relationships ao3 Flashcards
What is a strength of evolutionary explanation for partner preferences
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P - Research to support the evolutionary explanation for partner preferences was conducted by Buss (1989).
E - He carried out a survey on over 10,000 participants from 33 countries and asked questions relating to a variety of attributes that evolutionary theory predicts are important in partner preferences.
E - He found that males prefer youthful, physically attractive females, whereas females prefer resources such as good finances, ambitious males.
L - These findings reflect sex differences in sexual selection, therefore supporting predictions of partner preferences made by the evolutionary explanation.
What is a strength of evolutionary explanation for partner preferences
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P - Research to support the sex differences in human reproductive behaviour was conducted by Clarke and Hatfield (1989).
E - They had males and females approach members of the opposite sex and asked the question,
E - “Will you have sex with me?.He found that 75% of males said yes to the female whereas 0% of females agreed to have sex with the male.
L - This therefore supports the differences in human reproductive behaviour of males as females as it demonstrates the idea that females are choosy and males are promiscuous.
What is a weakness of evolutionary explanation for partner preferences
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P - Moreover, the evolutionary explanation of partner preferences can be criticised for biological determinism.
E - This is because the theory states that the individual is controlled by internal factors, such as their genes that will inevitably control their choice of partner and reproductive behaviour.
E - Therefore, it neglects the role of free will and choice that individuals have and could leave individuals feeling as if they have no control over their partner preferences
L - Thus limiting the evolutionary theory as an explanation of males and female partner preferences.
What is a weakness of evolutionary explanation for partner preferences
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P - In addition, the evolutionary explanation for partner preferences lacks temporal validitv as it cannot explain modern relationships.
E - For example, it cannot explain homosexuality,
E - individuals who do not want to have children and women who choose to have abortions as the evolutionary explanation assumes all relationships are motivated by a desire to reproduce.
L - Therefore, limiting the evolutionary explanation as it cannot be a sole explanation for partner preferences, or these individual differences would not exist.
What is a strength of factors affecting attraction : self disclosure
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P - Research to support self-disclosure was conducted by Sprecher and Hendrick (2004).
E - They studied heterosexual dating couples and found strong correlations between several measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure (both theirs and their partner’s).
E - Men and women who used self. disclosure and those who believed their partners did likewise (reciprocation) were more satisfied with and committed to their romantic relationships.
L - Therefore, increasing the validity of self-disclosure as a factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships.
What is a weakness of factors affecting attraction : self disclosure
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P - However , much of the research carried out into self-disclosure theory
E - such a Spreacher & Hendrick’s
E - is correlational so only a relationship is shown between self-disclosure and levels of attraction, not a cause and effect. There is a likely to be a number of other factors impacting how successful the romantic relationship is e.g. physical attractiveness and similarity in attitudes.
L - Therefore limiting the support and internal validity of the research into self-disclosure as a factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships as we cannot establish cause and effect.
What is a weakness of factors affecting attraction : self disclosure
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E - Further lowering the internal validity of the research into self-disclosure as a factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships, is the fact that the research is often carried out self reports (questionnaires and interviews)
P - which could lead to social desirability bias.
E - Participants may lie about the amount of information they have disclosed to a partner and how satisfied they are in their relationship to make themselves appear in a better light.
L - This therefore weakens the internal validity of research into self-disclosure as a factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships.
What is a weakness of factors affecting attraction : self disclosure
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P - Finally, the concept of sef disclosurg as a factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships
can be limited by cultural relativism.
E - Tang et al found that men and women in the USA (individualistic) self-disclose significantly more sexual thoughts and feelings than men and women in China (collectivist).
E - However, despite lower levels of self-disclogure in China, levels of self-reported satisfaction in relationships was the same as the USA.
L - This therefore limits the extent to which we can generalise the findings of self-disclosure as a factor affecting attraction to non-western cultures, limiting the external validity.
