Topic Eleven

Question 1

Topic One:

What characteristics are associated with ‘evolutionary fitness’

what is the averageness effect?

What three ideal partner dimensions appear in long-term relationships:

Four factors associated with interpersonal liking:

Define assortative mating

Answer 1

The role of genes:
- According to the evolutionary concept of reproductive fitness, people guess whether a prospective mate has good genes, using cues such as physical health, youthful appearance, and body and facial symmetry.

The averageness effect = Humans have evolved to prefer average and symmetrical faces to those with unusual or distinctive features

In long-term relationships, three ‘ideal partner’ dimensions appear to guide the preferences of women and men:

• Warmth-trustworthiness - sowing care and intimacy
• Vitality - attractiveness - signs of heath and reproductive fitness
• Status-resources - being socially prominent and financially sound

Factors related to interpersonal liking:

• Proximity
• Familiarity
• Similarity
• Social matching

Assortative mating:
= A non-random coupling of individuals based on their resemblance to each other on one or more characteristics.

Question 2

Topic Two:

What is the reinforcement-affect model?

What is social exchange theory?

What is meant by comparison levels in social exchange theory?

How is a good relationship defined in terms of social exchange theory?

What is equity theory?

Answer 2

General idea = People who reward us directly become associated with pleasure and we learn to like them. People who punish us directly become associated with pain and we dislike them

Social exchange theory = People often use a form of everyday economics when they weigh up costs and rewards before deciding what to do

Comparison levels in social exchange theory are A standard that develops over time, allowing us to judge whether a new
relationship is profitable or not

A novel way of defining a ‘good relationship’ is in terms of whether or not you earn a ‘profit’ - where rewards exceed the costs of the relationship.

equity theory predicts that people expect resources to be given out fairly, in proportion to their contribution.
- The underlying concept is distributive justice

Question 3

Topic Three:

What are the three attachment styles?

Fehr’s two types of love

Hatfield and Walster’s three factor theory of love

Sternberg’s three types of love, and consumate love

Answer 3

Secure:
- Trust in others, not worried about being abandoned, belief that one is worthy and liked, find it easy to be close to others, comfortable being dependent on others, and vice versa

Avoidant:
- Suppression of attachment needs; past attempts to be intimate have been rebuffed; uncomfortable when close to others; find it difficult to trust others or to depend on them; feel nervous when anyone gets close

Anxious:
- Concerns that others will not reciprocate one’s desire for intimacy; feel that a close partner does not really offer love, or may leave, want to merge with someone and this can scare people away.

Fehr found there were two categories of love:

• companionate
• passionate or romantic

Passionate love is an intensely emotional state and a confusion of feelings:
tenderness, sexuality, elation and pain, anxiety and relief, altruism and jealousy.

Companionate love, in contrast, is less intense, combining feelings of friendly affection and deep attachment

Three factor theory: Romantic love is a product of three interacting variables…

1. A cultural determinant that acknowledges love as a state.
2. An appropriate love object present - in most cultures, the norm is a member of the opposite sex and of similar age.
3. Emotional arousal, self labelled ‘love’, that is felt when interacting with, or even thinking about, an appropriate love object.

Sternberg’s consummate love - involves all three factors:

• passion
• intimacy
• commitment

Question 4

Topic Four: Maintaining relationships

Equity theory of relationship progress (3 key ideas)

Adams and Jones three concepts of commitment:

Levinger’s four factors that herald the end of a relationship

Answer 4

Equity theory:

• benefits help
• costs hinder
• communal behaviour helps

3 factors contributing to ongoing relationship:

1. Personal dedication - positive attraction to a particular partner and relationship.
2. Moral commitment - a sense of obligation, religious duty or social responsibility, controlled by a person’s values and moral principles.
3. Constraint commitment - factors that make it costly to leave a relationship

Levinger’s break down of love:

1. A new life seems to be the only solution.
2. Alternative partners are available (see also Arriaga & Agnew, 2001).
3. There is an expectation that the relationship will fail.
4. There is a lack of commitment to a continuing relationship.