Relationships revision

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Relationship formation:

socio biological theory - suggests that men want women with a nubile shape and youthful features because this is signs of fertility - selfish gene theory - they just want to survive and pass on their genes to the next generation. Women look for masculinity and resources in males - this shows that they can provide for her and any children that they have. Buss - cross cultural, men and women were asked what they look for in a partner. In all 37 cultures men rate highly female attractiveness, and in 36/37 cultures women looked for men with plenty of resources. In the majority, women often married men older than themselves

x -attractiveness wasn't first on the list for men, both men and women rated kindness and intelligence as top of their list

x - they were given just 18 characteristics, some pps may have found that the questionnaire didn't a wide enough variety

Davis - study of 328 personal ads in a Canadian newspaper, found that men highlighted physical characteristics, whereas women looked for intelligence, financial and employment.

x- cultural bias - only Canada

BUT high interata reliability - the two studies agress

Reinforcement affect theory - suggested by Byre and Clore, this theory suggests that through classical conditioning, people can become attached to people when put in a positive situation with them. Veitch and Griffith put pps into a room with a stranger whilst either happy news was playing or negative news was being read out. When asked to rate the stranger in the room afterward, those who had had the happier news story read to them were more likely to pass a more positive judgement on the stranger.

x - lacks mundane realism, odd situation

x - doesn't suggest that they are going to start a relationship

Relationship maintenance - social exchange theory - Thibaut and Kelly -this suggests that there should be a mutual exchange of rewards between parties - they should run like a balance sheet trying to maximise rewards and minimise costs. As long as the benefits outweigh the costs, then the relationship can be maintained. Hatfield et al - shows that newlyweds who felt that they were equal in the amount that they put into a relationship were happier than those who felt it was unequal. Long term friendships and relationships go through 4 stages - sampling (weighing up costs and benefits of relationship), bargaining (negotiation in which rewards and costs are agrees), commitment (exchange rewards, accept costs) and institutionalisation (relationship is stable and firmly established). Stafford and Canary - found that couples who either felt under or over benefited were less satisfied

Equity theory suggests that so long as the partners both perceive their relationship to be equal, then they will both be happy. Comparison level - comparing the current relationship to past relationships, Alternative comparison level - where you compare your current relationship to a possible relationship. If potential profit outweighs current profit then the relationship may end.

x- there is a gender bias because DeMaris has shown that if a woman is unhappy in a relationship then the couple are more likley to divorce, compared to if just the man was unhappy in the relationship.

Relationship breakdown - Rollie and Duck's relationship breakdown model - breakdown (there are problems in the relationship), intra psychic (i can't stand this anymore) dyadic (problems are openly confronted between the two) social (the possibility of a break up is discussed with people outside of the relationship) grave dressing (the break up is inevitable), resurrection ( added in 2006, the couple start to move on and consider new relationships, learning from their mistakes). Breakdown may begin because of a lack of interpersonal skills, lack of stimulation or maintenance difficulties. Lee developed his model of breakdown after observing 112 pre marital couples who broke down, he suggested the following stages - dissatisfaction (one of both partners are unhappy), exposure (they open up and discuss these issues), negotiation, ( they try to work out how to solve these problems), resolution and then breakdown.

x - premarital couples, therefore possibly quite young and not considered a serious relationship

x - survey so may be affected by soc des bias

Parental investment - women look for quality not quantity of mate, and men are more promiscuous look for quality not quantity. Triver said that maternal investment was greater and more important, because not only must they carry the baby and then give birth (which used to be very dangerous for both mother and baby) but they must breastfeed and care for the baby as it cannot fend for itself. Males however, have a more optional role. Males fear sexual infidelity more, compared to females who fear emotional infidelity.

Smith - found that before Western influence, 80% of communitites were polygmous (many women to one man) - supporting mens promiscuity

x - however women would have been upset at the spread of resources so doesn't fully explain the parental investement theory.

Hoffman - looked at female seals and saw that they selected a mate depending upon their smell, behavour, looks etc which supports the fact that women are very choosy.

Sexual Selection - Inter sexual - when certain charcteristics are preferred in one sex by the opposite sex, therefore leading to the population gradually being bred with more and more of this charchteristic (for example, if women prefer taller men, over time there would be an increase in taller men because the taller men would be mating and passing on their genes). Intra sexual selection - this is them two members of the same sex fight for one member of the opposite sex, ultimatley the strongest/best fighter will win and therefore pass these stronger genes on to the net generation whilst the weaker ones will die out without passing on their genes to the next generation (for example, two stags fighting over a female doe)

Men are more likely to use short term mating tactics (i.e. one night stands in modern society) because they are more promiscuous and prefer quantity over quality because they produce millions of sperm daily. Whereas women are more likely to take part in long term mating tactics because especially in the EEA, women would rely on men for resources with which to bring up a child.

Buss - women prefer men with resources, men prefer physical attractiveness

Affect of culture on relationships- Individualisic vs. collectivist - in individualistic cultures there is a greater influence on what the individual wants, compared to collectivist cultures where a picking a partner is seen to affect a whole family or community, voluntary vs arranged marriages - arranged marriages are more common in collectivist countries, because of this affect that ones partner can have on a whole family, whereas in individualistic cultures, independence is stressed and there is less of an affect on their families. Temporary vs. permenant - there are higher rates of divorce is Western cultures, and though on the one hand this may suggest a higher dissatisfaction among partners, it's more likely ot be because there is a taboo around break ups and divorece in many collectivist countries, explaining the lower divorce rates.

Gupta and Singh - looked at arranged and voluntary marriages in India, found that although voluntary marriages reported greater satisfaction in the first year than those in arranged marriages, the latter reported greater satisfaction over a period of ten years

x - only looked at in India

Levine et al - love as a basis for marriage - A cross cultural study asked pps if they would marry someone if they had all the right qualities that they were looking for, but whom they didn't love. Around 24% of those from collectivist cultures said they would, compared to 14% of those from Western cultures.

Affect of childhood on adult relationship - Shaver suggested that there were three systems that were developed as a child that affected later adulthood, and one of these was attachment. This was measured by Ainsworth using the Strange Situation. Bowlby put forward his theory of an internal working model, which suggests that experiences, relationships and attachments that we have as a child creates a blue print of sorts for a our adult relationship, this is supported by his other theory, the continuity hypothesis that suggests that the attachment style of an infant will be carried through to adulthood. Qualter and Munn suggested that childhood relationships are important for giving the child a sense of self worth, and Nangle suggested that childhood relationships were "training grounds" for adulthood. This is supoirted by Shaver et al who completed a "love quiz" - they found out that the attachment type shtat pps had with ones parents reflected the type of attachment they had in adult relationships. Madsen also found that teenagers with a low "dating frequency" were likley to have a higher quality of adult relationships.

Simpson et al - studies a group of pps from infancy to early 20s, assessing them using a variety of methods such as interviews, self report and asking their teachers and parents. They found that the attachment type that they were diagnosed with at one session would generally predict the attachment type of their next assessment, therefore supporting the continuity hypothesis in particular.

x - only assessed to early 20s, very few "serious relationships"

x - longitudinal study- high rate of attrition