There is also other research that suggests that people tend to be attracted to those with similar interests and personality traits. This research does not support the research that suggests people in long-term relationships are of similar levels of physical attractiveness.
Kandel (1978) showed us that demographic behaviour has effects on relationships and that individuals tend to be more attracted to people who are similar to themselves (class, political views etc) but have certain qualities that the individual does not have, but could gain from (talents, admiration etc). Burgess & Wallin (1958) found that there was a positive correlation between personality type and happiness of a marriage in a longitudinal study they carried out, but they also found that, in some circumstances, personalities would change in long-term relationships to match that of the other individual. Moreland & Beach (1992) carried out a study with male workers that showed that, as they became more familiar with females they worked with, they also became more attracted to them, almost without noticing their physical attractiveness.
This research shows that people tend to become more and more attracted to people as they get to know them better, but there is always the argument that the person would not approach the other person if they felt they were either far more attractive than themselves or if they viewed them as much less attractive. This then opens the question. Do people get together with people of the same levels of physical appearance as themselves? It is thought that all humans would go for the more attractive individual available but would be worried that this person would then accept a better offer and leave. Therefore people go for people on the same level as themselves. This is supported by (Walster and Walster, 1969).
This aim of this study is to discover whether or not people in long-term relationships are of similar levels of physical appearance. My hypothesis suggests that people in long-term relationships will be of similar levels of physical appearance, reasons for choosing a directional hypothesis is that given the research conducted by Walster and Walster and Murstein it would suggest that there would be a positive correlation and my hypothesis would be correct.
The study will be similar to Murstein’s study by means of using photographs in this study, but it necessary to carry out further research using this method as it is 35years since Murstein’s experiment and things may have changed in society since resulting in changes to how people deal with relationships.
Hypothesis
I think that in this experiment there will be a positive correlation between couples and levels of physical appearance.
Null Hypothesis
In the experiment there won’t be a correlation between the couples and levels of physical appearance as the correlation will be statistically irrelevant.
Method
Design
This researches design method was a correlation design method, the participants will rate the couples out of 10 and a correlation will be formed based on the ratings of both the males and the females. If the correlation is above 0.564 then it is off significance.
In the research there were 20particpants 10male and 10female, these people were then asked to rank both the male and the females in order of physical appearance, 10 being the most attractive 1 being the least attractive. The participants used were all of the same age range of 16-19 and were the students of the 6th form in the UK. The majority were British, white and middle class, but some participants asked were foreign. This experiment used a random sampling method, participants were asked for consent before any questions were asked, and as all participants asked were over the age of 16 parental consent was not required.
The materials used in the experiment were 10photos obtained from the Internet; these photos of couples were cut into 2, leaving 10photos of the males and 10 of the females. The photos were small and black and white.
In the experiment there were written instructions for participants to follow after they had been selected at random from a group of 6th formers. By doing this we reduced the participant/experimenter interaction so therefore the experiment is less likely to be bias. The experiment involved the experimenter taking random people from a study room and asking their consent and then asking them to complete the experiment in isolated conditions in the experimenter’s room. The participants were then debriefed and told about the experiment and what it was for.
The experiment dealt with deception, informed consent, right to withdraw and protection from harm by explaining the nature of the experiment thoroughly but without the worry of creating bias results, we asked for the participants consent before conducting the experiment by telling the participants the procedures of the experiment, we gave the participants the opportunity to withdraw at any time during the experiment and made this clear to all participants before the start of the experiment, all participants names and details were kept anonymous respectively.
Results
Overall male mean 111.8 overall female mean 116
The table above shows the mean score the participants ranked each couple, the difference between the means of each couple determine the hypothesis ‘ there will be a significant correlation between the couples.’
The graph above shows the male and female mean scores; the results are very scattered and therefore don’t show a significant correlation.
The graph above shows the standard deviation for both the males and females, the standard deviation is the average difference between the couples mean scores and the overall mean score.
The above table shows the spearman rank correlation score of this experiment, the spearman rank correlation is the most effective way of recording the correlation between two variants. For this experiment to be statistically significant the Rho had to be equal to or greater than 0.564. The Rho of this experiment is 0.2727273 and so is statistically infrequent. Therefore the hypothesis must be rejected and the null hypothesis must be accepted.
Discussion
My result does not support the hypothesis, the hypothesis which was directional suggested that the would be a statistically relevant correlation between male and female levels of physical appearance, but the correlation of 0.272 was statistically infrequent and therefore the hypothesis was incorrect. The scatter graph did not show a positive correlation between males and female levels of physical appearance and does not support the hypothesis. Participants did not agree on levels of physical appearance in the couples, the standard deviation was large and shows a lot of disagreement between the participants. The measure are therefore not valid and do not support the hypothesis. There was no statistically relevant correlation between males and females based on the Rho so therefore the null hypothesis is accepted even though there is a slight positive correlation (0.272) but this is not statistically relevant.
These results are not in relationship with previous research in this area as there is no statistically relevant correlation and the hypothesis is incorrect according to results. For example Goffman’s research suggested that people are more likely to form long term relationships if they are of similar levels of attractiveness, this isn’t backed up by this study as this study suggests people are not of similar levels of physical appearance in long term relationships. Walster and Walster suggested that when people were allowed to interact people seemed to get along better if they were of similar levels of physical appearance; this again is not supported by this experiment. However this experiment does support studies such as Moreland and Beach’s study that suggested that as males got more familiar with female co-worker they became more attracted to them, this suggests that personality is a more relevant factor in long-term relationships. According to the results of this research there are different factors that forge long-term relationships such as personality.
There were many limitations to this experiment, if the experiment was to be carried out again it would be done with different pictures of couples, in certain couples different features other than the face may have influenced the results such as size of breasts which were showing in some photos but not in others, also dress and mood in photos may have effected the participant decisions, this wasn’t identified in the project brief which if the experiment was to be repeated would be. Also if the experiment was to be repeated the participants asked would all be from the same background, as all the couples were from English white and in their 30s so should the participants be. Students between the ages of 16-18 may not find 30yr old attractive at all so both participants and couples should be of the same background. It may have also been better to use self rating as means of recording levels of physical appearance, by using a ranking system couples may have been graded wrong because the participant simply did not know where to rank them. There were many anomalous results and flaws in the research outlined above could be the main reasons for the insignificant correlation.
In practical terms these results suggest that couples in long term relationships are not similar in levels of physical appearance, this could be useful information for dating agencies as it would suggest matching couples with similar interests and personalities rather than looks. It may also give relationship counselling useful information as it could suggest working on improving interests, as that is a more important factor in relationships. Further research needs to be conducted on this area, as these results may be statistically infrequent because of flaws in the method and designs for this experiment. The results may be totally different if conducted in a different culture or within a different sample population, for instance in some cultures it may be closer to the animal kingdom in a sense that females want to mate with the most powerful male, or if the experiment was conducted on a different age group such as people in their 30s results may have been more consistent.
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