Factors Affecting Attraction in Romantic Relationships

Define self-disclosure

The process of deliberately revealing significant information about oneself that would not normally be known by others

Define the Social Penetration Theory

• Revealing personal information plays an important part in relationships beyond initial attraction

• Reciprocal exchange of information

• Increased intimacy = penetration of understanding

• The gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone else

Define breadth and depth of self-disclosure

• Initially disclosure is superficial and low risk with some topics off limits

• Early on breadth is narrow as many topics are off limits early in a relationship

• Over time the disclosure becomes deeper and wider

• Eventually we are prepared to reveal intimate, high-risk information

Define reciprocity and disclosure

• For a relationship to develop there needs to be a reciprocal element to disclosure

• Once you have decided to disclose your partner will hopefully respond in a rewarding way

• This creates a balance of self-disclosure - increasing feelings of intimacy and deepening the relationship

Describe Sprecher et al. (2013) study

Sample:

156 undergraduate students put into 78 (unacquainted) pairs

Procedure:

Ppts in some pairs took turns asking and answering questions in 2 interactions (reciprocal disclosure), others in pairs disclosed or listened in an initial interaction (non-reciprocal disclosure), then switched disclosure roles in second interaction

Findings:

Ppts who disclosed reciprocally reported greater liking closeness etc. than non-reciprocally ppts

Evaluate self-disclosure

Strengths:

• Research support - Sprecher et at. (2013)

• Real world application - romantic partners probably use self-disclosure deliberately to increase intimacy, partners who limit communication to small talk can learn to use self-disclosure to have more satisfied relationships

Limitations:

• Cultural differences - types of self disclosure vary according to culture e.g. in the USA (individualist culture) disclose more sexual thoughts and feelings than in China (collectivist culture), theory is limited as it is based on findings from Western cultures so is not necessarily generalisable to others

Describe the Halo Effect

The belief that attractive people are more kind, strong and sociable and successful compared to unattractive people - physical attractiveness stereotype

Define the matching hypothesis theory

People choose romantic partners who are roughly of similar attractiveness to each other

• We make a judgement about our own ‘value’ to a potential partner

• Likely to be matched to someone who most matches what we want

• We avoid being rejected by someone ‘out of our league’ so we choose somebody who is the best we feel we could get

Describe Walster’s (1966) Computer Dance study

Sample;

A group of male and female psychology students

Procedure:

Students invited to a dance and were rated for physical attractiveness by objective observers at the start and completed a questionnaire about themselves and were told data about themselves (personality, self-esteem etc.) and that it would be used by a computer to decide their partner for the evening but they were paired up randomly

Findings:

Hypothesis was not supported, most liked partners were also the most physically attractive

What was concluded from Walster’s (1966) Computer Dance study?

We tend to seek and choose partners whose attractiveness matches our own e.g. if we judge ourselves as a 6 out of 10 then we are likely to seek a mate of a similar level of attractiveness , choice of partner is a compromise - we risk rejection in selecting the most attractive people available so we settle on those who are ‘in our league’ physically

What is a counterpoint for Walster’s (1966) Computer Dance study?

Bersheid et al. (1971) replicated study but each ppt could select their partner from people of varying degrees of attractiveness, ppts tended to choose partners who matched them in physical attractiveness

Describe Palmer and Peterson’s (2012) study

Sample: