Elaine Hatfield

Equity and Intimate Relations: Recent Research

Equity theory is a social psychological theory concerned with justice in all interpersonal relationships. Until recently, however, equity principles have been examined only in casual role relations (i.e., employer-employee, philanthropist-recipient, and harmer-victim relations) and have not been examined in more personal relations (see Walster (Hatfield), Walster, & Berscheid, 1978). The distinction between role relationships and personal relationships is a long-standing and important one (see Cooley, 1902; Tonnies, 1887). Given the importance of primary, intimate relations, it would be a grave omission to overlook such relations in theory and research on interpersonal behavior.

Emotional Contagion: Gender and Occupational Differences

Theorists have proposed that men and women and those in various occupational groups should differ in their susceptibility to primitive emotional contagion. Study 1 was designed to explore the extent to which gender and occupation affected respondents’ self-reports of emotional contagion, as measured by the Emotional Contagion (EC) scale. As predicted, women in a variety of occupations secured higher total EC scores than did men. Study 2 was designed to determine the extent to which gender affected self-reports of emotional contagion (again as measured by the EC scale) and actual responsiveness to others’ emotions. As predicted, women received higher EC scores, reported sharing the targets’ emotions to a greater extent, and were rated by judges as displaying more emotional contagion than did men.

Token resistance to sexual intercourse and consent to unwanted sexual intercourse: College students’ dating experiences in three countries

The purposes of this study were to extend the research conducted by Muehlenhard and her colleagues (e.g., Muehlen‐hard & Hollabaugh, 1988) on token resistance to sex and to consider a second form of sexual miscommunication, consent to unwanted sex. We examined the incidence of these forms of sexual miscommunication among both women and men and in three different cultures: the United States, Russia, and Japan. Survey data were collected from 1,519 unmarried college students (970 from the U.S., 327 from Russia, and 222 from Japan). Contrary to the stereotype that only women engage in token resistance to sex, men also reported that they had been in situations in which they had said no to sex while desiring it. In the U.S. only, a greater proportion of men than women have engaged in token resistance to sex. Rates for consent to unwanted sex also varied by gender and culture. American women had the highest rate of consent to unwanted sex. The importance of collecting cross‐cultural data on sexuality and intima...

Equity, Marital Satisfaction, and Stability

Equity Theory, a social psychological theory concerned with fairness in interpersonal relations, has been shown to be predictivein casual encounters. Is it applicable in intimate relations as well? Newlyweds were asked a series of questions designed to measure the perceived level of equity in their relationship. Measures of their contentment/distress with the relationship and stability of the relationship were also taken. It was hypothesized that men and women who felt equitably treated would feel more content in their marriage and would perceive the marriage as more stable than would men and women in inequitable marriages. Strong evidence in support of both hypotheses was found. Also reported is a test of a post hoc hypothesis that women and men should be differentially concerned with equity. No significant sex differences were found on any of the dependent variables in the study.

Premarital sexual standards among U.S. college students: Comparison with Russian and Japanese students

The study of the sexual permissiveness of young adults has been a popular topic in sociology and social psychology, especially since the empirical and theoretical work of Reiss. We extended previous research on premarital sexual standards by examining the degree of sexual permissiveness and the endorsement of the traditional double standard in a large sample of young adults in the United States (N=1043). In addition, comparative data were collected from young adults in two other countries: Russia (N=401) and Japan (N=223). American subjects expressed more acceptance of premarital sex than did the Russian and Japanese subjects. Men were more sexually permissive than women in the U.S. and in Russia but not in Japan. The degree to which the double standard was endorsed also depended on culture and gender. Russian subjects were more likely to endorse the double standard than Japanese and American subjects. However, American men were most likely to endorse the traditional double standard concerning sex early in the dating relationship.

Measuring Equity in Intimate Relations

It has been suggested that equity theory, a social psychological theory concerned with the fairness in casual relationships, should be applicable to inti mate relations as well. As a first step in that direc tion, this report describes the development of the Traupmann-Utne-Walster Equity/Inequity Scales, which measure the level of equity that intimate couples perceive in their relationships. The scales, which include items from four areas of concern for intimates—personal concerns, emotional concerns, day-to-day concerns, and opportunities gained or lost—are described, and data from two empirical studies are reported. The first study demonstrates the internal consistency reliability of the scales. The second study reports data relevant to the construct validity of the scales. Two constructs derived from equity theory—affect and satisfaction—are shown to behave in the predicted way when the Traup mann-Utne-Walster Scales are used as the measure of inequity.

Passionate love/sexual desire: Can the same paradigm explain both?

Two decades ago, experimental social psychologists became interested in the emotion of passionate love, “the desire for union with another.” Recently, sex researchers have begun to focus on sexual desire, “the desire for sexual union with another,” or the loss thereof. In this paper we review what experimental social psychologists have learned about the nature of passionate love in the last two decades and contrast their view of passion with that of sex researchers, especially with regard to the role that anxiety plays in the intensification/dimunution of passion. Finally, we suggest that researchers might profitably use the same paradigm to study these heretofore separate phenomena.

Sexual motives, gender, and sexual behavior.

The roles of gender and the sexual motives of Love, Pleasure, Conformity, Recognition, Dominance, and Submission in numerous usual and unusual sexual behaviors were investigated. In a survey of 191 college undergraduates it was found that Love, Pleasure, Conformity, and Recognition motives, often in interaction with gender, were all important predictors of sexual behavior. Gender was the best predictor of initiating usual sexual behavior, whereas the Love motive was the best predictor of actually engaging in usual sexual behavior. Pleasure and Recognition in interaction with gender were the best predictors of engaging in unusual sexual behavior. None of the sexual motives predicted initiating unusual sexual behavior. Findings suggest that a variety of sexual motives may underlie sexual behavior.

Aggression and Inequity

Publisher Summary Equity theory claims to be a general theory—providing insights into all social encounters. This chapter presents the assessment of the theorys relevance or irrelevance, for explaining what goes on in aggressive encounters. It reviews equity theory. The equity considerations seem to be critically important in determining the way people respond in potentially aggressive settings. According to equity theory, when people treat others unfairly or are unfairly treated themselves, it is upsetting. When people take advantage of others, they tend to feel guilt, dissonance, empathy, fear of retaliation, or conditioned anxiety. When they are taken advantage of, they feel shame, dissonance, or anger. However, essentially, both aggressor and victims feelings are similar—they both experience subjective distress accompanied by physiological arousal. Equity theorists concur that people try to maximize their outcomes. Group members can maximize their collective outcomes by devising an equitable system for sharing resources. Thus, all groups try to hammer out acceptable systems for allocating outcomes and trying to induce members to adhere to these standards; that is, they try to ensure that all participants receive equal relative outcomes. Groups can do this in only one way, that is, by making it profitable to be fair.

A brief history of social scientists’ attempts to measure passionate love

The concept of passionate love has a long history, yet it was not until the 1940s that social scientists created tools designed to measure this emotion. Over the next 60 years, numerous scales of romantic and passionate love were created and tested. Currently, however, there exists no single compendium of existing scales. This paper attempts to fill in the missing information on existing love scales by providing a list of 33 different measures and indicating where each scale’s reliability and validity information can be found. We close by attempting to explain how scholars’ conceptions of the nature of love have changed over the years, and how these historical and scientific changes are reflected in the scales designed to measure passionate love.