Romance Flashcards
(14 cards)
What is significance of physical attractiveness in romance?
Physically attractive people are liked better
- assumed to have better traits and better life outcomes
Complex effects of being around attractive others
What is the assimilation effect?
Friend
Their qualities transfer to you, their higher attractiveness becomes your perceived attractiveness
What is the contrast effect?
Stranger
They are compared to you, their higher attractiveness decreases your attractiveness
What is the significance of warmth in romance?
Showing a positive attitude
Liking various things = being liked yourself (Folkes + Sears)
Smile, be attentive, express emotions
- being extraverted
(Friedman et al)
What is the significance of competence in romance?
Be socially skilled, intelligent and competent
Be less than perfect
What is the Pratfall effect?
When we see someone we hold in high esteem make a mistake, it makes us like them more
When we see someone we don’t hold in high esteem make a mistake, we like them less
Explain Clark/ Hatfield’s study of science in romance
Ppts were straight so men were also ppts approached by women vice versa
Women approaching boldly viewed as intelligent, successful and sexually skilled
If you recruit bisexual women, their responses depend on who approaches
- much more likely to go home with a woman than a man
Men doing this were felt to be ‘creepy’
When there is a famous target the gender difference is gone
Explain the other study related to science in romance
Undergraduate women rated humourous lines more favourably than the men
Women rated sexually loaded lines lower than the men
Perceiver personality also affects these results.
- humourous chat up lines attract more extraverted women
Explain types of love
Strong experiences of love were foreign to many young people
40% of people agreed that an intensely romantic love experience seemed familiar
What affects did Kanin, Davidson + Scheck find love has?
79% - Boost to well-being
37% - difficulty concentrating
29% - floating on a cloud
22% - Nervous
22% - Giddy and carefree
What kind of romance does passionate love create?
Emotional, sexual, highly charged state
What kind of romance does companionate love?
Affectionate, practical, caring type of love
How does culture affect types of love?
Love is prerequisite to marriage in most Western societies
Models of love
- in arranged-marriage cultures, love is seen as growing rather than prerequisite to form relationship
1967
- many Americans (65% M, 24% F) would marry someone they weren’t in love with so long as they had the right qualities
1976
- dropped to less than 20% each
What is the suffocation model?
Increasingly challenging to meet needs of modern-love seekers
Higher needs are more idiosyncratic/ abstract
However, we have less time for mutual need-fulfillment as most households seeking dual full-time income.
Positive:
- more fulfilling when needs are met
Negative:
- more marriages fall short of expectations, leading to marital dissatisfaction
