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Relationships, The investment model in relationships., Parasocial…
Relationships
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Physical attractiveness
Eastwick suggested that physical attractiveness may also be important to women, but only for short term relationship.
The matching hypothsesis claims that individuals seek out partners whose social desirability matches their own.
- according to this view, when choosing a partner, individuals first assess their own value in the eyes of a potential partner and select the best available candidate likely to be attracted to them.
- This hypothesis has become associated with matching on physical attractiveness alone, suggesting that people pair up with those who are similar in terms of physical attractiveness.
- Realistic choices must consider what the person desires, whether the other person wants them in return and whether other desirable alternatives are available for them.
Buss demonstrated that men in particular place great importance on physical attractiveness when choosing a mate. Physical appearance is an important cue to a woman's health and fertility
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Parasocial Reationships
Attachment Theory
Proximity seeking: fans may attempt to contact the celeb or book concerts to be in the same room as them (proximity seeking)
Secure base There is a very slim chance of rejection because they will never meet, forming a secure base.
Parasocial relationships may function similarly to real-life relationship as relationships with TV personalities show the properties of adult attachment.
Protest at disruption For example, when Jeremy Clarkson was axed from Top Gear, the reactions were typical of attachment loss.
Individuals with an anxious ambivalent attachment style are more likely to enter parasocial relationships. Lonelier people are more likely to form PSR's because they lack intimacy (which is actually very sad)
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Evaluation
PSRs are linked to loneliness
- PSRs are believed to be a substitute for 'real' social relationships and therefore linked to feelings of loneliness.
- Greenwood and Long found that individuals may develop PSRs as a way of dealing with feelings of loneliness and loss. Furthermore, Eyal and Cohen found that parasocial breakups do occur, for example, when 'Friends' ended.
- PSRs may compensate for social isolation
Links to mental health
- Maltby found a relationship between PSR level and personality.
- Whereas the entertainment-social level is linked with an extraversion, the intense-personal level was associated with neuroticism.
- Neuroticism and PSR link further suggests why PSRs are linked with poorer mental health
Research support for factors involved in PSRs
- Schippa provided research support for factors that are instrumental in the formation of PSR's.
- They found that individuals with higher levels of parasocial relationships watched more television. The likelihood of forming a PSR was linked to the characters attractiveness and similarity to viewer.
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Equity Theory
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Evaluation
Gender differences in the importance of equity:
- DeMaris pointed this out.
- Womens greater relationship focus may make them more sensitive to injustices and inequity. Women tend to perceive themselves as under-benefitted and are disturbed by this more so than men.
Cultural differences to equity
- Inequity may not be as important in non-western cultures, but
- Aumer-Ryan found that in all cultures studies, people considered equity to be important. US participants claimed to be the most equitable and Jamaica claimed to be the least.
Equity sensitivity:
- Research challenges the assumption that everyone is equally sensitive to equity.
- Huseman identified 'benevolents' who are more prone to giving and are more tolerant to being under-benefitted and 'entitleds' who are more prone to taking and more tolerant to being over-benefitted.
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Schafer and Keith found that during the honeymoon period relationships appeared more equitable and during child-rearing years wives were under-benefitted and husbands were over-benefitted.
Inequity and dissatisfaction
- Equity theory assumes that people are most satisfied when they perceive that what they get out of the relationship is roughly equal to what they put in.
- Under-benefitted people experience sadness and resentment, and over-benefitted people experience guilt, pity and shame. (good)
Virtual Relationships
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Evaluation
Virtual relationships can be as strong as offline relationships
- Rosenfield and Thomas found that there was no difference in the quality of online and offline relationships, nor did they find that online relationships were more fragile than relationships formed offline.
Facebook helps shy people have better quality friendships
- Baker and Oswald argue that shy individuals find more value in online relationships. Shy people are able to overcome the barriers they struggle with with offline relationships.
McKenna provided research support for gating
- Face to face, gating features dominate the 'liking'.
Self-Disclosure:
It is thought that people self-disclose more to virtual relationships because they feel more comfortable doing so, because of the barrier of anonymity that the internet provides. You can be anyone online.
- The anonymity causes people to feel more comfortable and less vulnerable when disclosing intimate information. Rubin.
Self-disclosure
Disclosure:
Research on self-disclosure - Sprecher found that level of SD received was a better predictor of liking or loving than level of self-disclosure given.
Different types of self-disclosure - Research has found that it is the type of SD that predicts relationship satisfaction.
Self-disclosure - refers to the extent to which a person reveals personal information about themselves.
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Evaluation
SD on the internet - boom and bust.
- Cooper and Sportolari claim that relationships formed over the internet involve higher levels of SD.
- Because internet relationships have a higher level on anonymity, relationships get intense very quickly (boom) but become difficult to sustain (bust)
SD may be greater face to face than in online
- Knop challenged Cooper and Sportolari.
- Found people SD and disclose more intimate info face to face. This may be because there is a lack of intimacy on the internet
Research support for self-disclosure
- A meta analysis by Collins and Miller provided research support for the importance of SD.
- People who disclose more are liked more. The effect of SD was stronger if the receiver thought that the information was only disclosed to them rather than with other indiscriminately.
Cultural differences in patterns of SD
- In the West, people typically engage in more intimate self disclosure, Chen and Nakanishi found that in Japan, people do not prefer self-disclosure
Social Exchange Theory:
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Comparison Level (CL)
- A standard against which people all our relationships are judges based on experiences in previous relationships which create a gauge of what is to be expected in a relationship.
Comparison level for alternates (CLA)
- A person may weigh up a potential increase in reward minus costs involved in current relationship (the grass is greener on the other side?)
Profit and Loss
- People exchange resources with the expectation that rewards will exceed the costs.
- Rewards may be companionship, being cared for, physical rewards.
- Rewards - Costs = the profitablity of the relationship
Evaluation
The problem of costs and benefits:
- Confusion of what constitutes a cost and a benefit.
- What is rewarding for one person may be a cost for another. An initial benefit may become a cost later in the relationship.
- This suggests it is difficult to classify 'costs and benefits' is overly simplistic.
Real-world application: Relationship therapy:
- People in unhappy marriages report a lack of benefits and an excess of costs.
- Integrated Behavioural Couples Therapy (or IBCT) attempts to increase the proportion of positive exchanges and decreases the proportion of negative exchanges.
- This approach has proved successful. Christensen reported two thirds of unhappy marriages have been improved using this approach.
Evidence for the influence of CLA
- Sprecher claimed that the exchange variable most highly associated with relationship commitment was partners' CLA
- showed that when the CLA is high, commitment to current relationships are low, this was the case for all genders.
- Sprecher suggested those who lack alternates are more likely to stay committed
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