Romantic Relationships and SexFinding a Partner- What is attractive?o Symmetry is attractive in all cultures and all time periods In particular symmetrical faces Genes code for perfect symmetry – pathogens and nutritional factors can affect how those genes are expressed over time Symmetry identifies healthy people and people with a strong immune system- From an evolutionary perspective, this helps produce more healthy offspringo Averageness (composite face) Averaging faces removes glitches and that’s what we prefer- Again, a face without glitches is a face without cues to disease- Gender Differenceso All show cues for genes that will provide the best offspring Women- Waist-to-hip ratio, there is an ideal ratio (.7) [waist 70% of hip]o This preference has stayed the same through time and betweencultures (hourglass figure)o Cue that woman has gone through puberty successfully and can give birth (evolutionary perspective)- Age 20so 20-26 (cue to fertility) Men- Waist to hip for men ratio is .9- Masculinity cueso Square jawo Prominent chin Result of amount of testosterone in body during puberty- Testosterone is an immunosuppressant (reduces ability to fight pathogens)o If they have gotten this attractive while having their immune system compromised, then they must have a really strong immune system- How important is attractiveness?- Li et al. (2002)o Design your ideal mate with 20 mate dollarso Given 10 different characteristics and traits Physical attractiveness, yearly income, intelligence, kindness, creativity, sense ofhumor, etc.o Each mate dollar corresponded to 10th of a percitile of category 2 mate dollars on attractiveness would put the person in 20th percentile for attractivenesso Attractiveness was found to be much more important for men than women Men spent 5.5 on avg mate dollars and women spent 2 mate dollarso Intelligence more important in a mate for women than for meno Yearly income not a factor at all for men but it is quite a bit for womeno Sense of humor was spent equally (2)o Friendliness a little more by women than men, but still lowEngaging in Relationshipos- Parental Investment Theory (trivers, 1972)o Consequences of Sex:Men Womenrewards Offspring offspringCost (looking at absolute minimum costs)5 minutes? -9 months-increased vulnerability-split resources- Implications for men?o Men choose the healthiest mate (why men have an ext focus on attractiveness)o Men attracted to cues to fertility W to H ratio; youth (20s)- Implications for women?o Women need a man who can help out during the 9 month period of timeo Women attracted to cues to resource provision Intelligence, yearly incomeWhen we’re in a Relationship- Sternberg’s Triangleo Passion: (necessary for beginning relationships) Physiological arousal, sexual attraction (be aware of misattribution of arousal) Usually high at the beginning of relationships and then dwindles Coolidge Effect (named for Prez. Coolidge?)- Increase in excitement from new partnerso Intimacy (necessary for maintaining a relationship) Feelings of closeness, sharing, support, mutual concern Tends to increase over timeo Commitment (necessary for maintaining a relationship) Conscious decision to remain in relationshipDecrease in Passion?- Passion = the rate of change of intimacyo Feeling lots of passion means theres been a recent increase in intimacyo Sharpert increase = more passionPassion as a function of change in intimacy- Examples:o The beginning of a relationshipo When sharing novel experienceso Marital therapyo Seeing each other after being aparto Make-up sex?Importance for Satisfaction- Intimacy is moderately important for all time periods of a relationship- Passion is important at the beginning of a relationship (<3 years) and from 3 to 10 years passion isn’t as important but THEN at 10 years + passion becomes important for satisfaction again- Importance of commitment just increases, and is the best predictor of satisfaction for a relationshipWhy do we stay in (or leave) relationships?The Investment Model1. Satisfactiona. Positive interactions/experiences must outweigh negatives for people to say that they’re satisfied by at least 5 to 1i. Including fighting vs. sexii. Don’t respond to negatives w/ more negativesb. Relationship enhancing attributions help maintain relationships (giving people benefit of the doubt instead of being cynical about a relationship and thinking other person doesn’t care about them or is up to something/wants something from them, etc.)c. (overly) positive perceptions of relationship also help2. Quality of available Alternativesa.3. InvestmentSecond part of the Investment Model2. Quality of Available Alternatives (ANY OTHER OPTION)- including quality of breing single, or the abstraction of finding someone else (even if there is not a specific partner in mind)- will stay committed if no better alternativePeople in successful relationships- Devalue potential, attractive alternatives (remember that love motivates functional behaviors)- Are inattentive to potential alternativesAlternative Mates Study- Rowland Miller (1997)- Brought in people in relationships- Talked about partner- Talked about possible alternativeso More positively they talked about the alternatives, more likely to be broken up 2 momnths later (people who perceived higher quality alternatives to their relationships, ended up leaving current relationships)- ALSO, another study they did, had participants look at advertisementso Come into lab and are told doing study on visual attention/memoryo Flip through magazines/adso Computer “secretly” times how long people stare at advertisements Those looking longer at attractive opposite sex people more likely to break up 2 months latero Good relationship partners IGNORE AND DEVALUE the competition3. Investment“Sunk costs” – invested resources that you can’t get backWe don’t want those investments to be for naughtDifferent types of relationshipsCommunal – baserd on utual love and concern (do things for each other without expecting to be repaid)- More likely in relationships with est commitment- More mature and secure – bond of trust est……………..- ……….- ………slides onlineThe Investment Model Again1. Satisfaction2. Quality of availbable Alternatives3. InvestmentIf we have really high quality alternatives, but are currently really happy with our current relationship and have invested a lot, we may
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