Describe and evaluate two theories of the formation of relationships

Describe and evaluate two theories of the formation of relationships

1. Reward/ Need satisfaction theory

   • AO1
     • Byrne & Clore ’70
       • We enter relationships as the presence of some individuals is directly associated with happiness, which makes them more attractive to us
     • Operant conditioning
       • We are attracted to people who provide us with direct reinforcement
       • Rewarding stimuli lead to positive feelings and punishing stimuli lead to negative feelings
     • Classical conditioning
       • We are also attracted to people who are associated with pleasant events
   • AO2
     • Griffitt and Guay
       • Participants were evaluated on a creative task. Those that were most complimented found the evaluator most attractive
     • IDA cultural bias
       • Theory doesn't account for cultural and gender differences in the formation of relationships, suggesting that it's not a universal explanation
         • Lott
           • Women focus on the needs of others in many societies
     • Caspi and Herbener
       • Conducted a study on real life couples and found supporting evidence
     • Aron
       • Reward pathways in brain probably evolved to speed up love in our ancestors to speed up the mating process
     • Sheldon
       • Relationally disconnected people may use Facebook to make up for a lack of face to face interaction

2. Similarity

   • AO1
     • Byrne, Clore and Smeaton
       • People first sort potential partners for dissimilarity, and avoid them. They then are most likely to choose someone similar to themselves
     • Personality Bersheud & Reis
       • People are attracted to someone with similar traits.
     • Caspi and Herbener
       • Married couples with more similarities were happier than those with less similarities
     • Attitudes
       • If partners' attitudes toward important issues differ, the process of attitude alignment may occur, as one or both partners modify their attitudes to produce similarity
   • AO2
     • Rosenbaum
       • Dissimilarity rather than similarity was most important in whether a relationship will develop.
         • Cultural variations
           • Singh & Tan in Singapore AND Drigotas USA, found partners with most dissimilarities became less attracted to each other
             • Shows good universal validity and consideration for other cultures within the theory
     • Yoshida
       • The theory ignores other factors such as physical condition and economic level
     • Lehr and Geher
       • Descriptions of an imaginary stranger had vary degrees of similarity with the participant's own attitudes
         • The imaginary stranger was more liked if he or she was similar to the person doing the rating (the participant)