Relationships

Relationships

1. Sexual selection - disadvantageous behaviour being advantageous

   • Anisogamy - M/F sex cells
     • Male unlimited sperm
       • Intra sexual - within, to be selected, quantity over quality
       • Waynforth and Dunbar, woman listed physical men listed rsources
     • Female limited ova, fertile window
       • Inter sexual - between sexes to choose partner, quality over quanitity, choosy to be resources
       • Singh - waist to hip ratio, sign of fertility
     • Buss - men valued physical features, women valued resources
     • Clark and Hatfield - men more likely to be sleep with stangers than women

2. Self disclosure - grows in breadth and depth as time goes on, reciprocity is essential

   • Social penetration theory - reciprocal exchange, displays trust and penetrates sig other.
     • Boom and bust phenomenon
   • Originally revealing loads but superficial, then intimate and deep
     • Culturally SD is more sexual in US than collectivist cultures
   • Maintenance of relationship depended on self disclousre
   • Studies show value of self disclosure in relationships

3. Physical Attractiveness

   • Neotenous faces preferred, important for years
   • Halo Effect - trusting people that are attractive
     • FIndings suggest attractive people more politically knowledgable
   • Matching hypothesis - judge people based on own attractiveness
     • Don't want to go out of our league
       • Walster aimed to prove this, but results showed people went over with more attractive others
       • Complex matching: other factors at play

4. Filter Theory

   • Social demography - how clse you are in terms on location and social status
     • Similarity in attitudes - whether or not you agree with each and share opinions
       • Complementarity of needs - mutual satisfaction of needs
   • Kerckhoff and Davis
     • Tested similarity and complementarity, after seven months found LT couples valued complementarity and ST valued similarity
       • Unreplicable
       • Temporal Validity - change in attitudes such as intteracial marriages more common today
   • Cultural relativism - indiviualist cultures ahve different demands

5. Social Exchange Theory

   • Minimsing the costs and maximising benefits, must be profitable
     • Rewards include sex, gifts, costs include time, money
   • Comparison Level - standard to compare all relatiships, relationsips need to exceed this level
     • CL for Alternatives - Rewards more than costs of leaving relationship
   • Relationship Stages
     • Sampling - considering rewards and costs
       • Bargaining - considering if it's worth it
         • Commitment - used to relationship, aware of minimax principle
           • institutionalisation - normalised best way to get rewards
   • Gives explanation to abusive relationship, seen as a cost for reward
   • Studied in this lack ecological validity
   • Explains why people leave relationships

6. Equity Theory- Desire for fairness

   • Profit - minimax principle Distribution - compensation for fairness Dissatisfaction - more with unfairness Realignment - restoring equity
   • Inequity =/= inequality
     • You give what you get out, based on a ratio, giving a lot but getting a lot back, when inequitable we change inputs and putputs for equity
   • Real life application - Utne found 148 couples valued equity and were satifided in equitable relationships, valid
   • Culture bias - individualist cultures value equity, collectivist cultures like overbenefitting, not universal
   • Individuals may be entitled or benevolents so they don't care if they over or underbenefit, again not univeral
   • Clark & Mills: Equity may be important in different relationships eg work related, but findings for relationships are mixed

7. Investment Model

   • Extension of SET and economic, Rusbult
     • COmmitment Level mitigated satsifaction, investment and presence of alterntive
       • Committed partners are positive, less committed partners are negative
   • Intrinsic - direct things eg time
   • Extrinsic - Shared things eg house/kids
   • Rusbult found that statisfaction and investment increased commitment in hetero and gay relationships
     • Le & Agnew metaanalysis of 11,582 participants founds variables did influence commitment that influenced likeliness of break up
     • Explains abusive relationship - low alternatives, high investment

8. Duck's Phase Model

   • Intrapsychic, one partner unhappy
     • Dyadic, two way discussion, mutual feelings
       • Social - break up aired, everyone knowns, everyone picks sides
         • Grave dressing - moving on, own accounts of breakdown
           • Duck suggests later stage of resurrection - growing and learning from experience, makes model more valid
     • Altering Duck'sModel used in relationship counselling - turning intrapsychic stage positive - real life application
       • However, in such a stage the other person isn't aware so counselling may not be possible so early in the model
   • Cultural bias - individualist cultures easy to split/divorce may not be same in collectivist cultures, making phase model etic approach

9. Virtual Relationships

   • Reduced Cues Theory (Sprawl and Kiesler)
     • Without cues SD not the same as face to face
       • Leads to more blunt and aggressive
   • Hyperpersonal Model
     • Online relationships more intimate quicker incresing SD, but shortlived - excitement not consistent, with selective self representation, anonymity increasing SD due to lack of reponsibility
     • Whitby found online people were more straightforward due to lack of small talk , CMc is positive
   • Absense of gating
     • No mitigating fators in attraction eg appearance, no gating increases disclosure due to interest of opinion not appearance creating different internet personality
     • McKenna & Bargh found anxious people discosoed more with CMC showing evidence supporting gating
   • Dependent on type of CMC - social media mroe likely to SD than dating due to potential of FtF contact

10. Parasocial Relationships

    • Maltby three types: Entertainment-social (superficial, just for gossip), Intense-personal (involved, obsessive) Borderline pathological (deep, extreme, , uncontroalbale
      • Maltby found Entertainment social people more extroverts, Intense personal more introverts and Borderline pathologicals more mentally ill, showing support due to implication of cognitive function.
    • McCutheon Absorption Addiction
      • Believed PR made from real life deficiences eg body image or social adjustment, allows escape from reality
        • Found link between cody conscious teens and celebrity worship
      • fulfillment, much focused attention, identification
      • sustained commitment by intense involvement in life
    • Attachment links - Avoidant least likely to develop parasocial relationship, resistant more likely due to less risk of rejection
      • Findings show there's no link between attachment type and parasocial relationships
      • Self report methods lead to social desirability implicating reliability
      • Correlational research