Relationships

Relationships

1. Evolutionary perspective

   • Natural selection
     • Survival
   • Sexual selection
     • Men prefer women with wider hips for childbirth
     • Women prefer men that are masculine and can support a fmaily
   • Youthfullness
   • Health
   • Buss
     • Women of most cultures liked men who were stable and could support their family
     • Men of most cultures preferred women with big eyes (youthfullness) and big hips (childbirth)
   • A02
     • Highly valid evidence from Buss
     • Supporting research from Dunbar and Waynforth
     • Deterministic
     • Not falsifiable
     • Gender bias
     • Ignoring of media
     • May have ideals, but in real life don't always get the best
     • Facial preferences = cultural bias/subjective
     • Menstural cycles = hormones/subjective bias
   • Consequences of sexual selection
     • Short term benefits
       • Men can have more casual sex than females
         • Evolutionary the more sex = higher reproductive success
     • Sperm competition
       • Men have unlimited sperm and therefore can waste time and effort on casual sex
       • Whereas women have a limited amount of eggs, and therefore can afford to be picky
       • Depends how big it is
   • Mate quality
   • Mental characteristics
   • Facial preferences

2. Formation

   • Matching hypothesis
     • People will be matched of a similar attractiveness
     • Murstein
     • Unattractive - Unattractive
     • Attractive - Attractive
     • Walster
       • Got a big group of people who he ranked on attractiveness on a scale of 1-10, then paired them up, and put them on a date to see if they matched.
         • Not only did it disprove the theory, it is also a highly subjective measure of testing, and therefore has low validity
     • AO2
       • Real world application is poor
       • Complex matching
         • Might not be physically attractive, but make up for it in personality
       • Gender differences
       • Third party social influences (Friends)
     • Social desirability
   • Reward/need model
     • Rewards must out way the needs in order to be a successful relationship
     • Reciprecol feelings
     • Selfishness
     • Culturally bias
     • Conditioning
       • Direct reinforcement
       • Association
     • AO2
       • Most couples actually want equity not gains
       • Western cultures show little concern for direct reinforcement
       • Gender differences
         • Women = caring
         • Men = selfish

3. Maintainence

   • Social exchange theory
     • Comparison levels
     • Alternatives
     • Sampaling
     • Bargaining
     • Thibaut and Kelly
     • Commitment
     • Insitutionalization
     • Equity theory
       • Walster
       • Want equity not equality
       • Achieve the same outcome
       • Negociation
       • If its unfair, the relationship will end
       • Re-establishment
       • AO2
         • Methodology has low ecological validity
         • Failed to predict long term relationships
         • Ragsdale and Brandau-brown reject theory
         • Lack of support
           • Clark and Mills identify a communal couple and exchange couple
         • Gender differences
           • Women more likely to cheat than men
     • AO2
       • As women get older they get more picky and end up spending more time alone than men
       • It ignores the idea of sharing and having and equal relationship
   • Investment model
     • Rusbult
     • Satisfaction
     • Quality of alternatives
     • Investment
     • Rusbult
       • Student couples who were less committed were less satisfied and looked for alternatives more than couples who were committed
     • Lee and Agnew
       • Meta analysis
       • Strong correlation between commitment and satisfaction
       • Internal factors influence the commitment of a relationship more than external
       • A difference in homosexual couples, where gays showed less investment, and lesbians were more open to alternatives.
     • AO2
       • Good supporting evidence
         • Strong research
       • Highly applicable/relevant
       • Commitment in abusive relationships

4. Breakdown

   • Rollie and Duck
     • Breakdown
       • Intra-psychic
         • Dyadic phase
           • Social phase
             • Grave dressing
               • Resurrection
   • AO2
     • Good evidence / high research support
     • Explains all aspects of breakdown
     • Impact of break up
       • Akert
   • Heterosexual bias
   • Evolutionary explain for breakdown
     • Costs of emotional investment
     • Increasing committment
     • Infedelity
     • Reputational dmage
     • AO2
       • Evidential support
         • Perilloux and Buss
           • Mass questionnaire to uni students about recent breakups
           • Females lose emotional commitment
           • Men can re-establish the relationship if they show more commitment
           • Men have more casual sex post break up
           • Rejectors found higher costs as they look cruel
           • Socially bias
           • Small sample
             • College students
       • Not as adaptive anymore
         • social/local proximate

