Human Relationships

Buss (Formation of Human Relationships)

Buss (Formation of Human Relationships)

• Over 10,000 participants from 37 different cultures.

• He used questionnaires to find out mate preferences of men and women

• He found universal similarities in the mate preferences of men, and also for women

• Results:

  • Males prefer females who are younger.

  • Females prefer males who are older

  • Females value “financial prospects” more than males

  • Males are more concerned with good looks than females

  • Males are more concerned with chastity than females

Buss (Formation of Human Relationships) Link

• Because the male/female preferences were consistent across cultures, cultural factors weren’t as influential, so it is more likely an underlying biological drive that results in these preferences.

• If it were culture playing a role then there would be a greater difference in preferences across cultures.

FOR EXAMPLE:

• Males prefer females who are younger.

  • Female fertility decreases with age and the risks of having children increase. A male can have a higher chance of successful procreation if his mate is fertile, which is why he may prefer a younger female.

• Females prefer males who are older;

• Females value “financial prospects” more than males

  • Because being pregnant and raising children requires a lot of time and effort from the female, she may require a male to provide other resources like food and shelter. Older males have a higher chance of having high status and access to resources (and their fertility doesn’t decrease with age).

Buss (Formation of Human Relationships) Cultural Explanation

• Females from collectivist cultures placed a higher value on social status and ambition.

  • Alternatively, females from individualistic cultures placed a lower value on these traits.

• Males from individualistic cultures placed less emphasis on domestic skills.

  • Alternatively, males from collectivist cultures placed more value on these skills.

Buss (Formation of Personal Relationships) Evaluation

• Middle/upper class and urban people were primarily sampled. Possible that lower and rural populations may have different mate preferences. Thus the sample from each culture may not be representativeness of the whole culture/country. (population validity)

• It is possible that maybe mate preferences are due to cultural factors such as enculturation, social cognitive theory, or patriarchal systems rather than evolution. 

• It’s assumed that cross cultural similarities must be due to evolution. However, we live in a globalizing world so maybe our preferences come from this shared “global culture”

Wedekind (Formation of Human Relationships)

• To investigate the influence of MHC genes on female mate choice.

• The Major Histocompatibility Complex is a group of genes that plays an important role in the immune system. Dissimilar MHC in parents produces a stronger immune system in the offspring. MHC information may be encoded by body odor.

• Correlational; ~50 female and ~50 male students (mean age 25) typed for their MHC.

• Female participants were asked to report if they were using oral contraceptives.

• The men were asked to wear a T-shirt for 2 nights.

• The T-shirts were given to female participants who were asked to rate the odor of six T-shirts each: 3 worn

• Each T-shirt was placed in a box and women sniffed the contents through a hole in it.

• On a scale from 0 to 10, women scored the odor of every T-shirt for intensity, pleasantness and sexiness.

• Women who did not take oral contraceptives rated the odor of MHC-dissimilar men as more pleasant than that of MHC-similar men.

• In women who were taking oral contraceptives this tendency was reversed: body odour of MHC-similar men was rated more pleasant than that of MHC-dissimilar men.

• Ratings of intensity did not differ.

• Body odors of MHC-dissimilar men reminded women of their own mates or ex-mates.

• Researchers concluded that MHC similarity may indeed be a factor of sexual attraction.

• Oral contraceptives imitate steroids that are naturally released during pregnancy. The authors explain this by saying that this may lead to the reversal of odor preferences so that women prefer relatives (probably because they help take care of the baby).

Wedekind (Formation of Human Relationships) Link

These results provide support for an evolutionary explanation of the formation of personal relationships. Because the women rated shirts with different MHC genes than their own as more attractive, this means it is possible that our olfactory system has evolved in way to detect these genes to promote survival of our offspring.

Being attracted to a potential mate’s scent (possibly through pheromones) increases chances of procreating and thus producing the offspring would have a robust immune systems due to the broad range of MHC genes.

This evolutionary adaptation plays a role in the formation of personal relationships to ensure our genes are passed and greater chances of survival are provided to the offspring to continue the process.

Wedekind (Formation of Personal Relationships) Evaluation

• All women did the smelling and rating of attractiveness. Possible these results don’t apply to men because they may have evolved differently and thus now have different biological/olfaction systems (population validity)

• The men had to wear the shirts over a couple nights so it’s impossible to control what they were doing. Maybe other factors (e.g. what they ate) impacted the smell of their sweaty t-shirts rather than their MHC genes

• Study argues that pheromones influence attraction to smell and detection of genes, however, no pheromone was identified or isolated. Maybe our olfactory system is detecting something else (sweat/body odor?)

Individualism vs Collectivism

Levine et al (Formation of Human Relationships)

• 11 cultures (college students)

• Compared the importance of love in getting married

• “If a person had all the qualities you desired, would you marry them if you weren’t in love with them?” 

  • Yes, No, Neutral (were the choices)

• Indian, Pakistani and Thai participants were more likely to answer “yes” (collectivist cultures)

• American, British and Australian participants were more likely to answer “no”

Levine et al (Formation of Human Relationships) Evaluation

• Population validity (college aged)

• Self-reported data

• Correlational study

  • (instead of bidirectional ambiguity think about a 3rd possible variable that could influence love and marriage beside indiv. vs coll.)

  • E.g. could religious beliefs  be a factor? USA, UK and Australia are Western, predominantly Christian countries, compared with Muslim, Hindu and Buddhism for Pakistan, India and Thailand, respectively.

