filter theory: factors affecting attraction in romantic relationships Flashcards
filter theory
suggests there are 3 factors which act as filters to reduce the number of people who we could form a relationship with, known as the “fields of availables” down to the people who we most want to form a relationship with, known as “field of desirables”
3 filters:
social demography
similarity in attitudes
complementarity
social demography
refers to the way we are most likely to partner with someone who we meet due to a range of factors, such as shared proximity (they live near us), social class, ethnicity, shared religion or level of education e.g.
similarity in attitudes
our shared social demography means we are most likely to partner with someone who shares the same opinions and values as us
we are unlikely to find someone with different attitudes attractive as we may find ourselves in constant disagreement
however, we will find someone who shares our views rewarding and will want to spend more time with them to enjoy our common interests
complementarity
after filtering out all others we are most likely to want to partner with someone who best fulfils our needs
we look for someone who compliments us the most by offering traits we may not have
e.g. one partner may be reserved whilst the other is more dominant creating the feeling that together the couple make a whole, adding depth to that relationship
strength 1
evidence for filter theory comes from
clarke 1950
showed that 50% of people in columbus ohio married someone who at one point lived within walking distance of their house, whilst taylor (2010) found 85% of americans married in 2008 did so to someone of the same ethnicity
this shows how similarity in social demography may play a role in who we form our long term relationships with
Strength 2
(P) Additionally
(E) Dikjstra and Barelds (2008)
(E) found that both males and females were most attracted to partners who complimented them.
(L) This shows that we do desire to partner with someone who compliments our personality rather than simply matching our personality, as Filter Theory Predicts
Limit 1
(P): The role of Filter Theory as a factor affecting relationships can be criticised as research used to support it has low external validity
(E): which is when the findings of a study cannot be generalised to other groups.
(E): This is because Levinger notes the predictions of Filter Theory have not been found in many replications of Kerchoff and Davis’ original study.
(L): This means the theory may not be applicable to other heterosexual couples, let alone homosexuals or non-western relationships.
Limit 2
(P) Finally, despite the model suggesting similarity in attitudes is needed earlier in a relationship and complementarity later, others have argued this is wrong.
(E) This is due to the fact it is impossible to establish the causal relationship between factors within romantic couples.
(E) For example, Anderson (2003) found similarity was not important in the early part of relationship. Nonetheless, it became more important later as couples become more similar over time through “emotional convergence”.
(L) This suggests that similarity in attitudes develops the longer a couple is together, contradicting Filter Theory, which claims that people need to have similar attitudes from the start for relationships to develop.
