1. Thinking about relationship
formation
 Given the many people we
could potentially get to
know, how come we only
form relationships with a
very small percentage of
these?
 What is it that leads us to
form relationships?
 Is there some force, like
magnetism, which causes
some people to like one
another, and not others?

2. Relationship formation
 Physical attractiveness –
are we attracted to people
because they look nice?
 It is common sense that
physical attractiveness has
an impact on relationship
formation, however, we
also know that personality
and character play a key
role.
 So what have psychologists
found about physical
attraction?

3. The matching hypothesis
 Walster et al (1966)
randomly paired over 700 1st
year Minnesota students into
“blind-date” couples for a
university dance.
 They were interested in
testing a theory first
suggested by Erving Goffman
called the “matching
hypothesis”.
 The matching hypothesis
predicts that:
 people aspire to be in a
romantic relationship
with a partner who has a
high level of social
desirability

4. The matching hypothesis
 Somebody who is socially
desirable if they have
generally-wished for
qualities, such as a nice
personality, wealth, status,
intelligence, social skills,
good looks and so on.
 This aspiration is tempered
by the perceived probability
of attaining it. For example,
we can’t all expect to et
the most desirable partner,
so we settle for someone
who is roughly as socially
desirable as ourselves.

5. The matching hypothesis
contd.
 If such considerations do indeed shape our desires, then it
is likely that couples that do form will be roughly matched
in terms of their social desirability.
 Each of the 752 students in Walster’s study completed
questionnaires measuring their various qualities e.g. social
skills, intelligence and so on. Their physical attractiveness
was assessed on entry to the dance.
 The prediction of the researchers was that participants
would like their randomly allocated partners more if they
were well matched according to their questionnaires.
 During the dance, participants were given another
questionnaire on how much they liked their partner.
 To the surprise of the researchers the matching hypothesis
was not supported. The only factor that the participants
were interested in was physical attractiveness!

6. Evaluation of matching
hypothesis
 The Walster study if good
because it took a real life
event and turned it into a
controlled study. The
experiment took place in
the participants’ natural
environment.
 We must not
overgeneralise these
findings though, because
there are a few
drawbacks.
 Only the 1st stage of
relationships was studied,
other factors may become
important at a later stage
of a relationship.
 Physical attractiveness is a
very obvious quality, it
can be seen immediately.
Other qualities, such as
intelligence, sense of
humour and social skills
may take longer to
uncover.

7. Evolutionary explanations of
attraction
 Like all animals, humans
are programmed to find a
suitable mate for
reproduction.
 If a man is “turned on” by
a healthy, young and
attractive woman, this will
mean that this woman can
increase his chance for
successful offspring, since
youth and good looks are
good signs of reproductive
potential.

8. Evolutionary explanations
contd.
 Singh (1993) argues that
men find a specific “waist
to hip ratio” attractive in
women.
 Where the waist is thinner
that the hips; a ratio
bodes well for childbirth.
 From this perspective, the
connection between good
looks an attraction does
not need to be learned,
since it has been fixed by
evolution.

9. Evolutionary explanations
 This example only deals with what males find attractive.
Evolutionary theorists argue that because males have less
involvement in the reproduction process they have
developed different strategies for selecting a mate.
 The differences are as follows:
 Males produce millions of sperm, whilst females
produce relatively few eggs.
 Males, in theory, need to contribute very little in order
to reproduce, whereas females must go through a
difficult and lengthy period of pregnancy, childbirth and
bear milk.
 These differences mean that females can have far fewer
children than males, and must invest more biological
energy into the children she has.

10. Evolutionary explanations
 Buss (1988) argues that males show a preference for young
and attractive partners, whilst females prefer partners who
can provide material wealth and support, and are
preoccupied with long term relationships.
 A major questionnaire study by Buss (1990) involving 10,000
participants from 37 different cultures found strong
evidence that females rank factors such as “good financial
prospects”, “ambition” and “industriousness”. Whereas
males rate “physical attractiveness are more important.
 Males were found to prefer younger females, whereas
females preferred older men.
 This finding was replicated by Sprecher(1994) in the USA.

