1. MARGARET TEMPLETON
RELATIONSHIP RULES
FOR COUPLES
BETWEEN GENDERS.

2. CONTENTS PAGE
PAGE 1 TITLE PAGE.
PAGE 2 CONTENTS PAGE.
PAGE 3 ABSTRACT.
PAGE 4-6 INTRODUCTION
PAGE 7 AIM
PAGE 8 HYPOTHESIS
PAGE 9 METHODS
PAGE 10 PROCEDURE
PAGE 11 RESULTS
PAGE 12 DISCUSSION
PAGE 13 CONCLUSION
PAGE 14 REFERENCES
PAGE 15 APPENDICES.

3. Abstract
The aim of the study is to see you will be more truthful when it comes to
the rules in relationships between the genders. Particularly on the
maintenance and repair of the relationship.
Previous research showed that it was the female partner who did all the
work in maintaining and the repairing of the relationship. Dindia and
Baxter (1987) showed the longer a couple were married the less
strategies they needed.
My hypothesis is that women will be more truthful and willing to work
harder and the repair and maintenance of their relationship.
The sample was of 10 participants of varying ages 5 males and 5
females.
The participants were given instruction sheets and if they were willing to
participate in the study they signed consent forms. They were given 13
questions to answer from1-5 using the Likert Scale. When the questions
were completed they were given debrief sheets with the tutor‟s contact
information on it.
The some male participants scored higher than some female participants
in certain questions but in questions like trust and faithfulness they scored
similar.

4. Introduction.
Social psychology includes the study of social behaviour which happens
between two people when they are in a relationship, also what it takes too
maintain the relationship. The topic is interpersonal attraction. The
situational factors in forming relationships have often come into play,
factors like proximity, exposure and familiarity. You also have personal
factors such as similarity, physical attractiveness and reciprocal liking.
Proximity this is the physical or functional distance between people.
Kerckoff (1974) called it the „field of availables‟. Festinger et al (1950)
studied student friendship patterns in university campus housing. He
found that students were friendlier with those living next door, less
friendlier with those living two doors away and least friendly with those
living at the end of the corridor.
Proximity provides the minimum conditions necessary for attraction to
start and maintain itself, remember a person invading our personal space
too closely will make us uncomfortable until we know them better.
Exposure and familiarity, Zajonc et al (1971) asked subjects to evaluate
photos of strangers and found that those strangers who appeared more
often than others were rated more positively.
Segal (1974) studied police cadets who were assigned to their rooms and
classroom seats alphabetically, he found they were more likely to rate
someone as a friend if they were close in the alphabet to them.
Repeated exposure may give a greater chance that negative
characteristics will be found in the other person or that boredom or
stimulus satiation may occur. Most research however has supported the
link between familiarity and attraction.
Personal factors also come into play with interpersonal relationships.
There is similarity; we want the most attractive person possible in reality
we tend to be attracted by similarity.
Griffit and Veitch (1974) studied 13 males who spent 10 days in a nuclear
fall-out shelter, and concluded that those who were similar liked each
other the best by the end. Snyder and Fromkin (1980) suggest that we
dislike people who are too like us, as we like to see ourselves as unique.
Physical attractiveness, research found that people are not only drawn
towards those who are physically attractive but see these people as
psychologically attractive as well. Dion (1972) using photographs of 7

