The Formation of Romantic Relationships

The Reward/Satisfaction Theory
1. Bryne & Clore emphasise the reward and satisfaction of our needs we need to recieve in relationships
  1. Initially the rewarding aspects of the relationship was emphasised - aids to the formation
  2. Mutual attraction and the formation of a romantic relationship occurs when each partner meeets the other's needs
  3. Form relationships who those who we find satifying or gratiying to be with
  4. If there is no reward than a relationship does not form
  5. Rewards eg. affection, loyalty, support, alleviate lonliness
2. Formation due to reward - Operant Conditioning
  1. Being in a relationship is positive reinforcing as it brings rewards - direct reinforcement
  2. Can also form due to negaitve reinforcment eg. alleviate loneliness
  3. Rewarding stimuli = positive feelings
  4. Similarity is important and rewarding as it validates our beliefs
    1. :-) Bryne Clore and Smeaton (1986): married couples with similar personalities tent to be happier than couples with less similar personalities
  5. Self disclosure is rewarding as it implies trust
  6. Physical attractiveness is rewarding
  7. :-) Aron (2005): dopamine rich areas of the brain were activated to a greater extent when shown photos of the person they were in love with
    1. The amount of activity correlated to the degree to which they felt in love as measured by self report
    2. Physiological support - MRI scan - beg in low raises dopamine activity = rewarding
3. Formation by association - classical conditioning
  1. Neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that already produces a positive response
  2. Overtime the neutral stimulus produces that same positive feeling - reward through association
  3. Neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus
  4. :-) May & Hamilton: females typically rated photographs of men as more attractive (more rewarding) under conditions that induced a good mood rather than a ad mood eg. listening to good or bad music
    1. :-( Would have to ask what music the participant likes first
    2. :-( Order effects
4. :-( Mundane realism - lab studies
  1. :-) Aron
  2. :-) Real life couples (Caspi 1990)
5. :-( Not all types of reward = relationship formation eg. sex
6. :-( Hays: Giving can be rewarding too
7. :-( Cultural Issues
8. :-( Gender issues/bias
9. :-( Temporal validity - online relationships
10. :-( Evolutionary explanation
The Matching Hypothesis
1. When we choose a long term partner we choose someone who we perceive as being an equal level of social desirability
  1. We seek the best possible match as it minimises the chance of rejection - rewarding
  2. :-) Walster's blind date (1969): participants paired up with people who were percieved by the researchers to be of a similar level of attractiveness
  3. :-) Murstein (1972): real couples showed more similarity in level of attractiveness that fake couples
  4. :-) Silverman (1971): similar results rating dating couples in bars
2. In the initial stages of formation social desirability refers to physical attractivenesss
  1. rewards = aesthetically pleasing
  2. Indicator of re-productive fitnesss
  3. Increases your status amongst peers
3. The Halo Effect
  1. Assumption that those who are physically attractive have other positive qualities
    1. Successful
    2. Popular
    3. Intelligent
  2. Makes them more desirable - increased liklihood of formation
  3. Inadvertently enhances the power of physical attractivenesss
  4. :-) Shaw Taylor: people contacted others who were significantly more attractive than they were
4. Other attributes important too eg. social attractiveness - status, wealth, humour, kindness
5. :-) Online relationships
  1. Fiore & Donath
6. :-( Gender difference/bias
  1. :-( Evolutionary explaination
7. :-( Redefined = Complex Matching - Whelan and Boxer :-)
8. :-( Reductionist

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The Formation of Romantic Relationships

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