AQA A level Psychology: Relationships Revision

What did Trivers (1972) emphasise?

the female makes a greater investment of time, commitment and other resources before, during and after the birth of her offspring

Which psychologist developed the sexy sons hypothesis and the runaway process?

Fisher (1930)

What did Buss (1989) do?

carried out a survey of adults from different countries and asked questions relating to age and a variety of attributes that evolutionary theory predicts should be important in partner preference

What did Buss (1989) find?

female respondents placed greater value on resource-related characteristics, such as good financial prospects, ambition and industriousness than males did

males valued reproductive capacity, in terms of good looks and chastity, and preferred younger mates, more so than females did

(sex differences in mate strategies due to anisogamy)

What was Buss' (1989) sample?

over 10,000 adults in 33 countries

What did Clark and Hatfield (1989) do, and what did they find?

sent male and female psychology students across a university campus to approach other students individually with this question: "I have been noticing you around campus. I find you to be very attractive. Would you go to bed with me tonight?"

not a single female student agreed to the request, whereas 75% of males did, immediately

What did Bereczkei et al. (1997) argue?

women's greater role in the workplace means that they are no longer dependent on men to provide for them (despite ongoing inequality in earning power) - this social change has consequences for women's mate preferences, which may no longer be resource-oriented

What did Singh (1993, 2002) find?

what matters in male preference is the ratio of waist to hip sizes (not female body size as such)

up to a point, males generally find any waist and hip sizes attractive, so long as the ratio of one to the other is about 0.7

this combination of wider hips and narrower waist is attractive because it is an 'honest signal' that a female is fertile but not currently pregnant

What did Waynforth and Dunbar's (1995) research involve?

they studied lonely hearts advertisements in American newspapers - these documents were opportunities for men (mostly) and women to describe the qualities they desired in a potential partner, whilst cataloguing what they had to offer

What did Waynforth and Dunbar (1995) find?

women more than men tended to offer physical attractiveness and indicators of youth ('flirty, exciting, curvy, sexy')

men offered resources more than women did ('successful, fit, mature, ambitious') and sought relative youth and physical attractiveness

Which psychologists proposed social penetration theory (self-disclosure)?

Altman and Taylor (1973)

Which researchers emphasised the need for reciprocity of self-disclosure?

Reis and Shaver (1988)

Which psychologist's theory of relationship breakdown challenges social penetration theory's link between self-disclosure and satisfaction?

Duck (2007)

What did Hass and Stafford (1998) find?

57% of gay men and women in their study said that open and honest self-disclosure was the main way they maintained and deepened their committed romantic relationships

What did Sprecher and Hendrick (2004) find?

studied heterosexual dating couples

found strong correlations between several measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure (both theirs and their partner's) - men and women who used self-disclosure and those who believed that their partners did likewise were more satisfied with and committed to their romantic relationship

What did Tang et al. (2013) find?

they reviewed the research literature regarding sexual self-disclosure (disclosures related to feelings about specific sexual practices)

concluded that men and women in the US - an individualist culture - self-disclose significantly more sexual thoughts and feelings than men and women in China - a collectivist culture

both these levels of self-disclosure are linked to relationship satisfaction in those cultures

What did Shackelford and Larsen (1997) find?

people with symmetrical faces are rated as more attractive

this is because it may be an honest signal of genetic fitness

What did McNulty et al. (2008) find?

the initial attractiveness that brought the partners together continued to be an important feature of the relationship after marriage, for at least several years

Which psychologist (and colleagues) proposed the halo effect?

Dion et al. (1972)

Which psychologist (and colleagues) formulated the matching hypothesis?

Walster et al. (1966)

What did Towhey (1979) do?

asked male and female Pps to rate how much they would like a target individual based on their photograph and some biographical information

the Pps also completed a questionnaire - the MACHO scale - designed to measure sexist attitudes and behaviours

What did Towhey (1979) find?

