Describe and Evaluate the Reward

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Describe and evaluate the reward/need satisfaction theory The Rewards/needs satisfaction theory is based around the idea that we are attracted to people who provide direct reinforcement through operate conditioning. If the stimuli is rewarding then this leads to positive feeling, however if the stimuli is punishing then this leads to negative feels. Therefore, we enter into some relationships because the other person creates positive feelings in us which we find rewarding e.g. happy & secure, but avoid other relationships because that person creates negative feelings for us. Foa and foa suggested that we form relationships for physical and emotional rewards which include sex, status, love and money because these rewards satisfy our social needs for instance improving our self-esteem or indulging our need for dependency and attention. This theory is based around the idea of the learning theory Byrne and clores (1970) suggested that both classical and operant conditioning play a part in relationship. The theory states that we tend to learn to associate people with positive or enjoyable situations even if they are not directly rewarding us. He stated that when one’s need has been satisfied, therefore if someone rewards us we are more likely to want to be with them and the relationship will be maintained however if the person stops or fails to satisfy our needs then the relationship will breakdown. In terms of operant conditioning we are likely to repeat any behaviour that leads to a desirable outcome and avoid behaviours that lead to undesirable outcome. A study was done by Griffit and guay which supports the idea that we like some individuals because they provide direct reinforcement. During this study participants were evaluated on a creative task by an experimenter and then asked to rate how much they liked the experimenter. He found out that the rating was

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