Relationship

• Charles Darwin noticed how evolution favours the development of features that are attractive to the opposite sex
• What do features that are attractive do to the opposite sex make it more likely the posseser will attract a mate to pass on favourable genes
• Sexual Selection

  An evolutionary explanation of partner preference. Attributes or behaviours that increase reproductive success are passed on and become more exaggerated in succeeding generations
• Anisogamy


  The difference between male & female gametes (sex cells)
• Male Gametes


  • Sperm
  • Extremely small & mobile
  • Produced in high quantities
• Female Gametes


  • Eggs/Ova
  • Relatively large & immobile
  • Produced in intervals for a limited amount of time
  • Requires a huge investment of energy from puberty to old age
  • Does not require much energy to produce
• Consequences of Anisogamy


  • No shortage of fertile males but a fertile female is seen as a 'rare resource'
  • Results in two types of sexual selection: inter-Sexual selection & intra-Sexual selection
• Inter-Sexual Selection


  1. The study of how females choose mates

  2. Quality over quantity as females are more selective of who they mate with

  3. Females are choosy as the consequences of making the wrong choice are more serious for them
• Intra-Sexual Selection


  1. The competition between males to be the one that is selected

  2. Preferred strategy of males is quantity over quality to ensure a plentiful supply of sperm

  3. The winner of the competition gets to pass on his characteristics to his offspring
• Anisogamy says that a man's optimum strategy is to mate with as many females as possible, due to the minimal effect region & the lack of post-mating parental responsibility
• Self-disclosure


  Revealing personal information about yourself to a romantic partner as the relationship develops
• Social penetration theory


  The gradual process of revealing your deepest thoughts and feelings to a romantic partner
• Breadth & Depth of self-disclosure

  • As the breadth & depth of disclosures increase, partners become more committed
  • We disclose a lot at the start of a relationship, but it is the superficial, 'lost' information we tell to friends, co-workers etc.
  • As the relationship develops, self-disclosure becomes deeper, removing more & more layers to reveal our true self
• Reciprocity of self-disclosure


  For a relationship to develop, there needs to be a reciprocal element to disclosure where partners respond with empathy & understanding, and also disclose their own personal feelings
• Research supports the view that as self-disclosure increases, so does relationship satisfaction and commitment
• Self-disclosure is not satisfying in all cultures, as people in individualist cultures like the US self-disclose significantly more than people in collectivist cultures like China, yet relationship satisfaction is no different
• Social penetration theory is a limited explanation of romantic relationships because it is not necessarily generalisable to other cultures
• As self-disclosure increased


  Relationship satisfaction increased
• Self-disclosure is seen to be more committed in heterosexual dating couples
• Self-disclosure


  Is a key part of a satisfying romantic relationship
• People in the US (individualist culture) self-disclose significantly more sexual thoughts and feelings than people in China (collectivist culture)
• Even though the level of disclosure was lower in China, relationship satisfaction was no different from that in the US
• This challenges social penetration theory because deeper self-disclosure does not lead to a deeper relationship (and may contribute to its breakdown)
• This suggests that self-disclosures may not satisfy and reduces the validity of social penetration theory
• 57% of homosexual men and women reported they used open and honest self-disclosure as a relationship maintenance strategy
• Couples who limit communication to 'small talk' can be encouraged to increase self-disclosure in order to deepen their own relationships
• This highlights the importance of self-disclosure and suggests the theory can be used to support people having relationship problems
• Therefore social penetration theory is a limited explanation of romantic relationships because it is not necessarily generalisable to other cultures
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• Matching Hypothesis - the belief that we do not select the most attractive person as a prospective partner


  We are attracted to people who approximately 'match' us in physical attractiveness
• People with symmetrical faces are listed as more attractive because it's an honest signal of genetic fitness
• People are attracted to faces with neotenic (baby-face) features such as large eyes, delicate chin & small nose
• This triggers a protective & caring instinct
• Physical attractiveness that brought partners together continued to be an important feature after marriage
• The Halo Effect


  Physical attractiveness matters because we have preconceived ideas about what personality traits attractive people have
• Physically attractive people are more consistently rated as kind, strong, sociable & successful
• The belief that good looking people have those characteristics make them even more appealing to us
• The Halo Effect


  The idea that one distinguishing feature (attractiveness) can disproportionately influence our judgement of someone
• Research investigating the matching hypothesis: Walster & Walster (1969)


  1. Aim: To test whether we look for partners who are similar to us in terms of physical attractiveness

  2. Procedure: 752 14 year students attended a dance party, randomly matched to partners, secretly judged for attractiveness

  3. Findings: Students expressed higher appreciation of attractive partners regardless of their own attractiveness

  4. Second experiment: Participants chose partners who matched their own physical attractiveness
• The matching hypothesis suggests that we look for partners who are similar to us in terms of physical attractiveness, instead of who we find most appealing