Pps who scored highly on the scale were more influenced by the physical attractiveness of the target when making their judgement of likeability

low scorers were less sensitive to this influence

What did Taylor et al. (2011) do?

studied the activity logs of a popular online dating site - real-life test of matching hypothesis because it measured actual date choices and not merely preferences (in keeping with original hypothesis which concerned realistic as opposed to fantasy choices)

What did Taylor et al. (2011) find?

online daters sought meetings with potential partners who were more physically attractive than them - it seems that they did not consider their own level of attractiveness when making decisions about who to date

What did Feingold (1988) find?

carried out a meta-analysis of 17 studies and found a significant correlation in ratings of attractiveness between (real-life) romantic partners

What did Wheeler and Kim (1997) find?

Korean and American students judged physically attractive people to be more trustworthy, concerned for others, mature and friendly

suggests that the physical attractiveness stereotype is culturally pervasive

Which psychologists devised filter theory?

Kerckhoff and Davis (1962)

How did Kerckhoff and Davis (1962) devise filter theory?

they compared the attitudes and personalities of student couples in short-term (defined as less than 18 months) and long-term relationships

What did Byrne (1997) suggest?

described the consistent findings that similarity causes attraction as the law of attraction

What did Davis and Rusbult (2001) find?

discovered an attitude alignment effect in longer-term relationships - romantic partners over time bring their attitudes into line with each other's

What did Winch (1958) find?

similarities of personality, interests and attitudes between partners are typical of the earliest stages of a relationship

What did Anderson et al. (2003) find?

conducted a longitudinal study

found that cohabiting partners become more similar in their emotional responses over time - a phenomenon they labelled 'emotional convergence'

What did Levinger (1974) point out?

many studies have failed to replicate the original findings that formed the basis of filter theory

he put this down to social changes over time and also to the difficulties inherent in defining the depth of a relationship in terms of its length - Kerckhoff and Davis (1962) chose an 18-month cut-off point to distinguish between short-term and long-term relationships, and assumed that partners who had been together longer than this were more committed and had a deeper relationship

Which psychologists proposed social exchange theory (SET)?

Thibault and Kelley (1959)

What did Blau (1964) suggest?

in economic language, relationships can be 'expensive', so costs include time, stress, energy, compromise, opportunity cost (investment of time and energy in your current relationship means using resources that you cannot invest elsewhere), etc.

What did Duck (1994) suggest about the comparison level for alternatives (CLalt) we adopt?

it will depend on the state of our current relationship

there are usually many other potential partners available, so if the costs of our current relationship outweigh the rewards, then alternatives become more attractive

being in a satisfying relationship means that you may not even notice that alternatives could be available

What does Argyle (1987) point out?

we don't measure costs and rewards in a relationship, nor do we constantly consider the attractiveness of alternatives

we only do so when we are dissatisfied with the relationship

What criticism do Clark and Mills (2011) level against SET?

they argue that the theory fails to distinguish between two types of relationship

exchange relationships (e.g. between work colleagues) do involve social exchange as SET predicts

but communal relationships (such as between romantic partners) are marked by the giving and receiving of rewards and costs without keeping score of who is ahead and who is behind

Which psychologist (and colleagues) developed equity theory?

Walster et al. (1978)

What did Huseman et al. (1987) suggest?

some people are less sensitive to equity than others

some partners are 'benevolents' - are prepared to contribute more to the relationship than they get out of it

others are 'entitleds' - believe they deserve to be overbenefitted and accept it without feeling distressed or guilty

What did Aumer-Ryan et al. (2007) find?

the researchers compared couples in a collectivist culture (where the needs of the wider group come first) with those in an individualist culture (where the needs of the individual are prioritised)

cultural differences in the link between equity and satisfaction - couples from an individualist culture considered their relationship to be most satisfying when the relationship was equitable

partners in the collectivist culture were most satisfied when they were overbenefitting - this was true for both men and women

What did Clark and Mills (2011) suggest was a limitation of equity theory?

