Relationships - Virtual Relationships Flashcards
Describe the reduced cues theory
Sproull and Kessler (1986) suggest that CMC relationships are less effective than face-to-face (FtF) relationships.
This is because there is an absence of non-verbal communication cues such as tone of voice, facial expressions and so on.
This leads to de-individuation, where a person feels a reduced sense of individuality and a lowering of personal standards of behaviour.
Therefore, CMC relationships are more likely to include impersonal, possibly aggressive communication and reluctance to self-disclose.
Describe the hyperpersonal model (boom and bust)
- Walther suggested that CMC relationships can actually involve more self-disclosure, as the process of disclosure happens more quickly than in FtF relationships.
- Therefore, the CMC relationship becomes more intense and intimate more quickly, but also is more likely to end quickly (the ‘boom and bust’ idea).
- Self-disclosure can happen more quickly because each person has more time to manipulate their image and think carefully before crafting a response than they would face-to-face.
- Therefore, people can manipulate others into self-disclosing quite quickly.
Why could anonymity increase self-disclosure?
Anonymity may also accelerate self-disclosure (Bargh et al, 2002), because people feel less accountable (and feel less embarrassment) for their behaviour, so are more comfortable revealing intimate information.
Describe absence of gating in online relationships
A ‘gate’ is an obstacle to the formation and development of a relationship.
For example, physical unattractiveness, shyness or anxiety. McKenna and Bargh (1999) suggest that such gates are absence in CMC relationships, so it becomes easier for relationships to begin and quickly become intimate. The focus is on what the person is saying, for example through self-disclosure, rather than what they look like.
Define self disclosure
The act of revealing personal or private information about one’s self to other people.
Evaluate explanations of virtual relationships - dating websites
There are many different types of CMC, which may or may not encourage self-disclosure.
There is evidence that self-disclosure happens less regularly on dating websites, due to the anticipation of face-to-face meetings in the future.
This weakens explanations of virtual relationships, as they may not be applicable to all types of CMC.
Evaluate explanations of virtual relationships - temporal validity
Most of the research examining virtual relationships was conducted in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As technology is changing rapidly, so is the nature of online relationships; therefore, psychological research in this area risks becoming outdated by the time it is published.
This lowers the temporal validity of research into online relationships.
Evaluate explanations of virtual relationships - online cues
A weakness of the absence of cues in virtual relationships is that it ignores online cues.
Tidwell and Walther (1995) argue that in virtual relationships people also use subtle cues, such as the time taken to respond to their post, or emoticons and emojis. According to them, non-verbal cues in online interactions are not absent, they are just different.
