to, there may be a breakdown of trust as one person establishes themselves as more invested than the other.
How does the research of Aron et al support disclosure?
Aron et al. (1997) found that by providing a list of questions to pairs of people which start with superficial information (Who would be your perfect dinner party guest) and moving over 36 questions to more intimate information (Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find the most disturbing) people grew closer and more intimate as the questions progressed. Aron’s research also included a four-minute stare at the end of the question sequence, which may have also contributed to the increased intimacy.
How does research by Sprecher and Henrick support disclosure?
Sprecher and Hendrick (2004) observed couples on dates and found a close correlation between the amount of satisfaction each person felt and the overall self-disclosure that occurred between the partners.
How does the causation effect argument belittle research into self disclosure?
Much of the research into self-disclosure is correlational which means that a causal relationship cannot be easily determined; in short it may be that it is the attraction between partners which leads to greater self-disclosure, rather than the sharing of information which leads to greater intimacy.
What is physical attractiveness?
Physical attractiveness is viewed by society as one of the most important factors of relationship formation.
Physical appearance can be seen as a range of indicators of underlying characteristics. Women with a favourable waist to hip ratio are seen as attractive because they are perceived to be more fertile (Singh, 2002), people with more symmetrical features are seen to be more genetically fit.
This is because our genes are designed to make us develop symmetrically, but diseases and infections during physical development can cause these small imperfections and asymmetries (Little and Jones, 2003).
What is the halo effect and who did research into it?
The halo effect is a cognitive bias (mental shortcut) which occurs when a person assumes that a person has positive traits in terms of personality and other features because they have a pleasing appearance.
Dion, Berscheid and Walster (1972) asked participants to rate photographs of three strangers for a number of different categories including personality traits such as overall happiness and career success.
When these results were compared to the physical attraction rating of each participant (from a rating of 100 students), the photographs which were rated the most physically attractive were also rated higher on the other positive traits.
What is the matching hypothesis and who put it forward?
The matching hypothesis (Walster et al., 1966) suggests that people realise at a young age that not everybody can form relationships with the most attractive people, so it is important to evaluate their own attractiveness and from this, partners which are the most attainable.
If a person always went for people “out of their league” in terms of physical attractiveness, they may never find a partner which would evolutionarily foolish. This identification of those who have a similar level of attraction, and therefore provide a balance between the level of competition (intra-sexual) and positive traits is referred to as matching.
How is physical attractiveness supported by modern day developments?
Modern dating in society is increasingly visual, with the rise of online dating, particularly using apps such as Tinder.
How does research by Dion contradict that of physical attractiveness?
In Dion et al.’s (1972) study, those who were rated to be the most physically attractive were not rated highly on the statement “Would be a good parent” which could be seen to contradict theories about inter and intra-sexual selection.
How does research by Landy and Arson prove a advantage to physical attractiveness?
Landy and Aronson (1969) show how the Halo effect occurs in other contexts. They found that when victims of crime were perceived to be more attractive, defendants in court cases were more likely to be given longer sentences by a simulated jury. When the defendants were unattractive, they were more likely to be sentenced by the jury, which supports the idea that we generalise physical attractiveness as an indicator of other, less visual traits such as trustworthiness.
How does Feingolds research support the physical attractiveness model?
Feingold (1988) conducted a meta-analysis of 17 studies and found a significant correlation between the perceived attractiveness of actual partners rated by independent participants.
What is filter theory?
Kerckhoff and Davis (1962) suggested that when selecting partners from a range of those who are potentially available to them (a field of availables), people will use three filters to “narrow down” the choice to those who they have the best chance of a sustainable relationship with. The filter model speaks about three “levels of filters” which are applied to partners.
What is the first filter theory proposed?
The first filter proposed when selecting partners was social demography. Social variables such as age, social background, ethnicity, religion, etc. determine the likelihood of individuals meeting and socialising which will in turn influence the likelihood of a relationships being formed. We are also more likely to prefer potential partners with whom we share a social demography as they are more similar to us and we share more in common with them in terms of norms, attitudes and experiences.
What was the second filter theory proposed?
The second filter that Kerckhoff and Davis suggested was similarity in attitudes. Psychological variables to do with shared beliefs and attitudes are the best predictor of a relationship becoming stable. Disclosure is essential at this stage to ensure partners really do share genuine similarity. This was supported by their original 1962 longitudinal study of two groups of student couples (those who had been together for more or less than 18 months).
What was the third filter theory proposed?
The third filter was complementarity which goes a step further than similarity. Rather than having the same traits and attitudes, such as dominance or humour, a partner in who complements their spouse has traits which the other lacks. For example one partner may be good at organisation, whilst the other is poor at organisation but very good at entertaining guests. Kerchoff and Davis found that this level of filter was the most important for couples who had been together for more than 18 months.
How did Kerchoff and Davis do their study after the second filter theory?
Over seven months, the couples completed questionnaires based on their views and attitudes which were then compared for similarities. Kerckhoff and Davis suggested that similarity of attitudes was the most important factor in the group who had been together for less than 18 months. This is supported by the self-disclosure research described elsewhere in this topic.
How can the matching hypothesis be support for filter theory?
This theory may be interpreted as similar to the matching hypothesis but for personality rather than physical traits. Therefore forming a couple adding validity.
How may filter theory have a lack of temporal validity?
Some stages of this model may now be seen as less relevant, for example as modern society is much more multi-cultural and interconnected (by things such as the internet) than in the 1960s, we may now see social demography as less of a barrier to a relationship. This may lead to the criticism that the theory lacks temporal validity.
Whos study supports the lack of temporal validity withing filter theory?
This lack of temporal validity is supported by Levinger (1978) who, even only 16 years after the study, pointed out that many studies had failed to replicate Karchkoff and Davis’ original findings, although this may be down to methodological issues with operationalising factor such as the success of a relationship or complementarity of traits.
How is cause and effect a weakness of fillter theory?
Again, the investigating the second and third levels of the filter theory look at correlation which cannot easily explain causality. Both Davis and Rusbult (2001) and Anderson et al. (2003) found that people become more similar in different ways the more time that they spend in a relationship together.
What is the social exchange theory?
Psychologists Thibault and Kelley (1959) proposed the Social Exchange Theory which stipulates that one motivation to stay in a romantic relationship, and a large factor in its development, is the result of a cost-benefit analysis that people perform, either consciously or unconsciously.
