Relationships Flashcards

Question

What are the 2 strengths of evolution explanations for partner preferences?

Answer 1

Research - Clark and Hatfield Research - Buss

Answer 2

Showed that females choosiness is a reality of heterosexual relationships. Male and female psychology students were sent out on a uni campus and asked students the question 'i have been noticing you around campus. i find you to be very attractive. would you go to bed with me tonight?' - 75% of men said yes while 0 women said yes

Answer 3

Carried out a survey of over 10,000 adults aged 16-25 in 33 countries, which included 37 cultures. He asked questions relating to age and a variety of attributes that evolutionary theory predicts should be important in partner preference. He found that female respondents pace greater value on resources related to characteristics while males valued reproductive capacity

Answer 4

Methodology flaws No account for cultural changes

Answer 5

The research into these explanations tend to be based on data collected via self-reports which are subject to misinterpretation and social desirability bias e.g. Buss

Answer 6

Bereczkei et al argue that social change has consequences for women's mate preferences due to less female dependency on a male partner for resources to provide for them in modern society so mate choices may no longer be resource-orientated Kasser and Sharma - found that in their analysis of 37 cultures that females mostly valued a mate with resourced in societies where women's access to education and workplace was severely limited

Answer 7

Self-disclosure Physical attractiveness and the matching hypothesis Filter theory

Answer 8

A factor affecting attraction in romantic relationships, which refers to the sharing of personal information. Greater self-disclosure tends to lead to greater levels of intimacy and research has found that individuals tend to prefer people who are prepared to disclose intimate details about themselves, compared to those who are unwilling to disclose

Answer 9

As relationships develop, communication moves from relatively shallow, non intimate levels to deeper more personal ones

Answer 10

The layers of an onion represent a level of self-disclosure: - Core self-concepts ( most intimate details about self) - Stable exchange - Affective exchange - Exploratory effective exchange - Orientation

Answer 11

According to Altman and Taylor, self-disclosure has two elements: breadth and depth. As both of these increase, romantic partners become more committed to each other

Answer 12

At the start of the relationship we disclose a lot about ourselves but what we reveal is superficial, mostly 'on the surface' details. It is the low-risk information we would reveal to anyone like friends and co-workers. Breadth of disclosure is narrow because many topics are 'off-limits' in the early stages

Answer 13

Harry Reis and Philip Shaver - point out, for a relationships to develop, as well as an increase in breadth and depth there needs to be a reciprocal element of disclosure. Once too have decided to disclose something that reveals your true self, hopefully your partner will respond in a way that is rewarding, with empathy and also their own intimate thoughts and feelings. There should be a balance of self-disclosure between both partners in a successful romantic relationship, which increases feelings of intimacy and deepens the relationship

Answer 14

Research - Sprecher and Hendrick Practical applications - Kleinke

Answer 15

They collected data on heterosexual couples who were dating and found there was a strong correlation between self-disclosure and satisfaction. Men and women who used self-disclosure and reciprocity were more satisfied with and committed to their relationships Supported by Laurenceau - asked dating couples to write daily diary entries about progress in their relationships and found that self-disclosure and perception of disclosure in a partner led to greater feelings of intimacy in a couple

Answer 16

The knowledge allows for couples to develop their relationships by knowing what appropriate self-disclosures are. Kleinke - found that individuals who were perceived as more selective about who they disclose information to were seen as more attractive Hass and Stafford - 57% of gay men and women in their study said that open and honest self-disclosure was the main way they maintained and deepened their committed relationships

Answer 17

Based on individualistic cultures Research is mostly based on correlation

Answer 18

Tang et al - found that men and women in the USA tended to disclose more sexual thoughts and feelings than romantic partners in China. However, the level of relationship satisfaction was high in both cultures. Therefore, this research suggests that it is the type of self-disclosure that may have more of an impact on attraction, rather than depth

Answer 19

Sprecher and Hendrick found that men and women used self-disclosure and received self-disclosure were more satisfied with and committed to their relationship. This may suggest that greater self-disclosure leads to greater satisfaction

Answer 20

Halo Effect Matching Hypothesis

Answer 21

Psychologists have wondered why physical attraction seems to be so important in forming relationships. Evolutionary explanations of attractiveness state that traits associated with attractiveness act as indications of good genetic information and health, by choosing an attractive partner you are ensuring a healthy partner and a healthy child. Perceived health is important for two reasons: firstly, that partner is going to be physically able to bear children or provide for the family; it also means that there is a good chance that the genes that they carry will produce healthy offspring

Answer 22

The phenomenon where we perceive people as physically attractive as having other positive personality traits. For example, when we judge someone as having kind eyes, we assume that someone with attractive eyes must also have a kind personality. For example, Dion et al found that attractive people are consistently rated as successful, kind and sociable when compared with unattractive people

Answer 23

Karen Dion 1972

Answer 24

It is typically the first thing we see in a partner, their personality then has to be suitable for us. It could be argued that being an attractive person makes their personalities more attractive

Answer 25

This is the theory that people will seek partners of similar physical attractiveness to themselves. So, if you rate yourself a 7 in terms of physical attractiveness, you will seek someone of a similar rating

Answer 26

We need to have a realistic judgement of how attractive we are as attempting to 'punch above your weight' carried the increased risk of rejection that could damage self esteem. Additionally, if one feels their partner is more attractive there is likely to be fears that partner will leave for more attractive partners

Answer 27

Murstein - Asked pt's to judge the attractiveness of real couples and those just put together that were 'fake couples' in photographs. He found that ratings of couples by judges of attractiveness of 'real couples' photos were closer in level of attractiveness than the attractiveness rating of photos of fake couples

Answer 28

Walster et al - invited 752 first-year students to attend a dance party. They were randomly matched to a partner; however, when students were picking up their tickets, they were secretly judge by a panel in terms of attractiveness. During the intervals at the dance party, and at 4 and 6 months later, students were asked whether they found their partner attractive and whether they would like to go on a second date with them. It was found that the more attractive students were favored as dates over the less attractive students, and physical attractiveness was found to be the most important factor

Answer 29

Cunningham - found that white, asian, and hispanic males, despite being from different cultures, rated females with prominent cheekbones, small noses and large eyes as highly attractive

Answer 30

Gunnel and Ceci - found that physically less attractive people were 22% more likely to be convicted in court and get prison sentences that were 22 months longer than physically attractive people

Answer 31

It may have beta-bias -> it assumes men and women are very similar in their view of the importance of physical attractiveness. Meltzer - found that men rate their long-term relationships more satisfying if their partner is physically attractive, while for women their partners attractiveness didn't have a significant impact on relationship satisfaction

Answer 32

Elaine Hatfield + Walster

Answer 33

Kerchkoff and Davies 1962

Answer 34

That our choices of mates are limited by several factors. The first filter revolves around the fact that we only meet a very small fraction of people living in our area (proximity filter). Most of those we meet tend to be of a similar social class, education level and maybe even the same ethnicity or racial group. The third filter is based on psychological (internal) factors.

Answer 35

Social demography - These are the factors influencing the likelihood of partners meeting in the first place . People spend more time with the others who are similar to them in age, gender, and education

Relationships Flashcards

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