**I emailed you all with a diversity experience happening on campus Monday, Oct. 28 at 7:00p. It's short notice, but I think it would be interesting given it will focus on diversity-related issues that have been happening on campus recently.**
Part 1:
For this week's assignment, I would like to you do a little digging and find an empirical research article from a peer-reviewed journal (like in Week 3). Because you didn't have an extensive assignment last week over Chapter 9 topics, you can choose any material from either Chapter 9 or Chapter 10 for this assignment, giving you a wide array of options. Please see the Week 3 blog for instructions for finding a research article.
Please complete the following:
- Find an empirical research article.
- Provide the correct APA citation for the article. Please consult the APA manual or Purude Owl for formatting help. There are also resources available on D2L.
- Overall, what are the researchers examining?
- Think back to our chapter on research methods, and use terms from that chapter (e.g., correlation) to describe your article.
- What did the researchers find?
- You may already do this in the steps above, but if not, please explain how your article relates to topics in either Chapter 9 or 10, and course topics from previous chapters where applicable.
- What is your overall reaction to the article.
Part 2:
As in the previous weeks, please respond to any 2 existing blog posts (not including this one or posts that you have responded to previously) to get credit for you "blog comments." Each post has its own instructions to follow in regard to commenting. Note: Replying to other students' comments on blog posts does not count toward your grade, although I encourage you to engage in conversation with your colleagues.
This assignment is due on Monday, October 28, 2013 at 11:59p.
Meltzer, A.L., Novak, S. A., McNulty, J. K., Butler, E. A., & Karney, B. R. (2013). Marital Satisfaction Predicts Weight Gain in Early Marriage. Health Psychology, 32(7), 824-7. doi:10.1037/a0031593
ReplyDeleteThe researchers are studying the relationship between marital satisfaction and weight gain. They introduced two different models: the health regulation model and the mating market model. The health regulation model suggests that spouses would most likely gain weight when either partner’s marital satisfaction declines because “marital strain causes stress that interferes with self-regulation” (Meltzer et al., p. 824). The mating market model is based on the idea that a person’s weight is motivated primarily by the desire to attract a mate. This model suggests that satisfied couples have already attracted a desirable mate so they tend to worry less about their diet and exercise and therefore gain weight. Also, the mating market model says that spouses may desire to be thin during a marriage when “either partner’s satisfaction declines, as they may feel an increased desire or need to attract a new mate” (p. 824). Basically, this study was conducted to determine if weight gain in marriages results from increased stress that impacts marital satisfaction or if weight gain is a result of high divorce rates and the desire to seek a new mate.
The researchers conducted this experiment using the method of questionnaires over a four year span. The participants were 169 first-married newlywed couples without children. They were asked to answer questions about their marriage regarding height and weight, marital satisfaction, marital stress, steps taken toward divorce, among others. They were required to respond to these questions every six months for four years for a total of eight times. The results were recorded and analyzed in several ways and then related to both models described above to determine the appropriate reasons behind weight gain early in marriage. Results showed a higher correlation to the mating market model. “When individuals or their spouses were more satisfied than usual, those individuals gained weight, and when they or their spouses were less satisfied than usual, they lost weight” (p. 826). There was a higher correlation between marital satisfaction and the degree to which spouses contemplated divorce rather than marital satisfaction as it relates to stress in their marriage.
I chose this research study because it relates to the topic in chapter 10 regarding divorce. I thought it would be interesting to find the reasons behind the increasingly high rates of divorce. It seems that people no longer take marriage as seriously and tend to jump in knowing that there is an easy way out if it does not work for them. I think this is a big problem in our world today and if people were to receive education on the topic and possible ways to cope with decreased marital satisfaction they would be able to work through issues rather than exiting as soon as things get difficult.
I agree with the results of this study because it seems fairly obvious. Jealousy is a big problem in the world today and causes issues between couples. The media also puts high amounts of stress on individuals about appearance which greatly impacts the way people behave. The study states, “although weight gain has numerous negative implications for health, younger individuals, like the newlyweds examined here, do not tend to focus on the health-oriented implications of weight maintenance but rather focus on more appearance-oriented implications” (p. 827). This is exactly correct and I’m sure everyone can relate to this as some point in their lives. People try to look their best to attract individuals of interest. Also, the world is becoming increasingly shallow and rely mostly on a person’s physical appearance prior to engaging a person and getting to know their personalities so it is only obvious that if spouses see a divorce coming they will try their best to drop down to a comfortable weight.
Very interesting and thorough review, Cassie! Great job. Just one thing - it sounds like the study was more correlational in nature rather than experimental. It's easy to just regard to all research as "experiments," but experimental are fundamentally different than correlational research. Just something to keep in mind for the future!
DeleteO¿Sullivan, L. F., & Vannier, S. A. (2013). Playing the Field? Does Actual or Perceived Relationship Status of Another Influence Ratings of Physical Attractiveness Among Young Adults?. Canadian Journal Of Behavioural Science, 45(3), 210-219. doi:10.1037/a0031826
ReplyDeleteThe article that I decided to read and discuss is related to attractiveness, desirability, sexual partners, and relationships. The article opens with how relationships started in the 1950’s and how they start in present time. Currently it is more common to meet in social groups and continue a relationship form there. Preciously it was more common to spend time alone and increase sexual tendencies over time. Heterosexual relationships increased with mutual disclosure. Casual sex is then touched on as becoming a normal act in today’s society. The participants in this study were 227 psychology students between the ages of eighteen and twenty four. The study then assessed the demographic information which included age, gender, place of origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation, number of past sexual partners. This was done to assess sexual experience and desire. The students were then shown photographs of student from a neighboring college and told to rate them on a scale of one to seven. Females were rated more desirable and more attractive than men. Participants rated others who were involved in a relationship as more attractive and desirable. Female participants seemed to be sensitive to social norms whereas men did not. All people in relationships devalued everyone they rated. The researchers did find that people in relationships were more likely to devalue attractiveness and desire even if they were not in a happy relationship. They concluded that most of the demographic information did not influence judgment as much as relationship status.
This relates to the current chapters on relationships. Judging physical appearance is obviously important and most people prefer someone who is attractive. Although men rate attractiveness higher than women do. Facial features and physique also play an important role in determining the attractiveness of an individual, which was relevant to this study. Established relationships were important to this study as well. Individuals who were in a relationship gave others lower scores. Although there are gender differences and different sexual orientations these were not present in this study. My overall reaction to this study is very neutral. I would think you would rate someone higher who is in a relationship because they are more unattainable. I also think if I was in a relationship and my significant other was not around I would devalue any scores.
Interesting study, Charles! I agree with you, that you'd assume that people would rate others who are in relationships as more attractive because of that element of them being unavailable - it sounds like the found evidence to support this, based on what you wrote!
DeleteAniciete, D., & Soloski, K. (2011). The Social Construction of Marriage and a Narrative Approach to Treatment of Intra-Relationship Diversity. Journal Of Feminist Family Therapy, 23(2), 103-126. doi:10.1080/08952833.2011.576233
ReplyDeleteIn the article the researchers are trying to determine the social policies, values, and marital arrangements between inter-racial couples. They are looking at couples of different cultures and seeing how their values and traditions are interfering with the other couple. For example the article explains how Western cultures are more prominent in pursuing their own pleasure over their partners. Where as in a Hispanic or Latino culture the needs and pleasure of the other partner are more important before their own needs. In the long run they were trying to determine what expectations are of marriage.
This article has yet to be used in an actual study. The authors say that future research should recognize the strengths of this model and determine specific outcomes, especially pertaining to the populations that this model has particular use with. The goal of this study is for clients to pursue a narrative treatment model. Which includes a counselor that would incorporate a genogram, utilizes externalizing conversations, re-authoring conversations, and re-membering conversations. The therapy is to help the client see a problem as separate from their identity and help them realize that it is an entity that can be changed. The therapy would use a genogram to help the couple see the system that they are currently embedded in. It helps the couple visually see their differences and helps the counselor work through the problems. The next few conversations help allow the client to open up about themselves and their feelings. This perspective helps the counselor see what they are feeling and give the client some perspective.
The researchers found that marriage has evolved over time and society has a huge impact on the views and expectations of marriage. Every culture has their own values and traditions and it will depend on the person on whether they continue with their traditions or not after marriage. Due to that fact that there are many differences between inter-rational couples the authors propose the therapy to determine if there is any discrepancies between the couple.
This topic of marriage corresponds with both chapter 9 and 10 due to the fact that chapter 10 talks about marriage and since chapter 9 talks about love and friendship. I believe that one won’t get married unless they have a friendship and love. I also find that this article can relate to the topic of stereotypes. Many cultures may not be happy with inter-racial marriages because of the stereotypes that one should not marry outside of their culture and how that may affect their culture and traditions. This goes along with discrimination from another culture or even a by-stander. Someone may see an inter-racial couple and have a snap judgment about them and not even try to get to know them. This can affect the couple and make them feel uncomfortable and feel unwelcome. This can go to show to people that they are slightly prejudice and may not be aware of it.
I really enjoyed reading this article. I picked this topic because I am very intrigued to see the differences in marriage. Whether it be from when our parents got married, inter-racial marriages, or gay marriages. Our society is changing but it is hard for millions of people to grasp that concept. Change is a hard concept for many people to overcome and inter-racial marriages has and is still a conflict between cultures. I enjoyed looking at the therapy that the authors purposed for the couples to go to. This would help them determine their differences between their cultures that they were not aware of. Once the couple is aware of their cultural differences it may help make the relationship move forward easier. I do wish that the article was used in a study but further research is needed. I look forward to seeing results from this study in the future.
Yela, Carlos. (2006). The evaluation of love: simplified version of the scales for Yela's tetrangular model based on Sternberg's model. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22(1), 21-27. DOI 10.1027/1015-5759.22.1.21
ReplyDeleteThe researcher was examining more concise scales that already exist to evaluate love. The researcher used a sample of 412 participants who were in a long-lasting relationship. The independent variable was the questionnaire while the dependent variable was the dimension of love the participants experienced. The problem with questionnaires is response biases.
The researcher found that this scale of love created has its limitations but allows for a scale of love and evaluation of matters inaccessible to observations as well as finding out a vast amount of information in a short amount of time.
This topic relates to the topic of love and Sternberg's Model.
My reaction to this article is positive. I believe there should be more than one model to be able to scale dimensions of love.
