Theories of Intimate Relationships – Part I 5 theories – foundation to rest of the course! We use theories as entrances to understanding things We all have theories of intimate relationships that guide the way we think and act Why do we need a theory? • “Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.” - Poincare o We need more than just a bunch of observations + facts " need a blueprint what kind of facts to look for • Theory: which facts matter? o What is it about intimate relationships that we should care about? • What is a Theory?: • = an interconnected set of beliefs, knowledge, and assumptions that relate to understanding a phenomenon o Everyone already has a theory of intimate relationships because of personal experience • = a map o some maps are better than others ! Some are accurate, others inaccurate o A guide what makes relationships good – what to look for (where landmarks are) • For any theory of intimate relationships, we want a theory to do 3 things: • What does a good theory of intimate relationships do?: Encompass the full range of possible predictors • Fit all pieces of a relationship together + how they fit together Specify mechanisms of change • Great interest: how do relationships change? – what is the engine of change? Account for variability between couples and within couples over time • It is not enough to say “this is what happens in couples” because individuals are different • We want to know why there are differences between couples • We want to know differences within couples over time as well (go from happy to unhappy, back to happy…etc) • A good theory will not only describe change in one direction but also fluctuations Some theories claim to do all the things listed above " can be applied to real life • Articulated + influential to understand intimate relationships• We will focus on 5 different theories that claim to do all things above • None of the 5 theories fully encompasses all answers and is all around correct o Each theory captures a piece of the truth 1. Evolutionary Theory Theory that goes farthest back in time (pre-history) “Humans seek particular mates to solve specific adaptive problems that their ancestors confronted during the course of human evolution; human mate preferences and mate decisions are hypothesized to be strategic products of selection pressures operating during ancestral conditions” – David Buss " Evolutionary psychologist • Decisions how to proceed in a relationship are shaped by our ancestors (genes) • Assumptions of the Theory: Natural selection: Each generation varies " this variability interacts with the environment (some of this variability is more adaptive) " increase/decrease in reproduction (reproductive fitness) " changes in subsequent populations. Natural selection vs. Sexual selection • If it is adaptive it will be passed on to next generation, but sometimes features that do not help survival (even impede survival) get passed down. • Ex) Male peacock’s tail. • Sometimes nature selects for features that increase your survival rate (natural selection) and sometimes it selects for something that increases likelihood of reproduction (sexual selection) • Sexual selection is present in all species: sole function of attracting mate • Ex) bird songs • No need to learn these things – innate • Humans: evolved practices for attracting mates + increasing reproduction • " Humans have evolved psychological mechanisms Psychological Mechanisms • What they are (evolved), and what they are not • What they are: • = Evolved psychological tendency to behave in an evolutionarily adaptive way • Psychological mechanisms that help us solve adaptive problems • Ex) How can we find a mate that will have healthy surviving offspring?o Some people are attracted to different things – those who are attracted to things associated with healthy children will have healthy children " pass down more genes o Ex) more attracted to healthy + clean skin – greater reproductive fitness • ! Mechanisms of universal preference for signs that convey health • Observation: people are attracted to signs of health • Theory: Why is this observation true? – Preferences allow us to solve adaptive problems of reproduction • Evolutionary psychology does not state that we are robotic – we simply have capacities to respond to environment in a certain way + respond to this capacity • What they are NOT: o psychological mechanism with specific location in brain (biological, but not identifiable in exact location) o Conscious – mechanisms are not fully conscious; we are aware of our preferences but not of their adaptive function! ! Evolution states that we evolved preferences that were responsive to cues in fertility, NOT that we are specifically looking for fertility ! Physical attractive people are generally more healthy – cure to fertility The environment of evolutionary adaptedness • = EEA • Where do our preferences come from? • Our brains that responds to intimate relationships formed according to environment back when homo sapiens first evolved o What challenges were we faced with? – helps to understand how our brains function now o What would have been adaptive in that environment? • Evolutionary challenges " big sub-theory of reproductive challenges: theory of parental investment Theory of Parental Investment • Males and females have different challenges ! differential parental investment • Females: enormous investment in each single infant o Cant get pregnant again once she is pregnant o Once offspring is born after long pregnancy, it is very dependent + needs nurturing • Males: trivial investment (intercourse)o Can fertilize many different females + have offspring in different wombs at the same time • ! Challenges of reproductive success is different for males + females o " should thus have evolved different strategies for overcoming these challenges • Females: o Must search for quality male for the one egg (healthy + investment from male) o Highly selective – evolved mechanism for being selective about mate ! Attentive to cues that imply resources for healthy offspring o If this is true, women today should still be attracted to such cues ! Age,