About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about models of attraction, focusing in particular on: (i) attraction as an underlying feature of partner selection in humans, including physical attractiveness and attraction to personality; (ii) the role of physical attractiveness in advertising genetic health and reproductive fitness; (iii) Walster’s ‘matching hypothesis’, which proposes that individuals attempt to find partners of matching attractiveness, rather than the most attractive person possible; (iv) a few key studies which have demonstrated a lack of evidence for the matching hypothesis in modern couples; (v) Aron’s study on generating interpersonal closeness though self-disclosure; (vi) breadth and depth as measures of self-disclosure, as well as the importance of reciprocity.

About the lecturer

Dr Veronica Lamarche is a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex. Dr Lamarche’s research interests are focused on understanding how people regulate trust and dependence in their romantic relationships. Some of Dr Lamarche’s recent publications include 'It Happened to a Friend of Mine: The Influence of Perspective-Taking on the Acknowledgement of Sexual Assault Following Ambiguous Sexual Encounters' (2022) and 'Who will I be when I retire? The role of organizational commitment, group memberships and retirement transition framing on older worker’s anticipated identity change in retirement' (2022).