Overbeek, G., Nelemans, S., Karremans, J., Engels, R. (2013). The Malleability of Mate Selection in Speed-Dating Events. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42, 1163-1171. Doi. 10.1007/s10508-012-0067-8
ReplyDeleteThe researchers are looking to identify how mate selectivity can be impacted by the mating market for both men and women. The researchers hypothesized that the men would be less malleable when the market varied. The number of participants in their study was 546 adults in 22 different speed dating events. Factors that were analyzed were male-female ratio of mates, which sex rotated in the event, and the mate qualities of same-sex competitors and how they affected individual’s selectivity. The results of their study showed that a females’ mate selectivity is more malleable and dependent on context than males’ mate selectivity. This can be partially attributed to the fact that females are less secure and more intimidate by “better looking” females.
This relates to class material because it is directly involving mate selection which was a major competent of chapter nine. Overall, my reaction to the article is not one of surprise. The results that were found were something that I would have anticipated. Females do care more about what others think of them. Because they care what others think so much, it is going to affect the way they handle and view themselves in these speed dating scenarios.
Li, N. P., Yong, J. C., Tov, W., Sng, O., Fletcher, G. O., Valentine, K. A., & ... Balliet, D. (2013). Mate Preferences Do Predict Attraction and Choices in the Early Stages of Mate Selection. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, doi:10.1037/a0033777
ReplyDeleteThe researchers in this article are examining male and female mate preferences. Research was done at multiple Universities, and the multiple Universities showed the same findings. Their research thus far has shown that men value physical attractiveness more than women do, and women value social status more than men do. Recent speed-dating studies have indicated mixed evidence for whether people's sex-differentiated mate preferences predict actual mate choices. According to an evolutionary, mate preference priority model, the sexes are largely similar in what they ideally like, but for long-term mates, they should differ on what they most want to avoid in early selection contexts. The researchers conducted an experiment that used online messaging and modified speed-dating platforms. When the mating pool had people at the low end of social status and physical attractiveness is when men tend to chose mates based on physical attractiveness, and women tend to chose mates based on social status. Mate choices were not sex-differentiated when males and females were considering short-term relationships, where both sexes shunned partners with low physical attractiveness.
This relates to class material because the article talks about mate selection and attraction which is a major topic that is discussed in chapter 9.
My overall reaction to this article is that I agree with it and it does not surprise me. I believe that males do think that physical attractiveness is most important when choosing a mate, and that females think that social status is most important when choosing a mate.
Overland, K., Storksen, I., & Throsen, A. (2012). Daycare children of divorce and their helpers. 45, 51-57. Retrieved from http://ejournals.ebsco.com.ezproxy.usd.edu/Direct.asp?AccessToken=7TDLITRB3TV5JF0V5VXXFILDOO9FBRLN3&Show=Object
ReplyDeleteThis article is called Daycare Children of Divorce and Their Helpers. This study is about caring for children of divorce may prevent emotional and behavioral problems. The study investigates daycare staff’s beliefs about caring for young children who have experienced parental divorce. They used a number of different day care providers who were child-sensitive helpers, insecure helpers,confident helpers, and distant helpers. The confident helpers value open communication between staff and parents is crucial in helping the children,and respect that children do not always want to share their thoughts and feelings.They also encourage parents not to engage in conflicts in front of the children. The confident helpers were figured to be the best kind of helper for children that come from a divorced family. Overall it said that it is important to care for young children of divorce in a systematic manner and develop helpful procedures and reflection arenas for staff, to create a supporting environment to identify and help children and families of divorce. The article also talk about how children of divorced parents show more internalizing and externalizing
problems than older children, whereas older children displayed more school-related performance problems.
I don't know if I agree or disagree with the statement about kids of divorced parents do worse in school. I know I have heard different things about this, but I think it depends how much attention that child gets while the divorce is going on or after its done. Sometimes kids just want to have attention from their parents or day care providers. If you give them enough attention they will most likely feel better about themselves and not try to do anything bad to get your attention. This article relates to chapter 10 when it talks about divorce and how it affects people.
Galupo, M. M., & Gonzalez, K. (2013). Friendship Values and Cross-Category Friendships: Understanding Adult Friendship Patterns Across Gender, Sexual Orientation and Race. Sex Roles, 68(11/12), 779-790. doi:10.1007/s11199-012-0211-x
ReplyDeleteThis research study that I chose to write on is entitled Friendship Values and Cross Category Friendships:Understanding Adult Friendship Patterns Across Gender,
Sexual Orientation and Race. This article tested both men and women on the values that they hold most important when confiding in a close friendship. These values were tested in individuals who had cross category friendships verse those who did not. Cross category friendships correlated to those of cross orientation, cross gender, cross race, and age as the primary factor. The test was conducted on over 1500 individuals ranging in age from 18-80 who agreed to fill out a friendship questionnaire. They were questioned based on six different friendship values that related to how they went about choosing a close friend. The general values that were tested were trust, honesty, respect friend as a person, and the more cross categorical questions were those related to similar lifestyles, similar values, and nonjudgmental. Results showed that those who had cross category friendships did not differ in the way that they answered the general friendship questions. They also distinguished the idea that similar lives and experiences were not held in high regard when deciding a close friendship. Women rated all six value characteristics to be higher than that of the male participants, men displayed similar values across all six characteristics.
I found that this article fit into the category of the survey research method. They conducted anonymous surveys that helped to provide the information. In chapter 9, we discussed the topic of friendships and what makes a good friend. We found that men are more activity based and women's friendships are more emotionally. A common theme we found in a good friend are those who provide strong emotional and social support. This article specifically stated how important those qualities are. I would have to agree with what this study is demonstrating when it states that those who have cross categorical friendships are more open in the values that they see as important. I think these people tend to be more open to different ideas and lifestyles that what they are accustomed too. You can learn a lot from different people especially those who live a different lifestyle than what you are used to. You may be surprised what you can learn by reaching out of your comfort zone and meeting new people.
Lawyer, S., Resnick, H., Bakanic, V., Burkett, T., & Kilpatric, D. (2010). Forcible, drug-facilitated, and incapacitated rape and sexual assault among undergraduate women. Journal of American College Health, 58(5), 453-460.
ReplyDeleteThe article I choose for this blog was entitled Forcible, Drug-facilitated, and Incapacitated Rape and Sexual Assault among Undergraduate Women, which looked to examine the correlation between drug use and sexual assaults and how frequently assaults occurred after both voluntary and involuntary use of drugs or alcohol.
This study was conducted using correlational researcher looking for links between alcohol and drug use and the prevalence of sexual assaults. Correlational research was used for this study because it would be unethical for researchers to manipulate the variables in this study, researchers cannot ethically get women drunk or high in hopes that the women may be assaulted. To complete the research the voluntary participants gave informed consent and then sat for a survey that took between 3-4 hours in a laboratory. To maintain confidentiality of the participants, researchers used a password-protected website that only allowed participants to access it from the laboratory while the survey was proctored. The researchers from this study found a positive correlation between alcohol and drug use and the frequency of sexual assaults, meaning as the use of drugs or alcohol increased, the number of assaults also increased.
This article relates to the class material in chapter 10 on date rape. It discusses how the drinking and drug use could be caused by both voluntary or involuntary, having someone slip a drug into your drink, that could lead to sexual assault. If the person is slipped something, it is likely that he/she knows the person and could even be seeing him/her which would be considered date rape if the person is incapacitated to the point where she cannot give consent to the sexual act.
My reaction to this article is that it is sad, but makes sense. When you are inebriated, you are a lot less likely to be able to protect yourself from attackers or even realize that you are being attacked until it is too late. It is important that when you are out that you have someone to look after you if you have too much to drink and that you always hold onto your drink. If you set your drink down, get another because it is better to waste a drink and be safe then take the chance that someone may have slipped something into your drink that could really harm you.
Carmalt, J., Cawley, J., Joyner, K., & Sobal, J. (2008). Body weight and matching with a physical attractive romantic partner. Journal of Marriage & Family. 70(5), 1287-1296. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00566.x
ReplyDeleteIn this article, the researchers are examining physical attractiveness with mate selection. They are specifically focusing on obesity. They used a National Lonitudinal Survey. The dependent variable is having a physically attractive partner. The control variables includes age, race, and union status. There "goal was to estimate the probability of having a physically attractive partner as a function of each respondent’s body weight, controlling or additional measures of appearance, social
status, personality, and sociodemographic characteristic."
The research found 43% of women and 55% of men had physically attractive partners. The researcher found that men and women that were obese were less likely to have a physically attractive partner. This is a bigger disadvantage for women then men and for white women than black women. This was especially true for white women. They also found that men and women were willing to trade education for being physically attractive in a romantic partner. Young adult women were also willing to trade their economic status for men's attractiveness. In our last class meeting we discussed what made a person physically attractive, this relates to that topic and to mate selection. I do agree with this article. I however wish this wasn't the case. I don't think that being physically attractive is what relationships should be all about. I think it is definetly more than that. Just becasue a person my be overweight, doesn't mean that they are not physically attractive and a good person.
Hefner, V., & Wilson, B. J. (2013). From love at first sight to soul mate: The influence of romantic ideals in popular films on young people's beliefs about relationships. Communication Monographs, 80(2), 150-175. doi:10.1080/03637751.2013.776697.
ReplyDeleteThe researchers are examining two things in this study. First they are looking for what themes and ideals romantic comedies over that last 10 years possess. The second was seeing how undergrad students viewed love, relationships, and romance based on the romantic comedy films.
The Hypotheses was that the romantic ideals in romantic comedies have an effect of how people view their own romantic beliefs.
For the first part they had students watch romantic comedy films and see if they saw a reoccurrence in the 4 parts of the romantic ideal. The students wrote down what they noticed in the films and for the second part they had to tell what they took away from those ideals and how they used them in their lives. The first study showed that romantic ideals and challenges are prevalent I romantic comedy films. Also those ideals are more often rewarded then punished.
The findings showed that there was a positive relationship between watching romantic comedy films and endorsing romantic beliefs. The hypotheses was supported by the study.
The study relates to the material in class because it talks about what people see as love and relationships.
I found this study to be very interesting. I think thought that the results were typical just because in our society today people do look to movies and TV to decide what they think about something. I also found it interesting but not surprising that most of the romantic comedies had the same romantic beliefs in common.
This is an interesting area of research - there are some studies that also examine rom coms, or just plain ole romantic movies and how this affects our perceptions of our relationships, in terms of quality, romance, etc.
DeleteBelow are two different links that have men asking women for sex and women asking men for sex. The man that asked 100 women for sex has 0% of the women say yes, while the woman that asked 14 men for sex had 50% of the men say yes. After learning about sex appeal and attraction in class, I wondered if this played any part in the answer to the question. The man and woman who asked the questions were both at a normal beautiful level or attraction level. The man wore a t-shirt and shorts throughout the videos, while the woman wore jean shorts and a crop top shirt. Both of them went up to strangers and asked the same question. However, the answers were very different. Could some of the variation of answers be due to the consequences of having sex?
