Attractive Relationship Alt. Impacts Early Cognition & Self-Protection - Essay Sample

Introduction

The central hypothesis tested in the study is the attractive relationship alternative evokes an automotive self-response at the early stages of cognition development. The exposure of the attractive relationship alternative eliciting a quick and automotive self-protective response to the committed romantic relationship, study tests on the impacts of attractive relationship alternatives to the committed romantic relationships, and their responses. The leading theory of the study is the relationship alternatives are perceived as the main threats to the that ignite the psychological reaction that downregulates the dangers. All the psychological problems that one encounters when they are to focus on the attractive relationship alternative are treated as threats to their committed romantic relationship.

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The hypothesis was tested through mixture design; this was to enable the experimenter to trap the automatic self-protective response directly. The participants were able to complete a computer simulation; through the procedure, the experimenter was able to identify if the target individual was dangerous or harmed or not harmful, meaning unharmed (Plant et al., 2010). The participants were instructed before they could take part in the study. The study design was as follows: target gender: male vs. female, target attractiveness: attractive vs. average looking, object: gun vs. neutral, participants gender: male vs. female, and lastly was based on their relationship status where we had single vs. committed.

The participants were given instructions on how they would carry out the study, pictures of people with objects like would be placed at some position of the screen. The images would have faces of people and guns. They are treated as criminals, and the participants are supposed to shoot them. Some other pictures will have faces of persons with other objects like wallets, and you should not shoot at them, the participants are to press on A button on the monitor to shoot and L not to pull. The dependent variable in the study was attractive relationship alternatives, and the independent variable was the automatic self-protective response, the variables were manipulated to give the results.

A total of 117 participants took part in the study, and all of them were from the psychology class, the participants were not selected randomly, but some criteria were used to select the participants. Forty-nine percent of the participants were in a heterosexual romantic relationship, sixty-six percent were females, and 72 percent were whites, they were assigned to different conditions based on various factors like their gender, relationship status, and whites or blacks.

The study demonstrated that those in committed relationships when merely exposed to the attractive relationship alternatives evoked threat response at the early stage of cognition. There was no evidence of threat presented to the single participants, and this indicates that the self-protective that was observed among the committed participants also reflected the perceived risk in their relationship (Plant et al., 2010). The pattern errors in the study indicated men who are committed in a romantic relationship perceived physically attractive members of the opposite sex as a threat that was also observed in females. Still, it was weaker compared to their male counterparts.

Some of the strength of the study is, the findings of the research provide critical insight into how the relationship maintains takes place in the early stages of cognitive development. With such kinds of responses, we are prepared psychologically and potentially motivated to defend our links from such types of threats we are exposed to as a way of creating a committed romantic relationship in the future. The study has succeeded in testing the hypothesis that attractive alternatives have derailed rewarding romantic relationships by igniting the psychological threats to the relationships. The weakness of the study is that the experimenter was only able to evaluate the relatively artificial laboratory response and interpret it with the images. However, the experimenter was able to have control over the assessment of the self-protective reaction from the participants. Still, more work should be done ecologically valid of the measurements. The future study is expected to be based on examining the automatic threat response and the connection they have with the downstream behavioral reactions.

The research did not have proper internal validity; the experimenter was not able to define the variable that was used in the study; this makes it difficult to certify if the study was of the required standards (Plant et al., 2010). The research had a good construct validity, and the study was able to test for the hypothesis and confirm the claimed exposure to attractive relationship alternatives will elicit a quick and automatic self-protective response. The research was done correctly, and the errors that were encountered were not due to the weakness of the study, the results were accurate, and the hypothesis confirmed.

The three main take ways from the study are as follows; first, the attractive relationship alternatives are a threat to the romantically committed relationships, and they come with psychological risks like the overt judgment of the attractiveness. The second is men who are committed in a romantic relationship perceived physically attractive members of the opposite sex as a threat that was also observed in females. Still, it was weaker compared to their male counterparts. The main danger to men is the opposite sex who is physically attractive to them that is a similar case to female but not as compared to the male. The last take away is that those who are single are not at any time exposed to the threat of automatic self-protective even if they are exposed to the attractive relationship alternatives, the danger is only posed on those who are in a committed romantic relationship.

References

Plant, E. A., Kunstman, J. W., & Maner, J. K. (2010). You do not only hurt the one you love: Self-protective responses to attractive relationship alternatives. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(2), 474-477.