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Summary AQA A level paper 3 - Relationships
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AQA A level Paper 3 relationships essay plans
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Discuss evolution of the explanations for partner preferencesAO1 Intersexual selection involves the evolution of traits to increase attractiveness.
- Females are selectors therefore they are the choosier of species
Anisogamy - males and females have different reproductive costs and therefore have different
preferences and sexual behaviours. This drives sexual selection.
- Females cost more because they have a limited amount of eggs and a nine month
limitation of how many times they can reproduce.
- Females also have a physical cost of going through labour.
- Males have unlimited amounts of sperm and therefore can reproduce as much as they
want.
Therefore females prefer fewer partners who will commit to helping their offspring, whereas
males prefer more younger partners and seek out more fertile individuals.
Evolutionary preferences in heterosexual cis woman
- Square jaw and larger noses indicate high testosterone.
- Symmetrical phase indicates absence of genetic mutation.
- Hip to waist ratio of 0.9 indicates masculinity.
- Well resourced and of high status.
Intrasexual selection involves the evolution of traits to allow better competition
- Males compete with each other due to the pressure of the female preferences.
- Greater pressure on males as females are the selectors, and therefore main drivers of
sexual selection
Evolutionary preferences in heterosexual cis men
- large eyes and a small nose indicates youthfulness and therefore fertility.
- A symmetrical face indicates absence of genetic mutations.
- Hip to waist ratio of 0.7 indicates opportunity.
- 42% of men think it’s important to have a younger woman.
AO2 supporting research
- pawlowski + Dunbar 1999
- Found that youth is important to males when they are seeking partners, therefore,
supporting the evolutionary approach states that males who prefer younger women on
the EEA have more surviving offspring than those who choose older partners.
- They also found that female fertility is associated with youth and declines rapidly as
women grow older.
- Therefore supporting the evolutionary explanation for partner preferences.
Strong supporting evidence.
- Buss 1989
- 10,000 adults from 33 countries
- found that females valued resource related characteristics, such as a stable job, whereas
males preferred physical qualities often incline with higher fertility rates.
Further support
- Singh 1993
- Despite cultural differences between countries and preference of curvy or slim figures,
men have a preference of a waist:hip ratio of 0.7 which indicates a woman is fertile, but
not pregnant.
- This strengthens the evolution of explanation as both studies provide evidence for
multiple cultures.
Can be interpreted as deterministic and can be used to suggest that men cannot be held
accountable for their actions.
- In the ETA the biological drive to have sex with as many women as possible in order to
pass, one that genes gives them a reproductive advantage. So now men can be seen to
be at the mercy of these drives.
- Brock Turner 2015.
, - Sexually assaulted an unconscious girl when he was 17 and was sentenced to 6 months
in jail, but only said three months as it was believed that this would affect his swimming
career.
- Socially sensitive research, such as this could be used to further excuse the actions of
predatory men and be harmful to the female 50% of the population.
Discuss factors affecting attraction in romantic relationships
AO1 Physical attractiveness.
walster and walster matching hypothesis 1969
- Rated people from one to 10 and said people only go for those with a five range.
- Explains why we are not attracted to the same people and suggests that we are attracted
to those that are of similar level of social desirability to us.
- We are attracted to those who are the most attractive maids from the range of people
from whom we feel the attraction might be reciprocated.
- This prevents having to deal with rejection from more desirable partners.
Self disclosure.
self-disclosure is the process of revealing information about oneself.
- For attraction to be maintained, self disclosure must be reciprocal and appropriate. (Reis
+ shacer)
- At the beginning of a relationship people tend to reveal a lot about themselves but on a
superficial level for example, our favourite food.
- For the relationship to progress, this mutual disclosure becomes much deeper and more
important to us.
- This includes painful memories and experiences we may not share with other people.
Altman + Taylor (social penetration theory of relationship development) argue that the gradual
reciprocal, revealing of intimate information enables a couple to develop an ever increasing
understanding of each other therefore, strengthening the relationship
Filter theory.
kerckhoff and Davis
● Social demography.
○ Refers to personal variables such as age, raise economic status, level of
education etc.
○ We tend to meet those in a similar socio-economic demographic to ourselves.
○ All the people we do not meet are because they live in different words and
therefore are filtered out
● Similarity and attitudes.
○ At the start of a relationship having matched beliefs in values as a key predator of
the relationship developing stability.
○ Sharing beliefs and having similar attitudes makes communication easier and so
the relationship is more likely to progress that if people are complete opposites.
● Complementarity of the couple.
○ Operates once a relationship is fairly established and helps maintain attraction.
○ How well each partner meets the other partner's emotional needs.
○ Fulfilling each other’s desires is the key factor in maintaining attraction and
relationships satisfaction
AO2 The matching hypothesis is an inaccurate explanation of initial attraction.
- Taylor et al 2011
- Using a dating website to investigate the matching hypothesis.
- Looked at behaviour of 60 heterosexual men and 60 heterosexual women
- found that those who initiated contact with a partner desired a match and had no impact
on the targets they selected
- Initiators contacted potential partners from across the spectrum, not just those they
perceived as having the same level of attractiveness as themselves, therefore not
supporting the matching hypothesis as correct.
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