Relationships (general) Flashcards
What did Robert Trivers (1972) find?
Female optimum mating strategy = to select a genetically fit partner able to provide resources.
The female makes a greater investment of time, commitment and other resources before, during and after birth of her offspring. The consequences of making a wrong choice of partner are more serious for the female than male.
What did Ronald Fisher (1930) hypothesise?
The sexy sons hypothesis - female mates with male who has desirable characteristic, this ‘sexy’ trait is inherited by her son.
Who provided research support for inter-sexual selection and what did they find?
Clark and Hatfield (1989): showed female choosiness is a reality of heterosexual relationships.
Psychology students approached students individually and asked ‘would you go to bed with me tonight?’ 0 females agreed, 75% males did.
How did Bereckzei et al (1997) criticise sexual selection?
Women’s greater role in the workplace means they are no longer dependent on men to provide for them.
Who provided support for anisogamy and what did they find?
David Buss (1989): carried out a survey of over 10,000 adults in33 countries. He found males valued reproductive capacity in terms of good looks and chastity, and preferred younger mates more than females did.
What did the waist-hip ratio research show?
Singh (1993, 2002): found that the combination of wider hips and narrower waist is attractive to males as it’s an ‘honest signal’ that the woman is fertile but not pregnant.
(Support for sexual selection)
What did Waynforth and Dunbar (1995) find in their lonely hearts research?
Studied lonely hearts advertisements in American newspapers. They found that women tended to offer physical attractiveness and indicators of youth. Men offered resources and sought relative youth and physical attractiveness.
(Support for sexual selection)
What did Altman and Taylor’s (1973) social penetration theory suggest?
The reciprocal exchange of information between intimate partners strengthens relationships. As they increasingly disclose more information to each other, romantic partners ‘penetrate’ more deeply into each other’s lives.
According to Altman and Taylor, what are the two elements of self-disclosure?
Breadth and depth
What did Shackelford and Larsen (1997) find out in terms of physical attractiveness affecting relationships?
People with symmetrical faces are rated as more attractive. It may be an honest signal of genetic fitness.
People are also attracted to faces with neotenous (baby-face) features because they trigger a protective or caring instinct.
What did McNulty et al (2008) find?
They found evidence that the initial attractiveness that brought the partners together continued to be an important feature of the relationship after marriage.
What is the halo effect? Who proposed this term?
Used to describe how one distinguishing feature tends to have a disproportionate influence on our judgements of a person’s other attributes, e.g. their personality. - Dion et al (1972)
What did the matching hypothesis suggest? (Walster, 1966)
People choose romantic partners who are roughly of similar physical attractiveness to each other. To do this we have to make a realistic judgement about our own ‘value’ to a potential partner.
Who devised the filter theory?
Kerckhoff and Davis (1962) proposed it to explain how romantic relationships form and develop.
What are the strengths of self-disclosure?
Real life applications - helps people who want to improve communication in their relationships.
Validity of the theory as supported by research findings of Sprecher and Hendrick.
