Attraction in romantic relationships

A relationship psychologist studied what people say about themselves in descriptions on dating websites. Here is one description.

“My name is Joy. I am a teacher and I have a degree in economics. I live in Essex. I cycle to work because I care about the environment. I enjoy walking and like to cook in my spare time. I am looking for a partner who enjoys good food and is good at doing repairs around the house because I’m not very practical.”

Discuss the filter theory of romantic relationships. Refer to Joy in your answer.

Discuss the matching hypothesis.

What is meant by self-disclosure?

Outline one strength and one limitation of self-disclosure as an explanation for attraction in romantic relationships.

In a study of filter theory, a psychology student used a group of female participants. Each participant was shown two descriptions.

• Description 1 described a man with a similar social background to that of the female participants.

• Description 2 described a man with a different social background to that of the female participants.

The student asked participants to judge how much they liked each description on a scale of 1–10.

The student decided to test for a significant difference between the judgements made for each description. He proposed using an unrelated t-test to analyse the data.

Suggest a more appropriate statistical test of difference for the student to use with this data. Explain two reasons for your choice based on the description of the study.

Discuss the filter theory of attraction. Refer to the likely outcome of the student’s study in your answer.

Which two of A, B, C, D and E are important factors in attraction according to the filter theory of attraction? Write the two correct letters in your answer book.

A Personal compliments

B Profit and loss

C Self-disclosure

D Similarity in attitude

E Social demography