they attempted to make sense of the sometimes confusing body of evidence that equity is an important feature of relationships

they concluded that we should distinguish between different types of relationship

research studies strongly suggest the view that equity plays a central role in casual relationships, business/work relationships and acquaintanceships

but evidence that equity is important in romantic relationships is more mixed - many of these studies have questioned the assumptions of equity theory, such as the link between equity and satisfaction, as they apply to romantic relationships

What did Utne et al. (1984) do, and what did they find?

carried out a survey of recently-married couples, measuring equity with two self-report scales

the researchers found that couples who considered their relationship equitable were more satisfied than those who saw themselves as overbenefitting or underbenefitting

What was Utne et al's (1984) sample?

118 recently-married couples, who had been together for more than two years before marrying

the husbands and wives were aged between 16 and 45 years

What did Berg and McQuinn (1986) find?

equity did not increase in their longitudinal study of dating couples

equity theory also did not distinguish between those relationships which ended and those which continued, other variables, including self-disclosure, being significantly more important

Which researcher (and colleagues) developed the investment model?

Rusbult et al. (2011)

What did Rusbult and Martz (1995) find?

studied 'battered' women at a shelter

found that those most likely to return to an abusive partner (i.e. were most committed) reported making the greatest investment and having the fewest attractive alternatives

What criticism of the investment model do Goodfriend and Agnew (2008) have?

there is more to investment than just the resources you have put into the relationship

after all, in the early stages of a romantic relationship, the partners will have made very few actual investments - they may not even live together yet

the researchers extended the original model by including the investment partners make in their future plans - they are motivated to commit to each other because they want to see their cherished plans for the future work out

What did Le and Agnew (2003) find?

meta-analysis

they found that satisfaction, comparison with alternatives and investment size all predicted relationship commitment

relationships in which commitment was greatest were the most stable and lasted the longest

an especially supportive finding was that these outcomes were true for both men and women, across all cultures in the analysis, and for homosexual as well as heterosexual couples

How many studies did Le and Agnew (2003) review, and what was their sample?

they reviewed 52 studies from the late 1970s to 1999 which together included some 11,000 Pps from 5 countries

Which psychologist formulated a phase model of relationship breakdown?

Duck (2007)

What did La Gaipa (1982) suggest about the grave-dressing phase?

it is crucial that each partner tries to retain some 'social credit' by blaming circumstances, their partner or other people - everything and everyone but themselves

What are five evaluation points of sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour?

- Deterministic - Ignores cultural influences-

Bereczkei et al. (1997) + Research support for inter-sexual selection + Support from waist-hip ratio research- Singh (1993, 2002) + Support from lonely hearts research- Waynforth and Dunbar (1995)

[+ Research support for preferences related to anisogamy- Buss (1989)]

What are five evaluation points for self-disclosure (factors affecting attraction)?

- Self-disclosure and satisfaction- Duck

+ Real-life application- Hass and Stafford (1998)

+ Research support- Sprecher and Hendrick (2004)

- Correlation versus causation

- Cultural differences- Tang et al. (2013)

[- Individual differences)

What are five evaluation points for physical attractiveness (factors affecting attraction)?

- Reductionist - Individual differences- Towhey (1979) - Contradictory research- Taylor et al. (2011) - Methodological issues with research on matching hypothesis + Research support for matching hypothesis- Feingold (1988)

[- Deterministic + Role of cultural influences- Wheeler and Kim (1997), Cunningham et al. (1995) + Research support for the halo effect- Palmer and Peterson (2012)]

What are five evaluation points for filter theory (factors affecting attraction)?

+ More holistic - Lack of temporal validity - Direction of cause and effect- Davis and Rusbult (2011) + Research support- Winch (1958) - Similarity or complementarity?- Anderson et al. (2003)

[- Failure to replicate- Levinger (1974) - Issues of generalisability]

What are five evaluation points of SET?