ReplyDeleteAre women more likely to decline sex, because they are the ones that get pregnant? Does the question itself stress women out? I found an article that discussed the pros and cons of using specific contraceptives and why men and women chose those specific contraceptives. The study showed that women prefer the birth control pill, while men prefer condoms. Women preferred something that seemed to be more in their control, so they could be responsible for their own actions. Both men and women understand the importance of contraception and understand the pros and cons associated with each method.
Men asking women for sex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxyySRgrYsU 0%
Women asking men for sex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxyySRgrYsU 50%
Scholarly article:
Grady, W. R., Klepinger, D. H., & Nelson-Wally, A. (1999). Contraceptive characteristics: The perceptions and priorities of men and women. Family Planning Perspectives, 31(4), 168-75. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224381495?accountid=14750
The terms I used include the following: sex appeal, attraction, beauty, responsible, and stress.
The article I chose dealt with the relationships people form with their pets. In the journal the positive effects of owning a pet is highlighted. The research done in the journal proved that stress is decreased as well as positive increase in happiness when owning a pet. The article also explains that humans are equipped with three psychological needs, autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy refers to motivation of individuals to pursue goals. Competence is the development of key skills and lastly relatedness refers to the need to belong in a group or form close bonds with friends and family. This study proves that an abundance of positive effects can come from being a pet owner. Pets do fall under the category of family in terms of relatedness. Furthermore, the study shows that mental happiness and stress are both improved by owning a pet. The article explains that there is a positive correlation with owning a pet and improved mental health. This article fits in with the chapter on happiness. Furthermore, it fits in with the last chapter on love and relationship. The journal states that pets can provide love and affection just like humans, and that's what we crave as humans.
ReplyDeletewords used: correlation, stress, love, affection, happiness
STENSENG, F. (2013). Attaching Person-Pet Attachment to Positive Psychology. Psychology and Socitey, 5(2), 24-27.
Remember, we can't "prove" anything - we can only suggest relationships, etc.
DeleteMadathil, J., & Benshoff, J. M. (2008). Importance of marital characteristics and marital satisfaction: A comparison of Asian Indians in arranged marriages and Americans in marriages of choice. The Family Journal, 16(3), 222-230. doi:10.1177/1066480708317504
ReplyDeleteThe journal I read was about a study done that investigated marital satisfaction between arranged marriages and those that are freely chosen. Participants included Indians in arranged marriages in the United States, Indians in arranged marriages in India, and Americans in freely chosen marriages. The CHARISMA (Characteristics of Marriage Inventory) was developed to measure characteristics related to marital satisfaction. It consisted of 18 characteristics and participants were asked to rate the importance to them and also their satisfaction with each characteristic. Three underlying factors of the two CHARISMA scales of Importance and Satisfaction were found. These factors were loving, loyal and shared values. They also used a survey to collect personal date such as the arrangement and length of the marriage, involvement in choosing the partner, length of stay in the United States, gender, age, religion, number of children, and living arrangements. Spouses completed the survey individually without consulting each other. A factorial ANOVA was used to study the effect of group and gender on the importance of marital characteristics and the effect of group and gender on marital satisfaction. The results revealed that satisfaction scores in all subscales were higher for Indians in arranged marriages in the United States, indicating that they had higher marital satisfaction overall. What I found interesting was that there were no significant differences in marital satisfaction found between men and women in the study.
I chose this article because we discussed relationships last week in class and next week we are discussing marriage so I found its content to be appropriate and relevant. I found all of the small differences noted between the relationships interesting, especially the role of culture in the relationship.
ROHNER, J., & RASMUSSEN, A. (2012). Recognition bias and the physical attractiveness stereotype. Scandinavian Journal Of Psychology, 53(3), 239-246. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2012.00939.
ReplyDeleteThis study involves stereotype bias. Its aim was to examine if stereotypes, namely recognition bias prevail despite different factors during encoding and retrieval. In the present research, the focus was on physical attractiveness stereotype; the tendency to attribute positive skills, intellect and capability to more attractive individuals. The authors performed two experiments to determine the answer. Both studies focused on adding modifiers to determine if the physical attractiveness stereotype was affected. The studies concluded none of the variables significantly affected the stereotype, and the authors concluded that the physical attractiveness stereotype was a strong phenomenon.
This was an important study because understanding recognition biases can help explain how stereotypes affect social behaviors. This study relates to numerous topics we have discussed in class. We talked in depth about stereotypes, which was the central focus of this experiment. Last week we also discussed physical attractiveness, so this article truly integrated the different subjects we have been discussing in class.
I think this article was extremely interesting. For example, if two individuals are walking in the MUC, and one has a nice outfit on while the other has sweats and a sweatshirt, it is fairly easy to attribute positives to the nicely dressed while thinking the other individual really does not care. This bias may not be completely accurate because poor college students who are stuck in the library studying all day may very well opt for the sweatshirt (I often do), but this physical attractiveness stereotype is an interesting phenomenon to think about.
Coughlin, Patrick, Wade, C., Jay. (2012). Male Reference Group Identity Dependence, Masculinity Ideology, and Relationship Satisfaction in Men’s Heterosexual Romantic Relationships 325-399. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usd.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a9361c3c-6124-4680-b245-1c00906a4119%40sessionmgr110&vid=1&hid=123
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of this study was to determine the influence of male identity and masculinity ideology on the satisfaction of these men in their heterosexual relationships. There have been similar studies in the satisfaction of gender related satisfaction issues within both genders, however I chose this study that focused on one gender. I was interested to see if there were drastic differences within the studies that used both to the studies that focused just on the male ideas, which is accepted in society as the non-romantic ideal in relationships. Amato and Booth (1995) found that when wives adopt less traditional gender role attitudes their perceived marital quality declines, whereas when husbands adopt less traditional attitutdes, their perceived marital quality increases. This was shown consistent with men who were less satisfied in their marriages that had the more traditional gender roles. I found that particular find highly interesting, that men disliked being in a ‘traditional’ role, I think this speaks to the change in society, with women becoming a bigger part of the household, not just as the homemaker. Much of this study was based on the masculinity ideology which is defined in the article as “men’s acceptance or internalization of a culture’s definition of masculinity, and beliefs about adherence to culturally defined standards of male behavior (Pleck, Sonenstein, & Ku, 1993).” Again, according to the study, research has shown that in traditional heterosexual romantic relationships traditional masculinity reflects negatively in regards to satisfaction for both men and women, particularly women who view their partners as conforming to social norms.
The participants in this study were very well ranged from 18-80, the only stipulation being that they currently be in a heterosexual relationship during the time of the study. Unsurprisingly, married participants were overall more traditional in their masculinity ideology than unmarried participants. However this statistic was not reflected as highly significant.
“The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of masculinity ideology and male reference group identity dependence on men’s heterosexual romantic relationships. In particular, we expected masculinity ideology to mediate the relationship between male identity and relationship satisfaction.” I would have been interested to know if there was a difference between ethnic groups within this study.
I chose this article because it correlates with relationships, more specifically how the male dynamic treats relationships within the social norms of masculinity. I found it highly interesting how the social norms have drastically decreased into not only a non-effect upon heterosexual relationships, but causing a negative effect upon the partners. I would be interested in seeing how femininity reflects upon relationships as well after reviewing this study.
Graber, E. C., Laurenceau, J., Miga, E., Chango, J., & Coan, J. (2011). Conflict and love: Predicting newlywed marital outcomes from two interaction contexts. Journal Of Family Psychology, 25(4), 541-550. doi:10.1037/a0024507
ReplyDeleteIn this study of conflict and love, the researchers were trying to predict the chances of divorce in newly married couples. So, the main goal was to compare the observed negative behaviors and positive emotional behaviors of the couples from a conflict-resolution task to one from a love paradigm task. This would help the researchers to predict the functioning of the couple about a year later. The couples they studied had been married for 6 months or less at the time of the study. There were 119 heterosexual couples from a major Southeastern city. In order for these participates to be chosen the marriage they were in could be the only marriage they have ever been in, no children from present or past relationships, and they also must be fluent in English speaking, reading, and writing. The average age of the men was 27.99 years, while the women were 26.39 years of age.
The researchers made some conclusions with their findings. One was the husbands had higher contempt in the love context predicted husband’s later steps for divorce; while the wife’s higher contempt was in the conflict context. The researchers also discussed how their finding did relate to the findings of John Gottman and his work on relationships and divorce.
The couples expression of contempt and affection in the love and contexts, was the only levels in which both wife and husband’s affections in the love context that actually predicted the satisfaction in the relationship for both. If a man was able to maintain affection over the course of the interactions, reported being more satisfied and also had wives reporting to be more satisfied, for at least 15 months after, when they were evaluated again. They were ultimately able to conclude two findings from this research. The first is that what can predict a divorce will most likely be different than trying to decide the relationship satisfaction, when it comes to martial interaction context. The other is males and females differ when it comes to the context in which can predict divorce and satisfaction. All of their findings made sense, since males and females view their relationships differently.
Words used: love, conflict, divorce, affection, satisfaction, relationship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=625t8Rr9o6o
Morrison, E. R., Morris, P. H., & Bard, K. A. (2013). The stability of facial attractiveness: Is it what you’ve got or what you do with it?. Journal Of Nonverbal Behavior, 37(2), 59-67. doi:10.1007/s10919-013-0145-1
ReplyDeleteThis study looked at facial expressions and how these different types of expressions affected a persons physical attractiveness. These researchers are examining how others find a person attractive not only based on their biological facial features, but also their facial expressions. To study this, the researchers recruited 128 participants viewed photographs of 14 men and 16 women displaying the six
basic facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) and a neutral expression. After looking at a randomly selected picture, participants then scored the person on their attractiveness based on their facial expressions. At the conclusion of the study, the researchers found that participants found that people with a neutral or a happy facial expression were more physically attractive. The researchers also found that was 2.2 times as important as emotion in attractiveness. This research shows how there is more to physical attractiveness that biological features but that facial expressions and body language also play a crucial role. Last week in class, we learned that people typically look for a physically attractive partner in hopes of passing on these desirable biological features onto their children. We also watched a video where researchers tries making people look more or less attractive by messing with their facial features then having people rate their attractiveness. This study correlates with what we have been learning in class because it goes to show that people do take physical attractiveness into great consideration when looking for a partner.
