Relationships- factors affecting attraction in romantic relationships

Question 1

What is self disclosure?

Answer 1

Revealing personal information about yourself

• Most people are careful about what they disclose at least to begin with
• Romantic partners reveal more about themselves as their relationships develop and can strengthen a bond

Question 2

Explain the social penetration theory (developed by Altman and Taylor)

Answer 2

• The gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone
• Involves the reciprocal exchange of info between partners
• When one partner reveals some personal information, the other partner must also reveal something
• As they increasingly disclose more information to each other, partners ‘penetrate’ more deeply into each other lives and gain a greater understanding of each other

Question 3

According to Altman and Taylor, what are the 2 elements to social penetration theory?

Answer 3

• Bredth and depth
• Bredth is narrow at the start. Too much information early on may be off putting
• Depth increases -as a relationship develops more layers are gradually revealed
• Low risk information revealed early on, high risk
• Onion metaphor

Question 4

Name the levels of the social penetration theory

Answer 4

• Superficial
• Intimate
• Personal
• Care

Question 5

Social penetration real life applications

Answer 5

Research into self disclosure can help people who want to improve communication in their relationships. Romantic partners use self disclosure skilfully to strengthen bond

Question 6

Sprecher and Hendrick (2004) evidence for social penetration theory

Answer 6

• Studied heterosexual dating couples and found strong positive correlations between several measures of relationship satisfaction and self disclosure
• Increases the validity of the theory that self disclosure leads to a more satisfying relationship

Question 7

What is the halo effect?

Answer 7

We have preconceived ideas about the personality traits attractive people have

• Dion et al found that physically attractive people are consistently rated as kind, strong, sociable and successful compared to unattractive
• ‘what is beautiful is good’

Question 8

What is the self fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 8

The belief that good looking people probably have characteristics which make them more attractive

Question 9

What is the matching hypothesis?

Answer 9

The belief that we are attracted to people who approximately match us in physical attractiveness

• To do this we have to make a judgement about our own value to a potential partner
• Compromise- want the most attractive but balance against the wish to avoid being rejected by someone ‘out of our league’

Question 10

Symmetrical faces

Answer 10

Larsen and Shackelford (1977) found that people with symmetrical faces are rated as more attractive

Question 11

The computer study- walster (1966) contradictory matching hypothesis

Answer 11

• 752 students bought welcome week tickets for a dance
• When they bought the ticket, they were told that information that gave about themselves would be fed into a computer and this would provide an ‘ideal’ match date
• In fact, they were randomly assigned a partner
• When buying their ticket, a unseen observer marked them on attractiveness
• After 2 hours with their dates, students were asked how much they liked their partner
• Those who were physically attractive were liked the most
• Men asked out a partner if they were attractive, regardless of how attractive they were
• The study doesn’t support the matching hypothesis. We should only ask somebody out whose level of attractiveness matches our own

Question 12

Hatfield and Sprecher (2009)

Answer 12

Physical attractiveness isn’t the only factor involved. Often what a person lacks in attractiveness is made up with a great personality, status etc. E.g old wealthy man and young woman

Question 13

What is the filter theory?

Answer 13

An explanation of relationship formation. It states that a series of different factors progressively limits the range of available romantic partners to a much smaller pool of possibilities.

Question 14

Explain the concept of field of available and field of desirables in the filter theory

Answer 14

The field of available in the pool of people available to us. From these, we select the field of desirable via 3 different filters

Question 15

Name and explain the 3 different filters inn the filter theory

Answer 15

1. Social demography- refers to a wide range of factors all of which influence the chance of potential partners meeting each other. They include proximity, social class, education, religion, ethnic group. You are much more likely to meet people who are physically close and share demographic characteristics
2. Similarity in attitude- partners will often share important beliefs and values
3. Complementarity- meeting each other’s needs. Similarity becomes less important as a relationship develops and is replaced by a need for your partner to balance your traits with opposite of their own

Question 16

Kerkoff and Davies (key study that created the filter theory model)

Answer 16

• Conducted a study using students in a relationship for less than 18 months (short term) with those in a relationship for longer than 18 months
• Using self report questionnaire, study found that attitude simlarity was the most important up to 18 months. In long term couples, complimenting each other was the most important

Question 17

Winch (1958)

Answer 17

Found similarities of personality, interests and attitudes are typical in the earliest stages

Question 18

Cause and effect issue in the filter theory

Answer 18

-Filter theory suggests that people are initially attracted to each other because they’re similar. However, there is evidence which suggests this direction of causality is wrong. Anderson (2003) found in a longitudinal study that cohabitation partners became more similar in their emotional responses over time, a phenomenon called emotional convergence

Question 19

Does the filter theory have good temporal validity?

Answer 19

No. Online dating has reduced the importance of social demographic variables