- Reductionist - Cynical view of relationships - Ignores equity - Issues measuring SET concepts - Artificial research

[- Direction of cause and effect- Argyle (1987) - Exchange monitoring - Different types of relationship - Clark and Mills (2011)]

What are five evaluation points of equity theory?

- Individual differences- Huseman et al. (1987)

- Cultural influences- Aumer-Ryan et al (2007)

- Types of relationship- Clark and Mills (2011)

+ Supporting research evidence - Utne et al. (1984)

- Contradictory evidence- Berg and McQuinn (1986)

What are five evaluation points for Rusbult's investment model?

+ Methodological strengths

- Based on correlational research

+ Explains abusive relationships- Rusbult and Martz (1955)

- Oversimplifies investment- Goodfriend and Agnew (2008)

+ Supporting research evidence- Le and Agnew (2003)

[+ Holistic]

Why do Rollie and Duck (2006) suggest that the original model is oversimplified? How do they address this criticism?

they modified the original model to add a fifth phase - the resurrection phase - ex-partners turn their attention to future relationships using the experiences gained from their recently-ended one

the researchers also make it clear that progression from one phase to the next is not inevitable - it is possible to return to an earlier point in the process in any phase

What did Duck (1994) recommend?

people in the intra-psychic phase could be encouraged to focus their brooding on the positive aspects of their partner

as a feature of the dyadic phase is communication, any attempt to improve this and perhaps improve wider social skills could be beneficial in fostering greater stability in the relationship

What did explanation did Flemlee (1995) offer for relationship breakdown?

the fatal attraction hypothesis - the causes of relationship breakdown can be found in the attractive qualities that brought the romantic partners together - effectively the relationship is threatened by the partners getting too much of what they were looking for

E.g. that 'fantastic sense of humour' that was dazzling at the start of the relationship may well become 'he can't take anything seriously' later on

Why did Moghaddam et al. (1998) suggest that Duck's phase model has issues of cultural bias?

the model and most of the research underlying it are firmly based on the experience of relationships in Western individualist cultures, especially the US, where relationships are generally voluntary and frequently come to an end (divorce or separation)

relationships in collectivist cultures are more likely to be obligatory, less easy to end, involve the wider family, and in some cases are even arranged with little involvement of the partners

the whole conception of a romantic relationship differs between cultures

What are five evaluation points for Duck's phase model of relationship breakdown?

- Methodological issues

+ Useful real-life applications - Duck (1994)

- Description rather than explanation - Felmlee (1995)

- Cultural bias - Moghaddam et al. (1993)

- An incomplete model - Rollie and Duck (2007)

Which psychologists proposed reduced cues theory?

Sproull and Kiesler (1986)

Which psychologist argues that online relationships are more personal and involve greaterself-disclosure than FtF ones?

Walther (1996, 2011)

Which psychologists contributed the boom and bust phenomenon to the hyperpersonal model?

Cooper and Sportolari (1997)

Which psychologist (and colleagues) point out that anonymity online promotes self-disclosure (even to strangers) and makes relationships hyperpersonal?

Bargh et al. (2002)

Which psychologists investigated the absence of gating in CMC relationships?

McKenna and Bargh (1999)

What are five evaluation points for virtual relationships in social media?

- Lack of temporal validity

- Types of CMC - Paine et al. (2006)

- Relationships are multi-modal - Walther (2011)

+ Research support for absence of gating - McKenna and Bargh (2002)

- Lack of research support for reduced cues theory - Walther and Tidwell (1995)

[Research support for the hyperpersonal model - Whitty and Joinson (2009)]

What do Walther and Tidwell (1995) point out about online interactions?

people in online interactions use cues (other than non-verbal cues), such as the style and timing of their messages

(E.g. taking time to reply to a social network status update is often interpreted as a more intimate act than an immediate response BUT not too much time, otherwise that may be thought a snub - as in F2F relationships, there are subtle nuances)

acrostics (such as LOL), emoticons, and, increasingly, emojis are used as effective substitutes for facial expressions and tone of voice in F2F interactions