Key Words: Facial Expressions, Attractiveness, Emotions
Karney, B. R. , McNulty, J. K. , O’Mara, E. M. (2008). Benevolent cognitions as a strategy of relationship maintenance: ‘Don’t Sweat the small stuff…. But it is not all small stuff. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(4), 631-646. Doi 10.1037/0022-3514.94.4.631
ReplyDeleteThis article discusses negativity in relationships, and cognitive strategies that may help maintain the relationships strength. It goes on to discuss two longitudinal studies, which study the first four years of 251 marriages. The effects that the cognitive strategies discussed have on the relationship, actually go back to how the relationships were prior to marriage, and if there was negativity or not. The more a couple were able to get past negative experiences that had occurred and make positive attributions, the higher levels of overall satisfaction in the marriage occurred, with also negative behaviors experienced more often and more overall issues. Oppositely, in the longitudinal study, these cognitive strategies seemed to only help healthy marriages. The study predicted that marriages that had already been struggling in maintaining their relationship, experienced a lowering of their overall satisfaction in their marriage, and suggested that these issues would only worsen over time. Partners that an overlook their significant others negative behaviors more often than not, seem to be happier overtime. Overall, this study concluded that although cognitive strategies can improve couples relationships that is already fairly healthy, it can result in worsening a couples relationship that is already struggling with excessive negativity due to directly confronting their issues within the relationship.
This article discusses how to positively maintain a healthy relationship, and different strategies that a couple can take to do so. I found this article to be somewhat interesting. The researchers had an overall interesting procedure. They brought couples in, and had them rate individually things like their marital satisfaction, severity of problems in marriage, etc. They were then asked to choose the most difficult issue they faced together, and then had to discuss and come to a mutual agreement within ten minutes. They were monitored and measured on different marital attributions. The article is somewhat long, but discusses all of this in more detail, with charts of the different groups, mean, standard deviation, etc. all relating to the experiment.
Overbeek, G., Nelemans, S., Karremans, J., & Engels, R. (2013). The Malleability of Mate Selection in Speed-Dating Events. Archives Of Sexual Behavior, 42(7)
ReplyDeleteThis article discusses speed dating and mate selection. It explains the process in which we choose partners and forming opinion on people in such a short amount of time. It examined values and qualities desired in a mate and what affects decision-making.
This research used a scale to rate how attractive an individual found another person during a speed dating round. It also compared the differences between male and female mate selection. For example, (not surprisingly) this article found that men focused more on females who they found physically attractive and with a smaller body mass index (BMI), while often willing to overlook education level for a mate who is more physically attractive. In contrast, while females found attractiveness important, the results of this study discussed that females have a much more complex set of characteristics for mate selection.
This article relates to what we have been discussing in class and especially to last week's video about what we are scientifically attracted to in a mate and what we look for. Key words: attractiveness, mate selection, correlation
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ReplyDeleteThe researchers did a study on 265 participants and their romantic partners. It investigated the qualities of early adult romantic unions. Romantic unions promote emotional and physical well-being, but almost half of these marriages end up in divorce. They hypothesized that young adulthood characteristics are influenced by the earlier family context, predictive of early adult romantic relationship functioning, and are the mechanisms through which earlier family context influences later relationship success.
ReplyDeleteThey concluded that although the study generally supports some of the direct pathways predicted in the development of the early adult romantic relationships (DEARR) model, there are limitations. A romantic relationship consists of beliefs, family experiences, and the personalities of two people, but the study didn’t access the three so that is one limitation to their data. They resulted that over 90% of adults stated that a satisfying marriage is one of the most important things in their life. The researchers concluded that romantic relationships are highly complex and more research is needed to complete this study. However, the study does make a contribution towards understanding some of the social cognitive processes.
This article relates to the topic in chapter 10 because it talks about romantic relationships and the contribution that it entails.
Masarik, A., Conger, R., Martin, M., Donnellan, B., Masyn, K., & Lorenz, F. (2013). Romantic relationships in early adulthood: Influences of family, personality, and relationship cognitions. Personal Relationships, 20(2), 356-373. Retrieved from http://ejournals.ebsco.com.ezproxy.usd.edu/Direct.asp?AccessToken=9I5QDIJ8XZRQEUP5QJJZU9Q1UDQ58JQDX&Show=Object
This article talks about relationship support from social networks and how individualist countries and collectivist countries differ. It is found that those who receive social support on their relationships have stable and more satisfied relationships. Individualist countries see more of this social network support whereas collectivist countries focus more on maintaining harmony and avoiding conflict. Another differing factor between these two types of cultures is that in individualist countries we tend to seek out our own mate whereas many times in collectivist countries they have arranged marriages so approval is not needed, it’s usually assumed.
ReplyDeleteMost research has found that social approval of a relationship has good effects on the relationship. However, social network approval causes relationships to get intertwined and sometimes cause for a messier breakup than if there was no social network. Social networks can also be used as relational maintenance in that their common friends support helps them to make important decisions.
Jin, B., & Oh, S. (2010, June) Cultural differences of social network influences on romantic relationships: a comparison of the united states and south korea. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usd.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=1fb1dc3d-600f-4b64-8bfd-9e74065ee5a6%40sessionmgr112&vid=6&hid=118
Key words: Relationships, individualist, collectivist, social network
Wilson, A. C., & Huston, T. L. (2013). Shared reality and grounded feelings during courtship: Do they matter for marital success?. Journal Of Marriage And Family, 75(3), 681-696.
ReplyDeleteIn the article I found, the researchers are studying if sharing the same reality and feelings during courtship contribute to marital success, looking at the correlation between courtship and marriage. The researchers came to the conclusion that having a shared reality in a relationship is beneficial to a marriage, and that couples who lacked this shared reality were more likely to get a divorce. The article relates to our topic of marriage that we are talking about this week. I overall liked the study. I found it to be very interesting, since it typically isn’t something you think about. It was just a rather long article.
In the article I found, the researchers are studying polygamy and the effect it has on the children they reproduce in the marriage. Polygamy is a marriage where one man is married to more than one woman. In some cultures, it is seen as a man having economic success. Polygamy is common where farming requires a large labor force, in which the children are valued for this force. They also provide their parents with emotional support and to be able to take care of their parents as the parents enter old age. Men are the leaders in a polygamy marriage and reproducing boys is more favorable than reproducing girls.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, research is still inconclusive on the effect of children in polygamous families, there seems to be an impact on their children. These include mental health issues, social problems and difficulties with academics. I think these negative impacts are enough evidence that polygamous marriages should not be allowed. After reading about how much authority the father has in the relationship and what that could potentially do to the wife and children, polygamous marriage is a negative way to spend your life with a man.
Hamdan, S., Auerbach, J., & Apter, A. (2009). Polygamy and mental health of adolescents. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 18(12), 755-760. doi:10.1007/s00787-009-0034-7
key words: polygamy, mental health
Carmalt, J.H., Cawley, J., Joyner, K. & Sobal, J. (2008). Body weight and matching with a physically attractive romantic partner. Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol 70: 1287–1296
ReplyDeleteIn this article, the authors studied the physical attractiveness of both people in a relationship along with their weight. They hypothesized that obese people would be less likely to have a physically attractive partner. Although things like grooming, economic success, education and personality would positively correlate with finding a physically attractive mate. The study used 1405 males and 1405 females in relationships all within the age range of 18-24. This study discovered that people would more likely trade education for physical attraction.
Last week we discussed sex appeal and what makes one physically attractive. So this relates to that topic because physical attractiveness can affect every part of one’s life from mate selection to one’s career. Everyone likes to say it’s what is on the inside that counts but I feel this study shows what really matters to most individuals. It would be ideal to think that people aren't focused just on looks but that is definitely not the case.
Eastwick, P.W., Finkel, E.J., Mochon, D., &Ariely, D. (2007). Selective versus unselective romantic desire: Not all reciprocity is created equal. Association for Psychological Science, 18(4), 317-319.
ReplyDeletehttp://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usd.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=9&sid=612637fe-1418-4fb1-b2d1-8c2db2e6a1dd%40sessionmgr113&hid=125
This article relates to the discussion of reciprocal liking in Chapter 9. Reciprocal liking is the concept of liking someone because simply because they like you. After reading this article, I realized it actually is sited in the section on reciprocal liking. It makes sense that one would be more inclined to like someone who expresses a like for them. Generally you are more interested and engaging with people you like, and therefore it would only follow that they would be inclined to like you better as well. However, this concept has its limits, which this article/study addresses.
To experiment with the concept of reciprocal liking, Eastwick et al. utilized a speed dating system with 156 undergraduates. The students were given 4 minute dates with 9 to 13 members of the opposite sex. Between speed-dates, the subjects were given a 2 minute survey regarding the interaction. Questions used a 9 point rating system from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” and asked things about whether the subject liked the other person, was sexually attracted to them, felt chemistry, etc. In addition, after subjects went home, they were asked to go online to submit a “yes” or “no” regarding whether they would go on a subsequent date with each individual. The results of the study show that reciprocal liking is very much in play, at least on speed dates. If one person uniquely liked another person, it was likely that feeling would be mutual. What is truly interesting in this case, however, was that when someone had a very “general” like for everyone, it was unlikely that reciprocal liking would occur. This is because these individuals were regarded as “unselective” by others.
It is interesting how this simple study demonstrates such a widely negatively held opinion- “fake” people are undesirable. I usually tend to dislike people who seem to just love everyone. If you get along perfectly with and want to be close to everyone, you probably have a shallow personality yourself, allowing it to change to suit every person around you. For this reason, I think the findings of this study make perfect sense. If someone likes everyone, I don’t feel special and feel no need to exert the effort to show a preference for them.
Kelmer, G., Rhoades, G. K., Stanley, S., & Markman, H. J. (2013). Relationship Quality, Commitment, and Stability in Long-Distance Relationships. Family Process, 52(2), 257-270. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2012.01418.x
ReplyDeleteThis research article examined the differences in long distance versus close-proximity relationships, and which type of relationship had higher levels of quality, love, fun, conversation, and sexual satisfaction. This research article had three difference hypotheses, each stating that one type of relationship would have a higher quality than the other. The participants of the study were 345 men and 525 women, in which 161 of these participants were in a long distance relationship ranging from 52 to 10,000 miles. This type of research was experimental, and the procedure included a telephone call sampling in which they reported how many miles they lived from their partner as well as ranking on a scale questions such as love, fun, sexual satisfaction, conversation quality, dedication, stability and others. The results for this study concluded that individuals in long-distance relationships reported higher levels of relationship quality on variables such as higher levels of dedications than the individuals in close-proximity relationships. However, the long distance relationship individuals and the close-proximity relationship individuals were similar in perceived and material constraints. Also, individuals in long distance relationships were just as likely to break up by the time of the next assessment as the individuals in close-proximity relationships were.