5. Parental investment

   • Women invest more time than men
   • Trivers says the amount of parental investment determines the changes of survival
   • Maternal investment
     • 9 months in womb
     • Child birth
     • Breast feeding
     • Caring
   • Parternal investment
     • Lads mags
       • Geher et al
         • Mens ANS was more aroused when asked to face a parenting issues (sick child) than women
           • Therefore more show more less investment
     • Feckless fathers
     • Cuckoldry
     • Smash and dash
     • Alternative women
   • Fathers were also more likely to invest more time in step children to show the new mother how good he is, and prove himself
   • AO2
     • Males do help out
     • Willing fathers
       • Women work more in modern society
     • Sexual jealousy
       • Gender bias
       • More more jealous than women
         • Buss
   • Parental conflict
     • Weaning conflict
       • Sibling VS Sibling
       • Fouts et al
         • Found that forager children were less dependent on parents and were less distressed when alone.
         • Whereas farmer children weaned much more and wanted more attention
         • Small sample size
         • Translator bias
     • Tivers say toddlers will have tantrums in order to regain attachment with mother
     • Older siblings may also regress, to act like a child again, for attention
     • Inclusive fitness
       • Makes more sense for mothers to have another child than grandchild as they would share 50% genetics not 25%
     • Mothers VS Daughters
       • Biologically it is more beneficial for a mother to have another child than it is more a daughter to have children young
     • AO2
       • Lack of evidence among human groups
         • Bad methodologies
       • Supports biological exaplanations for childbirths / hormones in young girls
       • Correct parenting and well behaved children will cooperate to benefit the parents genes
       • Middle child syndrome can be extremely dangerous

6. Culture differences

   • Western = individualist
     • Idendependent
     • I not we
     • Economic theories
     • Voluntary
   • Eastern = collectivist
     • Whole participation
     • Values
     • Longer lasting relationship
       • Permanent or impermanent ?
         • Divorce
     • In-voluntary
       • Arranged marriages
   • All humans no matter what culture crave passionate love
   • Marrying for love or money/status
     • Easier way of life
     • Don't want to be loney
     • Lavine
   • Adaptiveness of love
     • Online relationships
       • Yum and Hara
   • AO2
     • Individualists VS Collectivist
     • Voluntary/involuntary
       • Freewill VS Determinism
     • Choice or satisfaction
     • Arranged marriage
       • Ubanisation and divorce is western cultures
         • Permanent or impermanent
           • Cultural bias

7. Early year effects on adulthood relationships

   • Bowlby
     • Internal working model
       • Childhood attachments = Later life relationships
   • Feeny et al
     • The more anxious about a relationship someone was, the less satisfied they were with with
   • Peer interactions such as friendship and popularity = later life ability to make and withhold adulthood relationships
   • AO2
     • Morrison et al
       • Early years attachment correlated with adulthood relationship styles, including independence
     • Attachment disorders as children
   • Adolescence
     • Can distinguish between parent peers and romantic attachment styels
     • Parents are the main role models of intimate relationships
     • Post divorce can also shapes children's ideas about relationships, especially girls
       • Form alliance against men
     • Whereas fathers and son post divorce grow close and in actual fact show son how to behave correctly in marriage
     • Relationships with peers are more crucial than parents as they allow a sense of identity to be built without long term commitment
       • Erikson
     • Simpson
       • Securely attached children has better developed social skills as children and closer friends at 16, following into later life with positives relationships into adulthood
     • AO2
       • Madsen supporting evidence
       • Young adolescent relationships can increase deviance
         • Haynie

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