11. Evaluation of evolutionary
explanations
 Determinism - if our
choices are rooted in our
biology, this means we
have little personal
choice.
 Reductionism - Complex
behaviour that is related
to finding a person to
share your life with is
reduced to reproductive
strategy.
 Speculation - no genetic
basis as been found as
evidence for this theory
 Underplaying culture,
history and socialisation -
much of human behaviour
is socially constructed e.g
women in most countries
are dependent on men for
economic needs. However
as society becomes more
gender equal - women will
not rely on men for
economic freedom.
 Essentialism & sexism -
this theory reinforces
sexist behaviour on the
part of males

12. The reinforcement-affect
theory
 The reinforcement-affect
model (Byrne, 1971) argues
that relationship formation
can be explained by
conditioning.
 We are attracted by what we
like and repulsed by what we
dislike.
 “Affect” is the motor behind
relationship formation, since
we like things that generate a
positive affect (emotion) and
we dislike thins that generate
a negative affect.

13. Reinforcement-affect theory
 If this is true, relationships
should follow the pattern
of maximum pleasure and
minimum pain.
 Familiarity generates
positive affect. Lott (1974)
found that people who
just happen to be around
when we are rewarded
are subsequently liked.

14. Evaluation of reinforcement-
affect theory
 Reductionism an determinism - for reinforcement-affect
theory, relationships are reduced to the repetition of
pleasurable behaviour and the avoidance of painful
behaviour.
 It downplays the role of thought and cognition in
relationship formation.
 Limited application - reinforcement-affect theory can only
be applied to relationships that we choose to take part in.
It does not explain family relationships or work
relationships. We don’t tend to have a working relationship
with our boss because it is based on positive emotions!
 Assumption of selfishness or hedonism - The theory paints
a picture of people who are very self-centred, most people
respect that there is an element of “give and take” in a
relationship.

15. Other factors: Proximity
 Do people marry the girl/boy
next door?
 There is evidence that being
physically close to someone
can result in a relationship.
 Festinger, Schachter and
Back (1950) took advantage
of a situation where married
college students in the US
were randomly allocated
apartments in 17 University
buildings. They found that
65% of friends lived in the
same building and 41% of
neighbours were friends.

16. Other factors: Familiarity
 Many studies have found that
repeated exposure to things
leads to them being rated
more positively.
 Mita (1977) showed
participants two photographs
of themselves: one a mirror
image of the other. Most
preferred the mirror image,
whilst their friends preferred
the original photo. This fits in
with the prediction that we
prefer things we are familiar
with, we are familiar with
our mirror image, our friends
are used to seeing us.

17. Other factors: Similarity
 Many studies have found
that we are more likely to
form relationships with
people who are similar to
ourselves.
 Friends are normally the
same age, personality,
race, marital status and
sex.

18. Other factors: self-disclosure
 Self disclosure (telling intimate information) has been
shown to influence attraction in 3 ways:
 Effect 1 - those who engage in ‘intimate disclosures’ are
generally liked more that those who do not.
 Effect 2 - people disclose more to those they like in the 1st
place.
 Effect 3 - the act of self-disclosure makes us like the person
we are speaking to.
 Self-disclosure works best when it is reciprocal (it is
returned)

19. Summary of relationship
formation
Various factors are involved in the formation of relationships,
including: physical attraction, proximity, familiarity, similarity
and self-disclosure.
The importance of physical attractiveness was first found by
Walster (1966)
The two dominant theories are reinforcement-affect theory and
the evolutionary explanations.
Both the evolutionary and the reinforcement-affect perspectives
have been criticised for determinism and reductionism.
Research on relationships has been criticised for sacrificing the
complexity of what is going on in actual complex social
interactions for the simplicity of controllable experimental
conditions.