This article relates to chapters 9 and 10 because these chapters essentially cover love and relationships. I was very surprised by the results of this study, and while I wouldn’t have necessarily thought that long distance relationships were any more unsatisfied than close-proximity relationships, I did think that long distance relationships had a higher chance of breaking up.
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ReplyDeleteThis article talks about premarital cohabitation. The article has several studies included and they all kind of came to the same conclusion. People cohabitate to weed out the divorces. People cohabitate to learn more about each other and the little things that could make a marriage work. It is like a screening period. If you can live together (cohabitate) then you would be able to get married and live a long life together. People use this as a way to learn more about the other person. It had one study that they asked a bunch of high school seniors about cohabitation before marriage and they all thought it was a great idea. They thought just because they love each other when they aren't around each other that much that this will show the truth on if they really do love each other and if they will be able to live together.
ReplyDeletePeople also found it financially better in the long term because when they are cohabitating they were able to save more money up before they got married. With the fact being that they wouldn't buy as much stuff and just save for their future. With half of first time marriages ending in divorce this is an easy way of not being a statistic. A lot of people who was previously married and had kids found this to be a way to also make sure that the children would get along and would be able to handle the fact that their parent is in a new relationship.
I find all this stuff about cohabitation interesting. For me it wasn't an option because my wife and I had a child while we was in high school and the right way to do it was get married as soon as we could. We was one of the few that was able to make it work. But after going through that and losing my wife if I were to ever get in another relationship where marriage was a possibility I would cohabitate. It isn't so much the fact that I want to make sure I could live with this person it would be for my children. Cohabitation in my eyes is the best way to make sure you can spend a large amount of time with one person before you decide you want to marry them.
Manning, W. D., & Cohen, J. A. (2012). Premarital cohabitation and marital dissolution: An examination of recent marriages. Journal Of Marriage And Family, 74(2), 377-387. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00960.x
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usd.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&sid=b2d3819e-517c-4658-b047-17ef62528ebe%40sessionmgr113&hid=103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=2012-07532-011
Salmon, N. (2013)."We Just Stick Together": How Disabled Teens Negotiate Stigma to Create Lasting Friendship. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 57(4), 347-358. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01541.x
ReplyDeleteThe article discusses friendships between disabled teens on how the make friendships and how the keep them for a lasting period of time. The researcher took seven disabled teens that have been treated differently from others from different areas and their friends which the majority were disabled themselves and the researchers looked at how they interacted with each other in a qualitative study. They would do interviews the would consist of the teen talking about their friend. The results showed that the teens felt liked they belonged when their friend was also disabled, because they had a connection with each other. They knew what it was like to be segregated from the others they were able to connect to each other from the similar experiences.
The article relates to chapter 9 is with friendship. The teens trusted and confided in each other, showed emotional support, and make each other feel happy and not isolated and lonely.
I thought this was an interesting article and I understand why the disabled teens felt a sense of friendship with those with disability experience, because it is a connection. The connection could brought them closer and they were able to understand each other when most cannot.
ReplyDeletePahns, A.L., Bransombe, N.R. (2010) Effects of Legitimizing discrimination against homosexuals on gay bashing. John Wiley and Sons European Journal of Social Psychology. 41(3). 388-396.
This was a study to test the hypothesis that legitimacy of discrimination against homosexuals with heterosexual men will be higher and they will engage in more verbal gay bashing. The experiment was set up using a computer harassment paradigm. The theory behind this study was the social identity theory. This theory talks about how groups have group based self-esteem and that there is a collective guilt and a collective anxiety involved with one’s group to influence their opinion. What would happen is that a heterosexual man would engage in conversation with a partner whom he was presumed to be homosexual. Then the heterosexual participant was told whether the discrimination of homosexuals was legitimate or illegitimate. Then there was a list of comments that served as the dependent variable that the participant could look at which would manipulate his thoughts for conversation. The results of the study after many trials found that participants sent more offensive comments when the discrimination was affirmed. There was a correlation between when the participants were affirmed with the discrimination compared to when they were not.
This relates to topics in chapter nine because of the idea behind homosexuality. This article also ties in to what we have discussed in class by talking about discrimination. I think that this study just shows that people will say anything when given the opportunity too and that people really do go along with the group whether what they are doing is right or wrong and I think that is a sad thing. I think society in a way needs a backbone to not conform to the bad things but to stand up for what is right. I do not think a personal choice should allow for such discrimination.
Rohmann, E., Bierhoff, H., & Schmohr, M. (2011). Narcissism and perceived inequity in attractiveness in romantic relationships. European Psychologist, 16(4), 295-302. doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000025
ReplyDeleteIn this article, researchers conducted a study on correlation between narcissism and perceived inequity in attractiveness in romantic relationships by asking the question, "Does narcissism fuel self-serving judgmental tendencies in the evaluation of own attractiveness relative to the attractiveness of the partner?" Researchers hypothesized that highly narcissistic individuals have a tendency to "distort the assessment of equity in attractiveness." Traits such as self-esteem, self-evaluation, self-enhancement, and the self-serving bias into consideration when conducting this study, as there is a direct link between narcissism, relationship equity, and all of those qualities. Three studies were done on students and married couples to test the aforementioned hypothesis; the results showed that, when it came to equity, women generally felt less benefited than man in terms of attractiveness. While equity in attractiveness could be attributed to self-esteem, narcissism was still shown to be a a significant predictor of equity. In this study, then, the link between narcissism and perceived inequity was attributed to the process of self-enhancement. As self-enhancement processes can commonly be seen in narcissists, the study results supported the researchers' claim.
I found this study very interesting, and it covered a wide range of topics we have discussed in class. Narcissism and its effects on self-esteem and self-enhancement is not necessarily new information, but the fact that it can extend to affect even romantic relationships is. Attraction is a key quality when it comes to forming relationships. Narcissistic individuals show this in the tendency to have an inflated view of their own appearance relative to their partner's. This could be attributed to a narcissist's desire to be the most attractive individual in the room and emphasis on entitlement in interpersonal self-regulation.
Key words: attraction, self-esteem, self-enhancement, narcissism
Kelmer, G., Rhoades, G. K., Stanley, S., & Markman, H. J. (2013). Relationship Quality, Commitment, and Stability in Long-Distance Relationships. Family Process, 52(2), 257-270. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2012.01418.x
ReplyDeleteThe researchers, in this article, were comparing long-distance relationships with close-proximity relationships in terms of quality, fun, love, sexual satisfaction, conversational quality, stability, and problematic communication. In the study, the researchers found that long-distance relationships generally had higher levels of quality and dedication in their relationships than close-proximity relationships. Long-distance relationships also had lower levels of feeling trapped. In the end, long-distance relationships had the same chances as close-proximity relationships to break up between the time of the study and the follow-up.
This article relates to chapters 9 and 10 because they deal a lot with relationships and love. This was an article that brought to light long-distance relationships and things that people in those relationships deal with compared to those in close-proximity relationships. I was surprised by the fact that long-distance relationships had higher levels of quality and dedication because I figured that close-proximity relationships would have higher levels all around. There is so much gossip that goes around about long-distance relationships not being able to work out that I just figured it was because they weren’t as good as close-proximity relationships. After reading the article, I know that there are many factors that play into the success of a relationship,
Kittinger, R., Correia, C. J., & Irons, J. G. (2012). Relationships between Facebook use and problematic Internet use among college students. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(6), 324-327. Retrieved from ebscohost.com
ReplyDeleteThe researchers of this study are examining how the use of Facebook relates to problematic Internet use. They had a population of 281 undergraduate participants complete a battery of self-report measures, including the Internet Addiction Test which would be similar to the one we completed in class. The researchers found that a sizeable amount of participants reported occasional or frequent problems in life because of their use of the Internet. The data suggested that there was some gender difference that may need further exploration. There were also a lot of individual differences. The use of Facebook may contribute to the severity of symptoms associated with Internet addiction. This article relates to chapter 10 when it talks about the Internet and close relationships. People use social networks to stay in contact and communicate with friends and family who live far away.
My overall reaction to this article is that I do believe that people of my generation are starting to become addicted to the Internet. With immediate access through our phones, it is so easy to just open your Facebook or Twitter for a few minutes. I believe these numbers with eventually get higher and higher.
Leung, A., & McBride-Chang, C. (2013). Game on? Online friendship, cyberbullying, and psychosocial adjustment in Hong Kong Chinese children. Journal Of Social And Clinical Psychology, 32(2), 159-185. doi:10.1521/jscp.2013.32.2.159
ReplyDeleteIn Hong Kong, China, children ages 11-13 years old were compared on online bullying and real life real life bullying. This study focuses on friendship and bulling within children, both in school and online during computer gaming. The goal of the research is to figure out if there is an association of friendship and bullying to more general aspects of children’s psychosocial adjustment (Leung & McBride-Change, 2013). Since children are playing games at younger and younger ages, the researchers wanted to see if online social experiences had an effect on a child’s well-being. The children within four schools who agreed to the study were given online questionnaire about the frequency and time spent on computer or video games. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) were the main focus of this study. The children were asked if their best friends played the same MMOG and if their game involved violence or not. The Friendship Quality scale asked several questions about their online and real life friends. As results, boys spend more time than girls playing MMOGs. Only 8% of students reported being victimized in the school context, whereas 11.2% reported heavy bullying and victimization on online games. Real life friendships showed more significance in psychological well-being as compared to online friendships. Real life friendships also showed positive correlations in social competence, friendship satisfaction, and life satisfaction, but not self-esteem. Students friendships online had a negative correlation with cyber-victimization and friendship satisfaction. Boys were found to benefit more from real life friendships than girls. However, no gender was found to be more significant for online friendships.
This article explains how online relationships and real life relationships have a difference. Even though they were comparing online relationships through video games, it still showed a negative significance of friendship satisfaction. This relates a lot to our chapters when talking about friendships and relationships. In order to have a good connection with someone, good communication and no distractions should be involved. With children, video games and other types of technology can be distractors. Like we've talked about in class, text messages or online messages can be interpreted incorrectly due to the absence of nonverbal cues or face-to-face interactions.
My reaction to the results of this study was not very surprising. I find that typing messages rather than face-to-face interactions has an impact on how well a friendship or relationship works. What did surprise me was that boy had benefited more from real life interactions than girls. I figured this result would have been the opposite since girls usually have a larger amount of friends around them. I find that technology has diminished some of our society’s communication and relationship skills in friendly or professional interactions. People have started to rely on technology to stay connected with friends more, rather than actually meeting up with them to catch up.
