Donn Byrne, a well know psychologist, pioneered this theory. He spent his career studying why some people like and dislike others. A key component of his theory was that of the principal of reinforcement, which identifies why people are attracted to

Overall the first study by Bryne confirms that two out of the tree hypothesis were found to be very encouraging and thus, with further research made to investigate other aspects of interpersonal relationships attraction and similarity. With the findings from the study, it is now applicable to further study the different attitudes that were present in the study and to combine these variables with other influences in order to illustrate different effects. In reading this study and analyzing it, I feel that Byrne did a wonderful job of proving the studies theory to be correct. It was good that the study showed the correlation between one’s personal likes and dislikes, feelings, attitudes, and beliefs on the material presented in the questionnaires. In my personal life, this study relates well to me because like the reinforcement theory, it again illustrates how and why people are attracted to each other. For example I am in a sorority at the University of Oklahoma and the girls in my house have similar values, likes and dislikes, and beliefs, and thus we form a cohesive sisterhood. When going through rush a girl will look for and is attracted to the organization that best fits her identity. The experience of rush, I feel is in direct correlation to the study that Byrne has conducted.

The second study I will analyze was conducted by Gerald L. Clore and Barbara Baldridge at the University of Illinois title another journal article that has a great deal to do with the reinforcement theory “Interpersonal Attraction”. They wanted to find the relationship between attitude agreement and attraction. They wanted to know if it was affected by topic interest. It is stated in the article that, “agreement with a new acquaintance regarding some matter of only casual interest will probably be less rewarding than the discovery of agreement concerning one’s own pet prejudices (Clore and Baldridge, 1968, pg340).” This has been tested many times in the past but has failed due to the manipulation of the topic. This study is different. The topic ratings were made up not by the independent sample, but by the subject. The researchers varied the topic importance instead of just looking at the topic in general. The important and unimportant issues and topics are of different magnitudes. For example, politics is not considered to be something that I am very interested in, but my mother loves to talk about it. Therefore, we have a hard time relating or being “attracted” to that specific topic.

The results of this study found that the first hypothesis was proven to be true in the way that the groups with attitude scales filled out the same as their own. This showed the positive feelings were more prevalent towards a stranger than the group that received dissimilar attitudes. This applies to the reinforcement theory in that we are attracted to those with the same attitude as shown in the first result. I believe this is due to the fact that we are intrigued in meeting a stranger that we can converse with on the same level. The second hypothesis also was proven correct. On the aspects of intelligence, knowledge of current events, morality, and adjustment, the similar attitude group rated the stranger higher than the dissimilar group. When similarity is manipulated, then attraction increases the similarity of the stranger increases. The third hypothesis was partially correct. As shown in the findings the similar important attitudes group reported that the “stranger” was significantly more positively regarded than the similar on unimportant attitudes group with respect to their personal feelings about him or her.

With the failure of the third hypothesis in the first experiment the results show that personal feelings is the most sensitive measure of personal attraction which would negate the reinforcement theory. The reinforcement theory is all about the reason we are attracted to those we are is due to positi

Some topics in this essay:
Donn Byrne, Judgment Scale, Jackson Guillermo, Texas Austin, Purdue University, University Oklahoma, Byrne Nelson, University Illinois, Kanpur India, Reinforcement Theory, reinforcement theory, attitude similarity, theory reinforcement, interpersonal attraction, stranger attitudes, positive reinforcement, personal evaluations, people attracted, donn byrne, attitudes beliefs, personal evaluations attitude, attitudes dissimilar person, stranger attitudes dissimilar, attitude scales filled, interpersonal attraction evaluation,