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Discuss a biological/cognitive/sociocultural approach to personal…
Discuss a biological/cognitive/sociocultural approach to personal relationships
Biological approach
Studies
Baumgartner et al
Oxytocin is a hormone that has a role in pair bonding and social behaviour like trust. It is also related to sexual arousal and bonding in couples.
Aim: Investigate role of oxytocin following breaches of trust.
Participants: 49 people?
Researchers put participants in an fMRI to study the role ox oxytocin in creating trust. Participants receieved either oxytocin or a placebo, and they did a trust game (too long to write all rules here fml)
Results: Participants who received a placebo were more likely to decrease rate of trust after they had been briefed thtat their trust had been more broken. For the participants with oxytocin, it didn't matter to them that their partner had broken their trust.
Clark and Hatfield (1989)
Aim: Investigate the parental investment theory, which argues that natural selection can account for sex differences in infidelity.
5 college women and 4 college men acter a confederates. They asked questions to 48 men and women (of opposite gender). If the confederate spotted someone they liked, they said “I have been noticing you around campus. I found you to be very attractive.” Then asked one of these questions,
“Would you go out with me tonight?”
“Would you come over to my apartment tonight?”
“Would you go to bed with me tonight?”
Cognitive
Similarity Studies
Markey & Markey (2007)
Aim: Investigate extent to which similarity is a factor in the way people choose a partner
Participants: undergraduate students
Participants were asked to describe the psychological characteristics, values and attitudes of their ideal romantic partner without thinking of anyone in particular
Results showed that the way the partcipants described themselves was similar to what they were seeking in their ideal partner.
Selhouf et al. (2009)
Aim: ????
Study examined associations of perceived similarity, actual similarity and peer rated similarity in personality with friendship intensity during acquaintanceship process in a naturalistic setting.
Participants: 205 College students. 161 were female. 92% of them were Dutch. Fill in questionnaires for 5 different friends (working group) at 5 different points in time.
Results: Biderectional longitudinal associations between percevied similarity and friendship intensity. But individuals who are more befriended with each other increasingly seem to perceive that they are similar in their personality profiles.
A cognitive approach to personal relationships relies on cognitive theories. Such as the similarity-attraction model
Halo effect study: Dion et al. Halo effect is a cognitive bias, when we're in love, we rely on system 1 thinking and not think rationally. It is defined as a tendency for an impression created in one area to influence opinion in another area
Aim: See what role halo effect would play in choosing a partner.
30 male and 30 female university students from an American university
participants were given 3 envelopes with photos of someone thewur age: physically attractive, moderate and unattractive
They were asked to rate the person in the photo on 27 personality traits on a 6 point scale, Marital happiness , parental happiness, overall happiness and occupational status (based on the choices low, average or high status.)
Results: Unattractive photos were rated the lowest in all categories, average photos are rated higher, and attractive photos the highest.
Sociocultural
FInding love may have more to do with environmental and cultural factors
Studies.
Zajonc (1968)
Zajonc he showed a set of Michigan State university seniors photos of male faces for only two seconds. The faces were shown with different rates of frequency to different groups. they were asked to rate how much they like the man on a 7 point scale each time they saw rhe photo. When the participants were exposed to the image more frequently, their rating of the man in the photo was significantly greater than when they had only seen the image once.
This study has low ecological validity.
Discuss ethical considerations in the study of personal relationships.
Studies
Bradbury and Fincham
Statement: In studies about personal relationships, the participants are usually couples (married or no) answering or doing procedures surrounding their close actions and thoughts. Therefore, ethical considerations must be takien into account by researchers investigating relationships so their participants privacy is protected.
Discuss (Evaluate research) explanations for why relationships change or end.
Parental Investment theory
It argues that natural selection can account for sex differences in infidelity
Women look for partners that have the resources to look after their offspring
Men are more interested in simply increasing their chance of spreading their DNA
Clark and Hatfield (1989)
Used male and female confederates to approach members of the opposite sex who were total strangers. The confederates were told to only approach people that they thought were attractive enough that they would be willing to actually sleep with them. They were asked after each interaction to rate the attractiveness of the naive participants. They There was no significant difference between the two gender groups. They randomly asked people either of three questions, whether they wanted to go out with each other, come to their apartment or go to bed with them.
48 male and 48 female participants. The expperiment was carried out twice, in 1978 and 1982.
roughly 70% of the men were willing to have casual sex, in both experiments, none of the women agreed to do so. A lot of both men and women said yes to the date question. These results were mostly the same for both experiment trials.
The study is a field experiment. The participants were randomly allocated to one of the three conditions - date, apartment, or bed. The study had high ecological validity because it was done under naturalistic conditions; however, deception was used, which is an ethical concern.
Paragraph 1: Relationships can change or end due to many factors. parental investment theory and equity theory are few examples on why relationships can cHage or end.