What is a weakness of factors affecting attraction : physical attractiveness
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P - Research to contradict the matching hypothesis comes from Taylor et al. (2011).
E - They studied the activity logs of a popular dating site. This was a real-life test of the matching hypothesis because is measured actual date choices and not just preferences.
E - Online daters sought meetings with potential partners who were more physically attractive than them.
L - This contradicts the matching hypothesis as a physical attractiveness factor that affects attraction in romantic relationships as people did not consider their own level of attractiveness when making decisions , therefore lowering the validity of the theory.
What is a weakness of factors affecting attraction : physical attractiveness
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P - Furthermore, research into physical attractiveness as a factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships
E - is often carried out using self reports (questionnaires and interviews)
E - which could lead to social desirability bias. Participants may lie about how important physical attractiveness is in a potential partner for fear of seeming shallow.
L - Therefore, this weakens the overall support of physical attractiveness as a factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships.
What is a strength of factors affecting attraction : physical attractiveness
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P - However, there are many similarities across cultures when studying physical attractiveness as a factor
affecting attraction in romantic relationships.
E - Large eyes, prominent cheekbones, small nose and high eyebrows were rated attractive byedispanic and Asian males as the features display genetic fitness (sexual selection). Furthermore, American and Korean students judged physically attractive people to be more trustworthy, friendly and mature.
E - This therefore means it is possible to generalise findings from western cultures to non-western cultures as they have displayed similarities
L - when investigating physical attractiveness as a factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships.
What is a strength of factors affecting attraction : physical attractiveness
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P - Research to support the halo effect as a theory of physical factors affecting attraction in romantic relationships was conducted by Palmer & Peterson (2012).
E - He asked participants to rate pictures of people on their levels of physical attractiveness and how much political knowledge and competent that person was.
E - It was found that the pictures rated as most physically attractive were also rated as having high levels of political knowledge and being trustworthy despite them having no political expertise.
L - Therefore supporting the theory of the halo effect that physically attractive people are assumed to have positive traits.
Discuss: moreover, this research has implications in the real world. It suggests that there are dangers for democracy if politicians are judged as being suitable and win votes for leadership by voters due to being considered physically attractive as a sole factor.
What is a strength of factors affecting attraction : filter theory
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P - One strength of Kerckhoff and Davis’ study into filter theory is that it was a longitudinal study.
E - Both partner in dating couples completed questionnaires to assess two factors; similarity in attituded and complementarity o needs 7 months apart
E - It was found that closeness in a relationship was assaciated with similarity of values but only for couples who had been together for less than 18 months. For couples In longer relationships complementarity of needs predicted closeness.
L - This supports filter theory as a theory affecting attraction as it provides evidence that similarity is important in early stages of a relationship whereas complementarity is more
important for later stages.
What is a strength/ weakness of factors affecting attraction : filter theory
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P - Moreover, the theory can be criticised for lacking temporal validity
E - as this theory was created in 1962.
E - Since then there has been a rise of online dating which has changed the process of the beginning a romantic relationship. Some would argue it has reduced the importance of some social demographic variables, such as geographical location. Applications such as Tinder and Match.com have made meeting potential partners easier than ever.
L - Therefore, filter theory may not be as appropriate in modern society as a factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships.
Discuss : However, some may argue that social demography is still important and people may choose to filter online dating to certain social demographical criteria such as location or level of education and will only choose to match with people who meet their second filter.
What is a weakness of factors affecting attraction : filter theory
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P - One limitation of the idea of complementarity in filter theory as a factor affecting attraction is that it may not fully apply to long-term relationships.
E - Filter theory suggests that satisfaction in long-term relationship is linked to complementarity of need for example one partner may be more dominant whereas the other more submissive.
E - However, it has been found that lesbian couples who reported equal dominance in their long-term relationships (4 ½ years) were most satisfied.
L - Therefore lowering the validity of complementarity in filter theory as an explanation of factors affecting attraction as a similarity of needs may be better associated with long-term satisfaction.