Pagano, U. (2013). Love, war and cultures: An institutional approach to human evolution. Journal Of Bioeconomics, 15(1), 41-66. doi:10.1007/s10818-012-9136-2
ReplyDeletePagano's article “Love, War, and Cultures: An Institutional Approach to Human Evolution” discusses the co-dependent relationship of war and love as it relates to our modern day society. The old adhege says, 'make love, not war' when its actually more like 'make love AND war.' Humans, like all animals, look for the strongest, most resourceful mate in order to pass on their genes successfully. This article mainly concentrated on the male's evolution, so I'll only mention the male perspective. A strong, resourceful male in ancient times was able to hunt, gather, and provide for his family in that way. As society civilized, love became more like a set of property rights. Language and goods controlled who had sex with who. The most resourceful male was not the most physical strong, but the most well spoken and the one with most land. This trend continued for a long time, until the 1900s. With the onset of the Great World Wars and the fall of the the world's economies, land and property was no longer the world's reliable love barter system. As this study states, in order to compensate for this loss, men have begun to revert back to olden times. Because of the increased aggression and demand for alpha males in war, the more attractive and successful male has again become the stereotypical physically strong male. Of course, this does not mean that those who are well spoken and well off do not do well, look at today's CEO's and anyone on Wall Street; however, on a global scale this study says this is where humanity's so called mating trends are moving towards.
My reaction to the article is that it's probably fairly accurately, if not a little too quick to generalize. You always hear about how the “nice guys” finish last and jerk guys, the stereotypical alpha guys, are always with someone. I found the study really interesting. The fact that history is in fact repeating itself, at least according to this article, is slightly disconcerting but really cool at the same time.
Madey, S. F., & Rodgers, L. (2009). The Effect of Attachment and Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love on Relationship Satisfaction. Individual Differences Research, 7(2), 76-84.
ReplyDeleteThis study investigated the association between attachment and intimacy, passion, and commitment (proposed in Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love). The hypothesis was that greater independence is associated with less satisfaction. Also that intimacy, passion, and commitment will correlate with the relationships satisfaction items and with the satisfaction score. The study measured attachment style of the 55 participants using a relationship scales questionnaire. The participants rated with question on a scale of 1 (not like me) to 5 ( very much like me). Intimacy, passion, and commitment were measured using Sternberg’s Triangular Love Scale. Participants indicated 1 (not at all) to 9 (extremely) to the statements about intimacy, passion, and commitment. Relationship satisfaction was measured using past research to develop a relationship satisfaction scale. The participants used a 1-5 scale and rated each question. The study found that relationships longer in length did correlate with greater commitment. Greater insecurity was associated with less intimacy, passion, and commitment in relationship and with less satisfaction. A marginally significant correlation was observed between the close-independent dimension and the composite relationships satisfaction score. There was a correlation that was consistent with the hypothesis. That means that the researcher’s predictions were correct. All in all the study found that the two types of attachment secure-insecure and close-independent are linked to intimacy, passion, and commitment. The association between secure attachment and relationship satisfaction is mediated by intimacy and commitment.
I found this study to be very interesting. Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love is a very interesting theory by its self, but when you think about how attachment style could factor into this. Most of the findings were not very surprising. Such as longer relationships have greater commitment. I did find it interesting that secure attachment did not need passion. I thought that to have a secure attachment that all three intimacy, passion, and commitment would be needed. I think that this relates to chapter nines material. Relationships are a very tricky thing to master. This study found that there is one more aspect to factor in (attachment style). I think that this is something to look into. Who knows, maybe there is another aspect such as attachment style, a relationship needs to have to reach consummate love.
Luo, S., & Zhang, G. (2009). What Leads to Romantic Attraction: Similarity, Reciprocity, Security, or Beauty? Evidence From a Speed-Dating Study. Journal Of Personality, 77(4), 933-964. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00570.x
ReplyDeleteThe researchers in this article are examining single college students around the age of 19.5. The research of the students was done about speed dating and the characteristics that are found to be important and attractive to the opposite sex. The participants went through three stages of the study being the pre-event, at-event, and post-event. During these stages, questionnaires were used in order to find out the participants characteristics such as demographic variables, interests, values, big five personality, affectivity, attachment, self-esteem, and attraction. The questionnaires included questions that measured these areas and data was recorded for the readings on men and women in separate columns. By using this data, it was shown how men and women are attracted to each other based on these areas. With the data collected, it was then mapped out which characteristics were most important to each sex when speed dating. For men it was narrowed down to 12 characteristics which then helped to conclude that mean like women who are confident, older, lighter, attractive, and physically active. The results for women only showed 2 characteristics that created a significant correlation which were physical attractiveness and men's involvement in sports. Because of the larger correlations for the men, they are more easily predicted for their reasons of attraction than the women. After this basis information was gathered, the concept of reciprocity was looked at. It was shown that reciprocal liking was true for this study of speed dating. When one of the people found out that someone had taken an interest for them, they then began to have a stronger attraction for that person. In the conclusion of this test, physical attractiveness showed to be the most important predictor for speed dating. They also concluded that reciprocal liking was present but that the concept of similarity did not have any evidence to support it through this study.
This article related to chapter 9 where initial encounters and getting acquainted were discussed. Different concepts such as physical attractiveness, physique, reciprocal liking, and similarity were discussed and how they are effected and used during things such as speed dating. My reaction to this article is that I expected some of the outcomes for the men and women. I was kind of surprised that there was no evidence to show that similarity was a concept and I would be interested to see if other studies show that this is an aspect of attraction in other circumstances. Overall, I found this article interesting because I've never known if speed dating was effective or what people actually base their attraction from when you only meet people for 5 minutes at a time.
This article dealt the mostly the concept of attraction and relationships. The reaseachers studied non-heterosexual males and females from adolescence to adult hood and the difficulty of them finding a way to come out about their sexuality. Also, the researched the process of them finding their way into the gay and lesbian community and feeling accepted by them. The researchers also studied the effects of the pressure of being homosexual. It was found that they were more likely to be depressed and anxious during adolescence. One of the approaches the researchers also did dealt with physical attraction. It started with people not knowing how to deal with attraction unless they understood their sexual identity. As stated earlier, it is difficult for people that are homosexual to understand their sexuality at first. This shows how it is hard to understand attraction until you figure out who you are as a person first. Attraction is something involuntary and something we usually cannot understand. This article shows how no matter who you are attracted to and in a relationship with it doesn't matter the sexual orientation. All the matters is how you feel about them and the attraction and love between the couple. In the lecture we also discussed how a domestic partnership is a type of close relationship. The characteristics of these types of relationships are the same as every other type of relationship. These characteristics include being long lasting and very important. Close relationships are something every person wants to have.
ReplyDeleteMy reaction to the article just confirmed my prior beliefs. I believe that you cannot help who you are attached to and it all starts with sexual orientation. It is a big problem in todays society with same sex marriage. I am for same sex marriage for the reasons I previously listed. Studies like these show how important love and attraction are important in relationships and everyday life.
Johns, Michelle. & Zimmerman Marc. (2013). Sexual attraction, sexual identity, and psychosocial wellbeing in a national sample of young women during emerging adulthood. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. Vol 42(1), Jan, 2013. pp. 82-95.
Playing the field? Does actual or perceived relationship status of another influence ratings of physical attractiveness among young adults?
ReplyDeleteO’Sullivan, L.F., Vannier, S. A. (2013). Playing the field? Does actual or perceived relationship status of another influence ratings of physical attractiveness among young adults?. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 45, 210-219. doi: 1-4338-1666-0 978-1-4338-1666-6
The article I found questioned the idea of whether or not you are found more attractive to the opposite sex when you are in a relationship. I have always found it to be true that when I am in a relationship or “off the market”, women will be more interested in me, but when I am single, well it is the opposite. That is why I chose to read this article to see if that idea holds water. The way the study was conducted, was that individual were shown photos of the opposite sex and judged their attractiveness, whether they would be a good partner, etc., one group without knowing their relationship status, and another knowing their relationship status. There were three over reaching goals in this study: (1) to assess whether people who are deemed more attractive are more likely to be seen as a better partner (2) to determine whether a person’s relationship influenced their perceived attractiveness, and (3) to explore whether an individual’s relationship status influences their judgment on whether or not another individual is attractive.
What the study found when determining goal (1) was that those whom are deemed more attractive are seen to be a more desirable partner. A halo effect is created and the assumption is made that if they are better looking they will be a better partner. Another thing discovered while researching this goal was them men saw more women to more attractive compared to how women saw men. Meaning that an “attractive women” receive much higher ratings compared to an “attractive man”. In goal (2) were people whom are believe to be in relationship more attractive? For men, as a short term partner yes, but as a long term partner no, they are believed to be less attractive and needier. For women, men in relationships are seen to be more attractive. They call this the “wedding ring effect” where it is believed that the man has been vetted by other women and are believed to be more desirable. And for goal (3), participants of the study that were in a relationship saw others to be generally less attractive; that meaning that they rated an individual less attractive compared to the rating given to the same person by a single individual.
This study relates to Chapter 9 in many ways. It deals with the physical attractiveness of another and questions what influenced the perceived attractiveness of that person. I believe it fulfilled both aspects of the resource exchange theory. Men were more apt to judge women based purely on physical attractiveness, and that was the most important thing to them. While women believed that a man who is in a relationship is more desirable. That being similar to the parental investment theory, if the man was approved and vetted, he is more attractive and seen to have more to offer.
This article reaffirmed my beliefs that women found a man in a relationship more attractive. (I knew it!). It also made sense that a man would be more interested in purely the physical attractiveness of the woman. It is very primal of us. It was funny that a woman who was in a longer relationship was thought of as needy and that was a turn off to men. Also very evolutionary, the idea that we just want to have less obligations (less involvement in the conception of a child than a woman).
Madathil, J., & Benshoff, J. (2008). Importance of marital characteristics and marital satisfaction: A comparison of asian indians in arranged marriages and americans in marriages of choice . The Family Journal , 16(3), 222-230. doi: 10.1177/1066480708317504
ReplyDeleteThe article I chose looked at marital satisfaction levels between people in arranged marriages and free choice marriages. The study’s participants were broken down into three groups; Americans in marriages of choice, Indians in arranged marriages in India, and Indians in arranged marriages in the United States. The researchers used the characteristics of marriage inventory to measure the marital satisfaction. This inventory lists eighteen characteristics of marriage and asks the participants to rate the importance and feeling of satisfaction of each on a scale from one to six. The researchers also used a demographic questionnaire to collect personal data from the participants. The study’s results suggest that participants living in the United States that are involved in arranged marriages have higher marital satisfaction then those will free choice marriages. So essentially if you wish to have higher feelings of marital satisfaction you should become part of an arranged marriage. The reason this article relates to our reading is because marital satisfaction is a key component to a lasting marriage. The reason I chose this article was because my friend and I were discussing how odd an arranged marriage would be. I was against the idea of someone else deciding whom I would marry because I believe you should have a connection with that person first. I guess this article shows the success potential of an arranged marriage and maybe I shouldn’t rule it out as a possibility.
