Cognitive Explanation of Relationship Formation

How can relationships be explained?

Relationships can be explained in terms of schemas as the packets of information we have about other people may affect the way we feel about them.

For example, Dion et al (1972) demonstrated that people believe that physically attractive people have attractive personal qualities.

Therefore, if we think a person is physically attractive we may also believe that they have good qualities such as being kind, or caring and we may become interested in forming a relationship with them. This is called the halo effect.

How can romantic relationships be explained?

Romantic relationships can be explained by schemas. Self-schema refer to how we feel about ourselves and govern our self-concept (how we perceive ourselves).

Self schemas are very important in the matching hypothesis explanation of relationship formation.

According to this hypothesis, how we perceive ourselves in terms of physical attractiveness will influence who we want to engage in a relationship with.

We are attracted to those we feel match us in terms of physical attractiveness.

How does our self-perception affect relationship formation?

If our self perception is strong and we perceive ourselves to be highly attractive, we will ‘try our luck’ with other highly attractive individuals.

If our self perception of our attractiveness is low, we are unlikely to go for those we perceive to be highly attractive for fear of rejection.

How does self perception explain couple of differing physical attractiveness?

This self perception will also explain how successful couples of differing physical attractiveness may be together due to other matching variables that compensate for the difference in attractiveness. For instance, some men with wealth and status desire younger, more attractive women.