Wednesday, October 24, 2007

blog plan developing...slowly..

So here's the plan as it currently stands:

1. Stimulus-value-role model;
- stimulus stage (physical attribute evaluation - no interpersonal contact)
- value stage (interpersonal contact - comparing values & making decision as to whether or not values are compatible. If values aren't compatible contact can be terminated)
- role stage (sharing activities to build a relationship - i.e. you do this and i'll do that, roles are complementary)

2. Social penetration theory;
- orientation stage (small talk and gestures - following stadards of social desirability and norms)
- exploratory effective stage (reveal values, attitudes ect. at this point the relationship may become and remain a friendship)
- affective stage (reveal private and personal values/attitudes ect. This is the stage where is becomes okay to criticise and argue and kiss and touch each other)
-stable stage (personal and private thing still shared - relationship plateau's - partner's can predict one another's emotional reactions to certain things) THIS IS THE STAGE WHERE A RELATIONSHIP REMAINS UNLESS IT BREAKS DOWN!
- depenetration (relationship begins to break down and costs exceed benefits - withdrawal of disclosure leads to relationship termination)

3. Stage theory;
-Acquaintance/attraction (initial attraction based upon beauty and similarity)
- Build-up (partners become interdependent and begin to irritate one another - but benefits outweigh costs)
-continuation/consolidation (long-term committments are made. This may be marriage, moving in together, having a child, or even getting a pet!)
- deterioration (relationship begins to decay - this may be due to; relative effort, rewards, availability of alternatives)
-ending (the relationship ends when one or both partners seperate)

4. Parental investment model
I've only just started researching this theory (it's quite new and detailed). Although, it is based upon Charles Darwin's notion of sexual selection. So it has an evolutionary feel and basically describes differences between men and women's 'checklist' for a mate. Although it doesn't describe stages of a relationship per se, it does go through a sequence of how mates have been selected throughout evolution.

That's it so far! But I am interested in incorporating a bit of info about beauty/attractiveness into this blog. Specifically, stage theory specifies the beauty or physical attributes of a person is what initially attracts a potential partner. So i'm thinking about maybe putting in a link to another person's blog who has at some point discussed beauty or is doing so for their own blog. I wanted to do this because i'm interested in the topic of beauty but it's not quite relevant enough to my topic of 'Relationship Stages' for me to have an actually discussion ab out it myself!

I'd appreciate some feedback on that idea because i'm not sure how appropriate that might be i.e. if other people would mind 'contributing' to my work (i'd ask permission first of course!!!!).

Thanks for reading..!

4 comments:

Rebekah said...

Hi there.

I am doing the 'attractiveness' question for blog 2.

Please feel free to have a look at my blog. I am not really touching on 'stage theories' but am discussing the psychosocial variables of attractiveness including: propinquity, reciprocity, reinforcement; similarity; physical attractiveness; and cross cultural variables.

Please feel free to look around my blog. Let me know what you think.

Beck xx

James Neill said...

Hi Kim,

It's quite reasonable to link/reference other people's blog posts if they are pertinent. And you're right, attraction obviously fits in to the initial stages of most of these models.

One useful way of presenting the theories which are somewhat similar would be to include a table, e.g., with stages in the rows and theories in the columns. The could contain the names of the stages. This could help to illustrate where the theories are similar and where they differ. Tables and figures don't add to word count, so this would add to the overall scope, depth, and readability.

You may need to be selective about the number of theories to include. Ask yourself which are the most major, useful, key theories and focus on doing a good job of discussing those.

You may also like to use a table and/or concept map figure to show examples corresponding to the stages. If you want, we can broaden the question to allow you to also use examples from other people you know or "case studies". We just did something similar for the question about Attachment Theory. Just let me know via email if you want to do this.

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