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Relationships 16 Mark Plans
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RelationshipsQuestion: Describe and evaluate evolutionary explanations of partner preference.
AO1: • Sexual selection --> an evolutionary explanation of partner
6 preference, it attributes increasing reproductive success by
passing on the best genes to generations of offspring. Some
characteristics are an advantage in human reproductive behaviour
due to attraction to potential mates or advantage over competitors.
• Anisogamy --> differences between male and female sex cells which
play a vital role in mate preference. Male gametes: sperm – created
in continuous large numbers, requires little energy, quantity over
quality. Female gametes: ova/ eggs – produced in small numbers at
intervals for a limited period during fertile years, requires a
huge investment of energy and resources, quality over quantity.
- Suggests fertile women are rare ‘resources’ and can explain how
they are choosier than males when it comes to picking a partner for
reproduction.
• Sexual selection operates in two main ways: intra-sexual selection
and inter-sexual selection.
- Inter-sexual selection (particular characteristics) --> occurs
between the sexes and is the female’s preferred strategy. Women use
lots of time and resources to carry a baby, so the focus is on
ensuring the child is healthy and provided for. Females look for
men who have resources (wealth, food, shelter, etc).
- Intra-sexual selection (compete with other members) --> occurs
between the sexes and is the males’ preferred strategy. Men can
produce many sperm with little investment, so he looks to get as
many women as pregnant as possible which produces the most amount
of children, in turn increases the amount of his genes that
survive. Men look for signs of fertility (youth + beauty in women),
they will fight with other males for women, and stay close to their
partners to ensure they are not having sex behind their back.
AO3: • Evolutionary explanations ignore social and cultural influences
10 - For example, Western societies have experienced significant changes
in terms of gender equality and women’s independence. These changes
mean that women in modern Western societies may no longer look for
a man who provides them with resources; and other qualities are
more important. This makes evolutionary explanations limited, as
they only explain human mates’ choice in terms of evolutionary
adaptiveness, ignoring other important factors.
• Supporting evidence from Buss (1989)
- Conducted a survey of over 10k adults in 33 countries. Asked
questions relating to age and a variety of attributes that
evolutionary theory predicts should be important in partner
preferences. Found that females reported valuing resource-based
characteristics when choosing a male, and men values good looks and
signs of fertility. This supports the idea that the sex differences
in mate strategies are due to anisogamy.
• Evolutionary determinism
- Evolutionary explanations of relationships argue that strategies
for choosing a mate are the result of genetic inheritance and a
strive for reproductive success. This is not always as
straightforward in real life, where individual differences in
partner preference play a huge part. Evolutionary explanations fail
to account for homosexual relationships where choice of partner
does not result in reproductive success and so doesn’t have an
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, evolutionary advantage. Questions how well this theory can be
applied to situations in real-life today.
• Research support for inter-sexual selection by Clark and Hatfield
(1989)
- Male & female students went around a university campus asking the
opposite sex if they wanted to mate. Not a single female agreed,
but 75% of the males agreed to the females request to sleep with
them. Supports evolutionary explanation as it shows how females are
choosier than males when it comes to selecting sexual partners and
engaging in different strategies to ensure reproductive success.
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, Question: Discuss factors affecting attraction in romantic relationships.
AO1: • Self-disclosure --> when you reveal personal and intimate
6 information about yourself and another person. This increases
attraction within a relationship as it builds trust and reveals
true self, increasing intimacy and reciprocity.
- Altman and Taylor’s (1973) social penetration theory describes the
process of self-disclosure in relationships. For self-disclosure to
lead to satisfaction within a relationship there is a focus on the
breadth and depth of the information is revealed. Breadth increases
as high-risk information is disclosed and depth, the extent of the
personal information also is revealed.
- Too much self-disclosure too quickly can have the opposite effect.
Altman and Taylor found that revealing intimate details too early
on is unattractive.
• Physical attractiveness --> human beings have preferences about the
physical appearances of other people (especially with reference to
their facial features and body proportions).
- Physical attractiveness often makes us see people as attractive in
other ways through the halo effect. The halo effect is a bias where
we assume attractive people have attractive personalities to and
are perceived in a positive light.
- Matching hypothesis --> created by Walster et al (1966) who says we
choose partners who are similar in physical attractiveness to
ourselves (as people use common sense to figure out if a person
will find them attractive based on their own level of
attractiveness). Ex: if you rate yourself 7/10, you’ll go for
someone who is a 7/10.
AO3: • Evaluating self-disclosure
10 - Differences between cultures: Kato (2010) found that both American
and Japan’s students’ self-disclosure was higher in romantic
relationships than in friendships, supporting the view that self-
disclosure is a universal aspect of romantic relationships.
- Importance of other factors: it’s highly unlikely that self-
disclosure solely causes the relationship to be good. Self-
disclosure interacts with other aspects of attraction like physical
attractiveness and similarity of attitudes. Theory is limited in
its effectiveness on working in relationships.
- Support by Collins and Miller (1994). They found that people who
engage in intimate disclosures tend to be more liked than people
who disclose at lower levels. This gives the theory some external
validity, as it has been applied and true to people outside of the
theory.
• Evaluating physical attractiveness
- Walster’s study has questions in its methodology --> his study used
measurements of attractiveness that was not reliable. The raters
had to judge attractiveness in a matter of seconds. Therefore, it
could be the study that is the problem, not the theory itself.
- Physical attractiveness is an important factor --> researchers have
found that physically attractive people were related to more
politically knowledgeable and competent than unattractive people.
This demonstrates the halo effect and the existence of it has been
applied to other areas which shows the external validity of this
idea.
- Characteristics that are considered physically attractive are
consistent across cultures. Research has found female features like
large eyes, prominent cheekbones and small nose were rated high by
white, Hispanic, and Asian males. The stereotype is just as strong
in collectivist cultures as it is in individualistic ones. This
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