Communication and Marital Satisfaction

___ plays an essential role in ___.

It is not just frequency or intensity of arguments, but also how the couple communicates.

Couples who engage in healthy communication patterns are more likely to have higher ___ and avoid divorce.

Thus, one key role of ___ in personal relationships is that is helps maintain healthy and happy relationships.

Gottman’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

___ has identified the “___”. These are negative communication patterns.

• The demand/withdraw pattern; aka stonewalling

• Contempt

• Criticism

• Defensiveness

Stonewalling leads to marital dissatisfaction because if one partner has an issue to discuss with their partner and that partner withdraws/stonewalls, then that issue is never resolved. 

This leads to problems accumulating over time, which could lead to separation / divorce.

The ratio of positive to negative communication patterns can influence the marital (dis)satisfaction.

The demand/withdraw pattern could decrease positive to negative ratios of communication.

Gottman and Levenson (Communication in Relationships)

• 73 couples studied over 4 years

• Dr. John ___’s “laboratory” 

  • An ordinary apartment called the “The Love Lab”

• Couples are observed over weekends (cameras set-up) 

• Interviews are also held with researchers where participants had to discuss 3 topics

  • One neutral, one pleasant, one source of conflict

• “Rapid Couples Interaction Scoring System” is used to determine patterns of communication.

• Marital satisfaction and other opinions of the relationship is also measured

• Two types of couples were identified:

  • Regulated couples and non-regulated

  • Regulated = ratio of positive to negative communication increases throughout a discussion

• Regulated couples had higher marital satisfaction

• Non-regulated couples were 3 times more likely to divorce and were less affectionate, less joyful and angrier towards each other

Gottman and Levenson 1992 (Communication in Relationships) Link

• This study links to personal relationships because it shows that communication can have an impact on marital satisfaction.

• If couples have a low positive to negative ratio of communication patterns they are more likely to divorce because they have higher marital dissatisfaction.

• In other words, if couple avoid using negative communication such as demand/withdraw (aka stonewalling) they will likely have a happier and healthier relationship.

Gottman and Levenson 1985 (Communication in Relationships)

Similar procedures as the 1992 study:

• 21 participants measured over 3 year period in ___’s “Love Lab”

• Communication patterns were measured along with physiological arousal 

Results:

• Blood pressure and heart rate (ie stress response) were positively correlated with marital dissatisfaction

Biological Explanation for Stonewalling

Gottman has identifies that about 85% of males are stonewallers and that during arguments, male stress levels (physiological arousal) are higher and take longer to reduce than female stress levels.

A difference in testosterone levels might be an explanation for this. During threat (e.g. a wife starting an argument with her husband) increased testosterone increases activity in the amygdala (radke), which increases stress.

High stress levels predict stonewalling, so it might be a stress reduction strategy that males employ.

Attributions

If someone makes a positive attribution it means they think the reason for their partner’s good behaviour is due to internal factors (e.g. their personality) and bad behaviour is attributed to external factors (e.g. the actions of others).

A negative attribution is the opposite – good behaviour is a result of external factors and bad behaviour is blamed on the person (internal factors).

Fincham (Why Relationships End)

Aim: To measure correlations between attributions and marital satisfaction.

Method:

• Participants were 130 couples from the USA, who had been married for 15-20 months.

• Marital satisfaction was measured using the Quality Marriage Index (QMI) and data was collected over three times using questionnaires during an 18^th month time period.

Results:

• One result showed that marital satisfaction was negatively correlated with causal attributions at the beginning of the study (-.44) and after 18 months (-.41).

Conclusion:

• When partners make a negative attribution of their partner’s behavior (e.g. by explaining a negative behavior was due to dispositional and internal factors) their marital satisfaction decreases.

• This finding supports many other studies that show the same thing – how we attribute our partner’s behavior can affect our marital satisfaction, which is one reason why relationships might deteriorate and eventually end in divorce.

Fincham (Why Relationships End) Link

When partners make a negative attribution of their partner’s behaviour (e.g. by explaining a negative behaviour was due to dispositional and internal factors) their marital satisfaction decreases.

This finding supports many other studies that show the same thing – how we attribute our partner’s behaviour can affect our marital satisfaction, which is one reason why relationships might deteriorate and eventually end in divorce.

Graham and Conoley (Why Relationships End)

Aim: To see if stress affected marital quality, but also if couples’ attributions could moderate this effect (i.e. increase or decrease it).

Method:

• The participants were 58 mostly white (93%) middle-class couples from Texas, USA.

• Stress was measured using a standard measure of stress experienced in the past 12 months.

• Attributions were measured by giving 10 hypothetical situations and asking participants how they would attribute (explain) this behaviour if it was done by their partner, including if they would attribute the behaviour to an internal or external cause.

• The measure of marital quality was also measured using standard questionnaires.

Results:

• The results supported the researchers’ hypothesis that the attribution style would moderate the relationship between stressful events and marital satisfaction. In other words, stressful events had less of an impact on marital satisfaction for those couples who were more likely to make positive attributions of their partner’s behaviour, compared with those who were more likely to make negative attributions.

Conclusion:

• Attributions can act as a buffer between stress and marital satisfaction.

Graham and Conoley (Why Relationships End) Link

This study shows that the cognitive approach can help explain why a relationship may change or end because attributions can act as a buffer between stress and marital satisfaction. If a couple experiences stress in their relationship, but use positive/external attributions, this stress will have less of an impact on their relationship as they are not blaming it on their partner’s internal attributions such as their personality. Using negative attributions in a stressful situation occurs will reduce marital satisfaction and possibly lead to divorce.