Relationships: Filter Theory AO3

Question 1

Culture bias

Answer 1

P: Most research supporting the Filter Theory uses participants from individualist, Western cultures.
E: Individualist cultures value free will with regard to relationship choice and describe the choice of partners in terms of individual preferences.
E: In these cultures, people may apply the criteria described by the Filter Theory freely and usually without much influence from other people. However, this is not the case in collectivist cultures, where it is common for romantic relationships to be arranged, so partners are not free to apply individual filters to select their future spouse.
L: This means that Filter Theory suffers from cultural bias, as it assumes that the rules of partner choice in Western cultures apply to relationships universally.

Question 2

Research support for filter theory

Answer 2

P: There is some research support for filter theory.
E: For example, Winch (1957) found that similarity of interests, attitudes and personality traits were very important for couples in the beginning of relationships, and complementarity of needs had more impact on long-term relationships.
E: In another study, Newcomb (1961) offered participants free accommodation for a year.
They were assigned a room mate, and he found that a stable friendship developed if roommates had a similar background and similar attitudes to life.
L: Such studies support the predictions of filter theory and improve its validity

Question 3

Direction of causality

Answer 3

P: Filter theory suggests that people are initially attracted to each other because they are similar.
E: But there is evidence that this direction of causality is wrong.
Anderson et al. 2003) found in a longitudinal study that cohabiting partners became more similar in their emotional responses over time, a phenomenon on they called emotional convergence.
E: Furthermore, Davis and Rusbult (2001) discovered an attitude alignment affect in longer term relationships. Romantic partners overtime bring their attitudes into line with each others, again suggesting that similarity is an affect of initial attraction and not the cause.
L: This is a limitation because these findings are not predicted by filter theory

Question 4

filter theory may lack temporal validity

Answer 4

doesnt take into account how modern relationships form eg globalisation and migration lead to more rel forming across ethnicities and cultures - cannot be explained by filter theory as these people wouldnt have met (sd) and wouldnt have had sim att orvalues
also virtual relationships enabled by dating apps lack traditional filters like social demography