Langeslag, S. E., Muris, P., & Franken, I. A. (2013). Measuring Romantic Love:
ReplyDeletePsychometric Properties of the Infatuation and Attachment Scales. Journal Of Sex
Research, 50(8), 739-747.
In the article I found the researchers were try to gain information about relational love by differentiating between attachment and infatuation. For the purpose of this study they defined infatuation as a physical attraction or passionate love. On the other hand attachment was defined as companionate love that deals more with a feeling of emotional closeness. Looking at those two parts of love individually they found that there was a negative correlation between infatuation and time since the start of the infatuation. This makes sense to me as I see infatuation as kind of like a new toy to a child. It is really exciting when it is new but as they have it for a while that infatuation and initial excitement kind of wears off. Attachment on the other had had a positive correlation with time since start of the infatuation. This also makes sense logically because as people get to know one another on a more personal level it would make sense for emotional bonds to form. Although the results seem logical even to the point of obvious it is interesting to have research-backed evidence.
The article I used talks about sexual expectations from one partner to another because of the power role the other has in a relationship. The studies show that the person in a relationship that shows to be the more powerful is expected o be dominant in the sexual part of a relationship as well as having more expectation in bed in general. This article relates to what we talk about about attractiveness and expectations because it talks about the attractiveness of an assertive partner and the feelings that are associated with this attraction. It also talks about how people of opposite power positions are attracted to each other. I personally think that this is a very true argument. Because peoples personas outside of a sexual relationships are translated to the expectations of their sexual performance.
ReplyDeleteKunstman, J. W., & Maner, J. K. (2011). Sexual overperception: Power, mating motives, and biases in social judgment. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 100(2), 282-294. doi:10.1037/a0021135
Bodenmann, G., Kaiser, A., Hahlweg, K., & Fehm-Wolfsdorf, G. (1998). Communication patterns during marital conflict: A cross-cultural representation. Personal Relationships, 5(3), 343-356. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.1998.tb00176.x
ReplyDeleteThe researcher in this article are examining communication between married couples during conflicts. Before they could do their research they had to look at past researches and found that the majority of the communication questionnaires aimed to measure the aspects of individual communication among both partners independently. While doing this the researchers neglected the importance of reciprocal features. Such research questionnaires include the MCI (Marital Communication Inventory) and the PCI (Primary Communication Inventory). Once the researchers looked over these questionnaires they proceeded with their research. What they did was ask couples to answer the Communication Patterns Questionnaire (CPQ) and the Partnership Questionnaire (PFB). After the researchers gathered the questionnaires and looked at the findings they found that the results supported the notion that the duration of the relationship and age are correlated with poorer communication. A possible reasoning that could be the cause for this is a relationship that isn't satisfying. This relates to the chapters we are covering because it is something that occurs in friendships and personal relationships. This can occur in many relationships because there are times where you can come to a halt in your relationship that causes you to become less than satisfied. Most times this occurs in long-term relationships and the age the people are while in the relationship. a reason this is possible is probably due to the lack of communication or bad communication between each other due to one side of the relationship quits trying.
I wasn't surprised by the research. I can understand that age can be a big factor in how couples or friends communicate. The older you get while being in a long-term relationship can help and hinder those in the relationship. It can help because you might just have to give the other person a look and they know what you are saying. However, this can hinder your relationship because you are not really communicating anymore which can cause you to feel less than satisfied in your relationship because you are no longer having a conversation with one another.
Whitton, S. W., Stanley, S. M., Markman, H. J., & Johnson, C. A. (2013). Attitudes toward divorce, commiment, and divorce proneness in first marriages and remarriages. Journal of Marriage and Family, 75(2), 276-287.
ReplyDeleteThe researches examined if people who had been divorced before were more prone towards divorce then people in their first marriage. They used a multistate sample of 1,931 married individuals.
Researchers are studying the correlation between if people have been divorced before and their likelihood to get divorced again if the marriage is going bad. Researches found that people who are on their second or more marriages will turn to divorce more easily and quickly then people who are still on their first marriage. They had a more positive attitude towards divorce.
This article relates to course material because it talks about divorce and marriage, which are covered in chapter ten.
I can see how they would get these results and I am kind of surprised by them. Part of me can see why people who have already been divorced are more prone to it. They may feel since they went through it once that it is not a big deal to do it again and that they can just find another person to marry. I also think that if you were already divorce once you may want to try even harder to make this one work and because you do not want to feel like you have failed twice and do not want to go through another messy divorce. I think to that if you have been divorce once you would want to not rush into another marriage for fear that it may end the same way.
Ponzetti, James. "Loneliness among college students." Family Relations 39.3 (1990): 336-340. JSTOR. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
ReplyDeleteOverall, loneliness exists in every age group. However, research has suggested that young adults tend to be particularly vulnerable to feelings of loneliness. Many studies suggest that loneliness is common problem amongst young adults. The article reviewed many empirical research documents to determine the effects of loneliness on college student and in order to understand the importance of it. Researchers were able to determine a fairly comprehensive profile of the lonely college student. College students that are considered lonely tend to be unhappy and have few positive emotional experiences. Their lives lack a health amount of intimacy, commitment, and passion due to poor people skills and shy dispositions. A strong correlation between depression and feelings of loneliness was also found in a number of studies, though whether being depressed brought on loneliness or if loneliness brought on depression was not made clear. I found this article to be kind of an explanation of the obvious; there are introverts and there are extraverts. It has long been known that many introverts have feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, and even depression due to either lack of social skills or motivation to socialize. This article basically made it clear that even though this is true for all age groups, it seems to be especially true in college age humans who are figuring themselves out for the first time.
Sable, P. (1993). Pets, Attachment, and Well Being Across the Life Span. 334-341.
ReplyDeleteThis article looks at the benefits of having a family pet. According to Sable, having a family pet enhances and enriches the quality of life. Having a pet also lowers blood pressure, reduces loneliness, and in older adults, can have an inverse relations with depression. Pet therapy also has done a great deal to help children, medical patients, aide in helping of depression, and help the elderly. All of these relationships have proven to align with Bowlby's Attachment Theory. People's emotional well-being is influenced through relationships. Pets benefit their owners physically, psychologically, and socially. I complete agree with this article and have seen good results firsthand.
Remember, we don't "prove" anything, just make suggestions based on research findings.
DeleteTach, L. M., & Halpern-Meekin, S. (2012). Marital Quality and Divorce Decisions: How Do Premarital Cohabitation and Nonmarital Childbearing Matter?. Family Relations, 61(4), 571-585. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2012.00724.x
ReplyDeleteThis article examines how cohabiting affects marriage. Not only does it talk about cohabiting before marriage, but it also talks about the effects of cohabitation on children born out of wedlock. Quality of marriage between couples who cohabited before marriage and couples who did not is also studied. What the researchers in the article found was that cohabitation does not raise the chances of divorce as previous studies suggested. This study in particular found that whether or not couples cohabited before marriage did not have a significant effect on divorce rates. What they did find was that couples who cohabited prior to marriage were more likely to end not only low quality marriages, but high quality marriages as well. Couples who never cohabited were more likely to stay in unsatisfying marriages. The exception is cohabiting women without children – these former cohabiters were more likely to stay in an unhappy marriage than formerly cohabitating women with one or more children.
Reading the article, I expected that the researchers would find that cohabiting actually increased communication and general satisfaction in relationships that would eventually turn to marriage. Once these marriages were formalized, I thought that they would be happier than couples who cohabited. The research in the article indicates that cohabiters experience the same levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction as couples who did not live together before marriage. This was not extremely surprising and it was easy for me to see why.
I believe that the reason cohabiters are more likely to divorce is because it is probable that they have left situations where they lived with their partner before. They know what to expect and therefore are more likely to go through with divorce proceedings. People who did not cohabit never had this experience and this could possibly lead to them staying in marriages they would rather leave because they do not know how to deal with the divorce. Another factor is that a lot of people who do not cohabit may have value systems that view divorce as a very negative process.
I was equally surprised that women without children were more likely to divorce than women without children. Before reading this article, I thought the exact opposite. Childless women have only themselves to worry about financially after a breakup or divorce, which I thought would make it easier to leave. After reading this article, I think part of the reason these women stay in relationships they no longer find satisfying is because they are waiting for something better to come along or are afraid of being alone. I can see women with children being more likely to leave marriage because they are putting their children first. If they do not want their children to see fighting, these women are probably more likely to leave. They may be motivated to go out and create better circumstances for their children.
Key Terms: Divorce, Marriage, Cohabiting, Couples, Effects of Cohabitation on Children
Schneider, I., Zilberstein-Kra, Y., Leckman, J. F., Feldman, R. (2011). Love Alters Autonomic Reactivity to Emotions. Emotion, 11(6), 1314-1321. doi: 10.1037/a0024090
ReplyDeleteThe article I chose discussed how the autonomic system reacts when someone is "in new love." This article doesn't discuss a ton that is super relevant with any of the material in our text, but I just got done learning how drugs affect the autonomic system in my drug use and abuse class so this was interesting to me. Our book does briefly discuss the course of romantic love and basically says that passion - the fun, exciting, new, happy part of love - fades after so long. In this study done, the participants were either single or in a newly formed relationship (2 weeks to 4 months). They showed movie clips to the participants that showed a positive scene related to a relationship, one that wasn't, the same for a negative scene, and then a scene that evoked no emotion (waves crashing on a shore). The results showed that people in new relationships had less negative brain activity than those who were single. At the end of the study, it said that further studies such as testing those who were just post breakup, in the middle of a long-term relationship, etc. should be done to see how results match up. I think it would be interesting to continue studying. I also think it is seriously so crazy that love can affect the actual chemicals released in the amounts they are released, etc. This can be referred back to what affects happiness which we studied earlier in the semester. Love was listed as a top priority.
This article just makes me think of the saying, "Love is blind." Kind of like, people are blind to all the bad things going on until after love is broken. I would be interested to see the results of the other follow-up studies they were going to do.
