Research Studies Relating to Interpersonal Relationships

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Research Studies Relating to Interpersonal Relationships Psychologists as reasons why one individual is attracted to another have listed a number of factors. Surprisingly proximity is cited as a major component in the development of relationships. Festinger et al found in a study of married graduate students, that close friends who lived in the same building were twice as likely to be living on the same floor as living on another. All the graduate students had been assigned their housing randomly therefore this suggests that the frequency of meetings between individuals has a big effect on the relationship. Bossard study of marriages in Philidelphia supported this theory. He found that out of 5000 marriage licenses there was a clear tendency for the couples to love close together. The matching hypothesis suggests that people be attracted to those who match them in terms of intelligence and good looks. A follow up study to Walster et al's original 'computer dance' supported the matching hypothesis. In this experiment students were invited to a college dance where they would be set up with other students at random. When signing up to the dance all students were graded on physical attractiveness. Walster and Walster found that if the students meet beforehand, giving the, more time to think about the qualities they were looking for in a partner, students tended to like partners who were the same level of physical attractiveness as them. This supports the matching hypothesis. Murstein (1972) used photos of couples to test the matching hypothesis. The findings demonstrated a clear pattern of similar levels of attractiveness between coup... ... middle of paper ... ...o be used by millions around the world. Walster et al tested this hypothesis by inviting students to a dance. When the students arrived to sign up for the dance four independent judges marked them on their physical appearance as a measure of social desirability. The students were then asked to fill out a questionnaire, two days later the dance was held and students were randomly paired together. During the dance students were required to fill out another questionnaire on the dance and their date. The results showed the less attractive students liked the more physically attractive students more, this study therefore contradicts the matching hypothesis. Physical attractiveness was found to be by far the most important indicator of whether the students would meet up again, overshadowing personality and intelligence.

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