Notes

Formation of romantic relationships
Reward and need satisfaction theory-
Bryne and Clore- that we become attracted to those who satisfy and gratify with us.
Operant conditioning - we become attracted to those who give us direct reinforcement.
According to positive reinforcement- we become attracted with someone who provides a positive stimulus such as smiling. Or to those who meet our social needs such as sex, friendship and companionship. Another way is through negative reinforcement- this is when the negative stimulus is removed. For example if a man is going through a diffucult time and if there's a women helping then she becomes more attractive.
However, classical conditioning would suggests that we become attracted to someone who is associated with a positive event. For example if you have a positive mood and meet someone else with a positive mood then you associate the someone else to good mood making them more likeable.
Griffit and Guay supports the concept of direct reinforcement. He conducted a experiment where the participant were given a creative task. They were evaluated by the experimenter and then the participant were told to rate the experimenter on the basis of how they like them. The results showed the participant gave higher rating when they were evaluated highly(rewarded).
However, another study which supports the idea of rewards is by Aron et al he found that romantic attraction leads to the activation of the brains reward circuits.
There is cultural bias of the theory because it doesn't take into consideration different cultures such as non western cultures which put needs in front of rewards.
The matching hypothesis also helps explain the formation of romantic relationships - Walster
This is where individual is influenced what the want in their patner and who they want their patner to be.
For example the more socially desirable you are the you expect form your patner - return in affection. However, some people may feel like are out of league therefore affections levels are low. If your matched on the same level of attractiveness then you are likely to have a happy, successful relationship oppose to those couples who are mismatched. They will end up having problems and lead to difficult relationships.
Real life application can be applied to this model. As there is a strong correlation of attractiveness in real couples and if there is a similarity between the same level of attractiveness. The more stronger the relationship. For example Victoria Beckham and David Beckham are equally as attractive, they've been happily married for years and have good- looking children.
However, this theory can be reductionist because it suggests that relationships are formed through the levels of attractiveness and neglects factors like personality.
Ethics - can be a problem rating someone on the level can psychological harm the individual making them feel discomforted.
The Breakdown of romantic relationships-
Duck established a theory with three categorise which help explain the breakdown of relationships.
Lack of stimulation- when the individual has faith in the relationship and feels like it will change but it doesn't.
Lack of skills- when the individual doesn't have any interpersonal, basic social skills making it harder to form conversation and finds it hard to portray if they the person.
Maintenance difficulties- where the the couple don't get to see each due to perhaps different job times or they like away from each. They are often long distance relationships. Shaver et al found that undergraduate students found it hard to maintenance their relationship because they couldn't see each other regulary.
This theory lacks historical validity as it was developed in 1999. During that period it seems like Duck stressed the most on maintenance difficulties but now through the use of social media (facebook or skype) couples can see each virtually. Hole also found that there is a slight decrease in relationship as long as they can see each
other. This supports the maintenance of long distance relationships.
There are gender differences - women stress more on unhappiness of the break down of relationships whereas men are stressed on the sexual dissatisfaction.
However, Duck and Rollie developed another theory on the breakdown of relationships into 6 processes.
Breakdown- unsatisfed wth their realtionship and feel likes it's inequitable.
Instrapsychic process - try to find flaw in their patner and seeks different alterantivess.
Dyadic process- this is where they patner explains to the other patner about the unhapiness of the relationship. Relationship can be mended at this stage.
Social process- where they involve friends to help fix the problem.
Grave- dressing- where the patner tidies up memories and ends the relationship.
Resurrection process - they prepare them selves for future relationships and look back at there old relationship.