I found an interesting article about how man and women look at not only the opposite sex but also how they look at the same sex and how they judge both of them. They predicted and were correct that women looked at the same sex longer than men. And men looked at the opposite sex longer than women did. In saying this the gap between men and women and looking at the opposite sex and the same sex, women had a smaller gap. They also looked at the difference on how heterosexual men and women rated both the same and opposite sex. When men rated men they rated on more of hard scale with lots of low scores and very slim high scores, but when men rated women the scores where flipped with many high scores and not so many low scores. Such as the men the women did not rate the men’s pictures very high which tells me that there was just not that many attractive men in the study. They also rated the women pretty low, but with more balance compared to the men. This article really just proves the same correlation between men and women and how they view the same and opposite sex. We can look at this study and see that men are a lot more likely to not to look at another man and willing to say he is attractive; unlike women who can look at the same sex pictures and be much less bias. Also men saw the good side more in women then the women saw in men. This was an interesting article but most of it was just proving what most people thought was true.
ReplyDeleteIsrael, E., & Strassberg, D. S. (2009). Viewing time as an objective measure of sexual interest in heterosexual men and women. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38(4), 551-8. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-007-9246-4
Remember we can't "prove" through research...we can make suggestions and show relationships, though!
DeleteBjorklund, David F., Shackelford, Todd K. (2010, January 4) retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usd.edu/ehost/detail?vid=5&sid=0d0d860b-046a-423f-b289-1b5f03693c25%40sessionmgr115&hid=113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=1999-08222-004
ReplyDeleteThe article examines factors surround the choosing of mating partners and for parental partners for men and women. It explores how a lack of a father or marital problems in the home can lead to more emphasis in mating, earlier in life, than parenting. While a father in the home with a stable relationship produces offspring less interested in mating and more interested in parenting. The article also goes into depth about how humans invest more time in the raising of their offspring than any other mammal, and how this is beneficial in the raising of children because of the long time it takes to mature. The article also describes how human women may have evolved to select mates who would pass along good genes as well as invest in them and their offspring.
Overall I found this article very interesting because evolutionary psychology greatly interests me. The how and why of people getting together is a lot deeper than I had ever thought in my younger days.
This article talks about how therapists for couples need to reflect on what love means to them. Relationships can define love and love can define the relationship. Exploring the term love and "I love you" really can influence couple therapy.
ReplyDeleteMigerode, L., & Hooghe, A. (2012). ‘I love you’. How to understand love in couple therapy? Exploring love in context. Journal of Family Therapy. 34(4), 371-386.
ReplyDeleteThe researchers are examining how love defines a relationship and how that relationship defines love. They look at love and how it influences couples in therapy. The simple phrase of ‘I love you’ leads to built-in contradictions and these contradictions can play a major role in therapy. The researchers use the method of observation to monitor the dialogue and body language of couples at therapy sessions. There proved to be a strong correlation between embracing opposing forces and ongoing dialogue. The researchers found that therapeutic conversations are directed at creating room for continuing conversations. They also concluded that it is no necessarily reaching an agreement that is important for couples; it is the ongoing dialogue that matters. Some dialogues between the forces are inherent to love. Losing the tension between the forces would make love lose its power. The fear of losing this powerful love is what tends to keep couples together in the long run.
This article relates to Chapter 9: Friendship and Love. Love is known as a mysterious subject so studies are continuously done in the field to improve relationships. Love differs from relationship to relationship, such as work relations or your intimate relations. Learning how love works and how love can be defined is a very valuable tool to society. This article was very interesting to read through. It was a dense read with a lot of information, but nonetheless, it was cool to see how therapists develop theories just by observation and dialogue.
Newall, Nancy E. G. Chipperfield, Judith G. Bailis, Daniel S. Stewart, Tara L. ; Health Psychology, "Consequences of Loneliness on Physical Activity and Mortality in Older Adults and the Power of Positive Emotions" Vol 32(8), Aug, 2013. pp. 921-924.
ReplyDeleteThis study showed the relationship between loneliness, physical activity and mortality in older people, also if happiness has the power to undo some of the detrimental impact of the negative emotions. The study surveyed and interviewed 214 elderly single adults in Manitoba Canada. the studies ranked the individuals, happiness and loneliness experienced in the past week on a rating 0-3, 0 being no instances and 3 being all the time. Also they rated there physical activity in a similar fashion from 0-7. Then they checked the participants 5 years later to see who had died. The studies showed that if a person was less lonely and moderately happy they were more physically active and higher loneness correlated with lower physical activity. They also showed that loneliness was the strongest predictor of mortality each number they increased on the loneliness scale there chances of mortality rose 22%, also they showed that happiness was able to moderate the effects of loneliness. the studies showed that at low and moderate happiness, loneliness predicted morality however at higher happiness the relationship between loneliness and morality became insignificant. I enjoyed this article and noticed many ways it correlated with what we have been going over in class, noticeably the effect the power of optimism on life expectancy, happiness being used as a counterbalance for the negative emotion of lonieness, giving the scrooges out there more reason to brighten up.
- loneliness, depression, happiness
Huang, C., & Yang, S. (2013). STUDY OF ONLINE MISREPRESENTATION, SELF-DISCLOSURE, CYBER-RELATIONSHIP MOTIVES, AND LONELINESS AMONG TEENAGERS IN TAIWAN. Journal Of Educational Computing Research,48(1), 1-18.
ReplyDeleteThis study was an investigation of online relationships, online misrepresentation, self-disclosure, and loneliness in teenagers. There were 608 Taiwanese teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18. Out of all of those subjects, 429 of them have had or are in an online relationship. An Online Misrepresentation Scale was used to see what online personal information was found to be false. The OMS was divided into 5 categories and they are an external category related to physiological state, a socioeconomic category depicting social status including education and occupation, a psychological category related to affective preferences such as interest and religion, dating requirements indicating the subjects’ requirements for potential romantic partners, and a category including information that did not fit into the first four categories such as the number of the subject’s male and female friends who were currently involved in dating relationships.
Each of those categories had an average of 13 yes or no questions and every question that they answered to be a falsified online quality counted as one point towards their resulting score. The higher the score means the more deceptive that person is online. It was found that 43% of the people faked their external information as to attract someone they found desirable. It was shown that some of the falsifications were due to privacy and security concerns as the top aspects with online misrepresentations, followed by to increase attractiveness and changing one’s identity.
I was actually surprised that so many teenagers that were in the study have been in an online relationship. Ten years ago people didn’t look at online relationships as a necessity or something common in most people’s lives. I would assume that that could happen with an older age group due to wanting to start a family or just to find their significant other, but the younger generations are becoming more familiar with social media and the internet in general. I can understand changing certain things about one’s profile to protect your identity or just to stay private, but to create a false image of oneself online in pursuit to attract someone desirable is not the right thing to do. The amount of people misrepresenting themselves online is growing and the online world is becoming less credible as the years go on. Pretty soon, one won’t know what to believe or who to trust. A friendly person online could actually turn out to be of the different gender and not who believed them to be. Creating relationships based off of what you find online can be very dangerous. People are starting to depend on the internet and not use face-to-face verbal skills with a person to avoid confrontation. I’m not saying that online relationships can’t work out, but without the proper information how can a real relationship be established? You won’t truly be able to know a person unless you communicate with them in person to find out who they really are. You will also know if their looks that are perceived online are true or false.
Work Cited: Rodriguez, L. M., Øverup, C. S., & Neighbors, C. (2013). Perceptions of partners’ problematic alcohol use affect relationship outcomes beyond partner self-reported drinking: Alcohol use in committed romantic relationships. Psychology Of Addictive Behaviors, 27(3), 627-638. doi:10.1037/a0031737
ReplyDeleteThe researchers in the article "Perceptions of partners’ problematic alcohol use affect relationship outcomes beyond partner self-reported drinking: Alcohol use in committed romantic relationships." are examining the influence of alcohol on married couples. They are trying to see if alcohol and gender have anything to do with how a relationship turns out. The hypothesis the researchers were presenting is that partners percept their romantic partner's drinking as problematic to the satisfaction and commitment of their relationship. Data for the research was gathered from 320 adults that were 18-29yr olds, 340 from 30-39yr olds, and 40-64yr olds that were in a relationship. The correlation the researchers were trying to study was to see how alcohol affected the relationship of the various couples and to see the success rate of their marriage and what caused a seperation for relationships that didn't work and to see if alcohol had anything to do with it. What the researchers discovered was that was a positive correlation between alcohol comsumption and relationship problems, however, it is not in a way that most of us would view it as. What researchers found is that people who had problems with their relationship where turning to drinking and alcohol as a way to cope with the stress of the relationship. When their relationship partners saw them drinking they associated them drinking as the source to their problem instead of as a coping method which in turn causes more problem in the relationship because nothing was really being solved. One other thing that researchers found that really shocked me was the difference between people who broke up as a result compared to those who broke up because of other issues, 37% compared to 31%, this stat just seemed shocking to me because it's just sad to see that relationships are not working as well as they used to in the past. I would say that I was really surprised by the article, it definitely opened my eyes as to seeing other sources to why some relationships fail. I wouldn't say that any of this facts and research relate to my life. However, it does help me plan for the future and helps me think of ways to make my future relationship work when the time comes. It's good to be cautious now than wait for a while to make things work.
McNulty, J. K., Neff, L. A., & Karney, B. R. (2008). Beyond initial attraction: Physical attractiveness in newlywed marriage. Journal Of Family Psychology, 22(1), 135-143. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.22.1.135
ReplyDeleteThis article is about a study that was preformed in regards to physical attractiveness in newlywed marriage. In this study, authors of the study examined how observer ratings of each spouses facial attractiveness and the differences between facial attractiveness ratings were associated with observations of social support behavior, as well as reports of marital satisfaction. These observations correlated with marital behaviors (i.e. how spouses acted based on who was deemed more attractive). The researchers found that in marriages where the wife was more attractive, both spouses were happier/more positive in regards to relationships where the husband was more attractive and therefore there were more negative behaviors. Social behaviors and marital satisfaction were used to determine this data.
This article relates to "Chapter 9: Close Relationships" because it is about attractiveness and how it relates to relationship development and marriage. It also related to previous information because it had some information that could relate to self image based off of how a newlywed sees themselves in regards to how attractive they are overall, as well as in relation to their spouse.
Overall I thought this article and study were very interesting. I can see how a relationship would be more positive/ spouses would behave more positively if the wife was more attractive than her husband because females tend to care about their appearances more than men. Personally, I don't think my marriage would be any less positive if my husband was more attractive than me. I don't think having a good looking husband would make be behave negatively or create any marital dissatisfaction.
Key words: Marriage, Attraction, Marital satisfaction, Negative/positive behaviors.