5. year old children found that attractive children were less likely to be
thought of anti-social than unattractive children. Physical attractiveness is
not absolute or objective „beauty is in the eye of the beholder‟ and it can
be influenced by culture and gender.
Reciprocal Liking is a subtle form of similarity is basically we like those
people who like us. Aronson and Linder (1965) found experimental
support for the „gain-loss‟ theory by letting subjects overhear opinions of
them. In general our liking depends upon how much we respect the
opinions and motivations of the people who praise us.
Interpersonal relationships can obviously have many different kinds of
effects on the individuals involved in them. However most is probably
known about the effects of interpersonal relationships especially marriage
on happiness, mental health and physical health.
Bradburn (1969) conducted a study in America and found that 35% of
married men and 38% of married women said they were “very happy”.
However this study was conducted at a time when marriage was the norm
and living together outside of wedlock was considered outrageous.
On mental health Cochrane (1988) found that the admissions to mental
hospitals was only 0.2% for married couples compared to 0.77% for those
single and 1.4% for those who were divorced.
Finally on physical health, Lynch (1977) conducted a study and found that
couples in marriage were less likely to die at the same age as those who
were single divorced or widowed.
Dindia and Baxter (1987) interviewed 50 married couples and asked
questions regarding maintenance strategies for their relationship. Two
types of strategies emerged, repair and maintenance.
The strategies towards the maintenance of the relationship were
preventive and the strategies towards repair were to repair any damage
done to the relationship. The researchers identified 49 different strategies
for maintenance e.g. spending time together in the evenings, telephone
when away from home. To repair e.g. issuing ultimatums, talking over
problem(s).
The researchers found the couples that had been married for an
extended time used fewer maintenance strategies than newly married
couples. This may be the result of familiarity –knowing their partner so
well- a lot of the ground work would have already been done the
relationship could „run itself‟.

6. It also may be an awareness that maintenance becomes „second nature‟
and for this reason it wasn‟t reported to the researchers.

7. Aim.
The research that will be conducted will compare views that couples have
for their relationships between genders. The research means to find what
rules couples have and their importance for the maintenance or repair of
their relationship. This study is hoping to find how important and how
truthful the participants are regarding their relationship.
Hopefully the study will show that women are more truthful and their
relationship means more to them. Also that women are willing to work
harder to maintain and repair their relationship.

8. Hypothesis
The differences between male and females in the perceived importance
of rules in relationships between couples. I feel that the female
participants will be more truthful and they will make the effort to maintain
and repair any damage to their relationship. In saying this, the results all
depend on the ages of the participants especially the male participants.

9. Method
The study will be of non-experimental design, using a structured
questionnaire with 13 questions which will be scored using the Likert
Scale of 1-5. The sample size was 5 males and 5 females of various
ages.

10. Procedure
The participants were given the instruction sheet and if they were willing
to take part in the study they signed the consent form.
The participants then answered 13 questions. On completion of questions
they were given the debrief sheet with the tutor‟s contact information if
they wanted to know the results of the study.

11. Results

12. Discussion
The results of the study were quite surprising, instead of getting the
results I was expecting I was given a completely different set of data. It
seems that male participants in the study scored higher than some of the
female participants on certain questions.
My hypothesis was that women would be more truthful and they will make
the effort to maintain and repair any damage to their relationship. In
saying this, the results all depended on the ages of the participants
especially the male participants.
As ethical considerations would not allow me to ask if any of the
participants were already in a relationship or state their ages I do not
know if some if the male scores were because of this. Or if these scores
reflected what they wanted from a future relationship.
Previous research in this area showed that it was the female partner that
did most of the maintenance and repair of the relationship. Especially if
the relationship was in the early stages. Dindia and Baxter (1987) their
study showed if you have been married for an extended length of time or
even if you have been living with your partner for an extended length of
time your relationship ran itself.
I feel my research shows that males seem to be taking more of an
interest in health of the relationship they are in, and this like trust and
faithfulness are an important issue to them.
The sample of participants was too small I think it would have worked
better with a larger sample. I feel that the study could be improved by
adding two further groups into the study. Group 1 would be 10 males and
10 females aged between 18-24 and group 2 would be 10 males and 10
females over 25 years of age.

13. Conclusion
Although previous research showed that it was the woman that made the
relationship work or couples let the relationship run itself especially if they
had been married for an extended period of time.
My research was about relationship rules between genders. My results
showed that males nowadays seemed more interested in the health of
their relationship also they were willing to work at the repair and
maintenance of it.

14. References
Eysenck, Michael W. Psychology A Student‟s Handbook 2000
Psychology Press Ltd UK.
Hill, Graham. As & A level psychology through diagrams. 2001 Oxford
University Press Ltd. Oxford.