1. Maintenance and Breakdown of romantic relationships
The Formation
Maintenance and Breakdown
of romantic relationships

2. Formation Sociobiological
All relationships form with regards to reproductive success
Buss Countries, 37 cultures F: Males prefer young attractive females, Females prefer older, ambitious males.
Singh – Males are attracted to a low waist to hip ratio on females
Davis – Personal ads show, females advertise their attractiveness, and youth. Males advertise their wealth and success.
Schmitt – 48 Nations participants, universal fact than males are promiscuous.
Form a close family relationship to ensure survival of genes
Fellner and Marshall – support for kin selection, the closer the genetic relationship the more we are likely to sacrifice, 80% of parents would give their child a kidney compared to 40% of aunts/uncles

3. Reinforcement and need satisfaction
Formation
Reinforcement and need satisfaction
Relationships forms because they provide us with rewards
Foa and Foa – identifies rewards such as love, money, sex, drugs
Byrne(classical conditioning) – Come to like those who we associate enjoyment and satisfaction and dislike those whose presence is unpleasant
Griffit(classiscal conditioning) – When interacting with a stranger behind a broadcast of good news we rate them higher : bad news
Argyle(classical conditioning) – People who are kind, happy and loving are popular
Argyle – Parent-child bonds provide little rewards, therefore the parent-child relationship isn’t based upon reward

4. Maintenance Social Exchange Theory
Relationships provide rewards and costs and during the
relationship we try to maximise reward, reduce cost.
Argyle – Child-parent bond provides little reward, and has high cost
Foa and Foa – identifies rewards such as love, money, sex, drugs
Homans – Relationships are in terms of profit, the greater the profit the greater the attraction
Blau – As interactions are expensive, the rewards must be great for commitment to last
Levinger – Maintenance is dependant on 3 factors such as:
Rewards
Barriers
Alternatives

5. imbalance of rewards leads to dissatisfaction
Maintenance
Equity Theory
Relationships are maintained on the grounds that the rewards are equal,
imbalance of rewards leads to dissatisfaction
Hatfield – Under rewarded leads to anger and resentment, over rewarded leads to guilt
Buunk – Contradictory evidence shows no link between equity and reliability of future relationships
Buunk – Large significant individual difference as to how much the other person is expected to be equitable in the relationship.
Argyle – Women over – rewarded were dissatisfied:men who weren’t, suggesting men are biologically and psychologically selfish
Bowlby – Socail releases, provides rewards to parent, that are equal to those provided by the mother such as food, maintaining the parent-child relationship

6. Breakdown Stage Model - Lee
100 premarital break-ups therefore must have some validity as a hypothesis
Suggest how relationships breakdown, but not why they breakdown and the factors involved
Levinger(Socail Exchange Theory) – Rewards, Barriers, Alternatives
Dissatisfaction
Exposure
Negotiation
Resolution Attempts
Termination
Argyle – Women over – rewarded were dissatisfied:men who weren’t, suggesting men are biologically and psychologically selfish
Schmitt – males more universally promiscuous offering a biological explanation of breakdown
Buss Countries, 37 cultures F: Males prefer young attractive females, Females prefer older, ambitious males.
Homans – relationships are seen in terms of profit, little profit leads to little attraction.

7. Breakdown Stage Model - Lee
Duck’s phase model – focus on when the relationship is over, compared to the transition from problems to end as in stage model
Social exchange theory – cost exceed the reward
Reward and need satisfaction – when there is little reward
Dissatisfaction
Exposure
Negotiation
Resolution Attempts
Termination