1. Romantic Relationships THEORIES

2. Theories Evolutionary theory Attachment theory Investment theory
Ecological theory

3. Evolutionary theory Natural selection: Survival of the fittest
Maximize reproductive success
Parental investment: Men and women look for different things
Fertility cues
Provider cues

4. Attachment Theory
People’s intimate relationships are related to their relationship with their attachment figure
Humans have a very strong need to form and maintain stable relationships
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5. Attachment Behaviors
Depends on the perception of the main caregiver’s availability
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Attachment helps control how close or distant people will be from others
The same feelings and mechanisms that keep parents attached to their children may also keep romantic partners bonded

6. Internal working models of attachment (Ainsworth et al., 1978)
Secure:
Attachment figure is seen as reliable
Trust that others will provide love and support
Anxious/Ambivalent
Attachment figure is seen as inconsistently available and dismissive
Fear abandonment and feel that their needs will not be met
Avoidant
Attachment figure is seen as absent
Defensively detach and withdraw from others

7. Which one sounds like you?
“I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting close to me”.

8. Which one sounds like you?
“I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry that my partner doesn’t really love me or won’t want to stay with me. I want to merge completely with others, and this desire sometimes scares people away”

9. Which one sounds like you?
“I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others. I find it difficult to trust them completely, difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets too close, and often love partners want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable being.”

10. Four Attachment Styles (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991)

11. Two dimensions of Attachment (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998)

12. Investment theory AKA: Social exchange theory
Relationships are like doing business

13. Main concepts Rewards: pleasures, satisfactions that a person enjoys
Costs: Any factor that inhibits a set of actions
Constraints: Barriers of abandoning it

14. Main concepts
Comparison Level: Compare the outcome in the relationship to all outcomes known to the member either by direct experience or symbolically
Comparison Level Alternative: Contemplating what it might be like to be outside of the relationship
Lowest level of outcome that the partner will accept

15. Main concepts Relationships end when:
COSTS > rewards+ constraints + potential alternatives

16. More Concepts Satisfaction Perceived quality of alternatives
Quantity of investments
Subjective commitment: pro-relationship activities that help relationships persist relationship stability

17. Satisfaction vs. dependence
Satisfaction level: Positive vs. negative emotions that an individual experiences about the relationship based on needs being met
John loves Mary because she fulfills his needs of intimacy
Dependence level: the extent to which the person needs the relationship or relies on partner to meet certain needs
John needs Mary because his needs for intimacy can not be fulfilled elsewhere

18. Satisfaction and alternatives
When level of satisfaction is high: partner perceives the quality of alternatives to be poor

19. Commitment and Investment
Commitment level: Long term orientation toward a relationship, intention to stay in the relationship, feelings of attachment
Investment size: Resources that become attached to the relationship
Time, money, self-disclosure, memories
Indirect investments: Partner’s friends and family, children etc.

20. Committment

21. Pro-relationship activities
Accommodative behaviors
Tendency to isolate attractive alternatives or threats
Willingness to sacrifice for the relationship
Tendency toward perceived relationship superiority

22. Who stays in the relationship?

23. How are relationships maintained?

24. Ecological theory and relationships