What did Whitty and Joinson (2009) find evidence of?

summarised a wealth of evidence that confirms the prediction of the hyperpersonal model that people are motivated to self-disclose in CMC in ways that are sometimes 'hyperhonest' and sometimes 'hyperdishonest'

E.g. questions asked in online discussions tend to be very direct, probing and intimate - this is different from F2F interactions, which are often hedged around with 'small talk' --> responses are likewise direct and to the point

What did Paine et al. (2006) find in relation to types of CMC?

people self-disclose more in their Facebook status updates than they are willing to when completing an online e-commerce webform, when they are quite reluctant to disclose information they consider to be private

What did Walther (2011) argue that a theory seeking to explain CMC, including the role of self-disclosure, needs to consider?

needs to accommodate the fact that our relationships are generally conducted both online and offline through many different media - it is not usually a straightforward matter of 'either/or'

this is in fact probably the central characteristic of many modern relationships

what we choose to disclose in our online relationships will inevitably be influenced by our offline interactions, and vice versa

What evidence did McKenna and Bargh (2002) provide in support of the absence of gating in CMC relationships?

the researchers looked at CMC use by lonely and socially anxious people

they found that such people were able to express their 'true selves' more than in F2F situations

of the romantic relationships that initially formed online, 70% survived more than two years - this is a higher proportion than for relationships formed in the offline world

How did Horton and Wohl (1956) define parasocial relationships?

attachments in which the 'fan' knows all about the celebrity but the celebrity (/team/organisation/brand/fictional character/teacher) doesn't know that the fan exists

What did McCutcheon et al. (2002) develop?

the Celebrity Attitude Scale

What did Maltby et al. (2006) do, and what did they find?

they used the Celebrity Attitude Scale (devised by McCutcheon et al. 2002) in a large-scale survey

they identified three levels of parasocial relationship, each level describing the attitudes and behaviours linked to ever more extreme forms of celebrity worship

What did Giles et al. (2002) find?

parasocial relationships were a fruitful source of gossip in offices

Which psychologist devised the absorption-addiction model?

McCutcheon (2002)

Which psychologists' work is relevant to the attachment theory explanation?

Bowlby

Ainsworth (1979)

What did Maltby et al. (2005) do, and what did they find/speculate?

investigated the link between celebrity worship and body image in teenage males and females

of particular interest were females reporting an intense-personal parasocial relationship with a female celebrity whose body shape they admired

the researchers found that these female adolescents tended to have a poor body image

therefore the psychologists speculated that this link may be a precursor to the development of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa

How old were the males and females in Maltby et al's (2005) study?

aged 14-16 years

What did Maltby et al. (2003) suggest?

their research links the entertainment-social category of celebrity worship with extraverted personality traits

the intense-personal category with neurotic traits

the borderline pathological category with the psychotic personality type

What did McCutcheon et al. (2006) do, and what did they find?

measured attachment types and celebrity-related attitudes in Pps

they found that Pps with insecure attachments were no more likely to form parasocial relationships than Pps with secure attachments

How many Pps were there in McCutcheon et al's (2006) study?

299

What did Schmid and Klimmt (2011) find?

they used online questionnaire methodology

they found similar levels of parasocial attachment to Harry Potter in an individualist culture (Germany) and a collectivist culture (Mexico)

thus they report that the tendency of some people to develop a parasocial relationship with Harry Potter (an entirely fictional character) is not culturally specific

What are five evaluation points of parasocial relationships?

- Issues with correlational research

- Methodological issues with self-report techniques

- The absorption-addiction model lacks explanatory power

+ Support from cross-cultural research - Schmid and Klimmt (2011)

- Contradictory evidence on attachment theory - McCutcheon et al. (2006)

+ Support for the absorption-addiction model - Maltby et al. (2005) Maltby et al. (2003)