Interpersonal Attraction: A Study in the Mate Selection ProcessInterpersonal Attraction: A Study in the Mate Selection ProcessInterpersonal Attraction: A Study in the Mate Selection ProcessInterpersonal AttractionThere are varying qualities that men and women look for while engaged in the mate selection process. For the most part, these include shared moral, educational, and lifestyle characteristics. Most of the time people come to a median and understand that some of the qualities they may seek in a life partner have been fabricated by the commercialization of love and dating. However, it is important to keep in mind that successful relationships are made up of many other factors other than “love”. Maintaining a romantic relationship and raising a family has changed significantly over the years.
The Women’s and Gay movements of earlier eras had a profound effect on the way people, as a whole, re-evaluated relationship norms and standards. As opposed to earlier times, the suppression of women’s sexuality in societies caused a great deal of compliance on their part in regards to relationships. The Gay and Lesbian community also endured great inhibitions in relation to their expression of their lifestyle. For these suppressed social groups, mate selection was highly representative of a repressed time. Female selection process was contingent within the social class. For working class women in western societies, marriage was mostly the way of out her parent’s home and the only means of climbing up in social class. In comparison to higher social classes, women often married for political and social reasons. The union of two wealthy families, as a result of a young marriage, signified a more stable place in the hierarchy of society. Social prestige and stratification was more of the common practice during those times as opposed to today (Coltrane, S. & Collins, R. 2001, p. 276…)
Today’s dating couples are more independent than before and exhibit a great deal of autonomy in relation to the commitment of dating. Katherine Billie (1998) states that when couples are not yet married they display much more emphasis on the qualities they posses and regard themselves as highly desirable prospects. This creates a dilemma in which neither partner will succumb to the other’s demands or expectations. The end result in this situation is the re-evaluation of the relationship and the more resourceful partner may end up leaving the more submissive partner. In earlier times, more than likely, it would have been a female who would have played that role.
As more men and women venture into the changing patterns of contemporary mate selection we see a diffusion of stereotypes. Although some women have traditionally been stereotyped as more liberal than men, research shows that they hold more conservative attitudes when it comes to moral traditionalism. However, when studied further we find a correlation among women with high number of births and lower education, reporting these higher levels of moral compliance (Stambor, 2005, p. 15). These figures suggest that when we look at the mate selection process, it is important to keep in mind exactly which social classes that are being studied when discussing the evolving dating patterns. A correlation of cause and effect is significant when studying dating patterns in the various socio-economic classes.
As we study which qualities men and women prefer in the mate selection process, we can’t help but to refer to the stereotypes that have been identified with the sexes over the years. The media has capitalized in these stereotypes and created a million dollar industry based on the assumptions of what men and women want in relationships. Popular television networks like “MTV” and endless talk shows have become the “un-official” word on what people want these days. They provide a fictitious sense of important values and unrealistic expectations of what physical beauty can be. Popular stereotypes like men preferring physical attributes and females choosing intellectual qualities, give researchers the opportunity to conduct surveys in which surprising evidence can be found.
The survey is now online and available for download to the public.
What I found
Here is an extensive picture illustrating the research findings and what they look like.
The results
While the gender gap in desire toward sexual satisfaction was high for most of us, there was a slight decrease. Men who preferred physical attributes had a slight positive gap on many aspects of their attractiveness. Men rated their attractiveness higher in a range of traits when it came to physical attributes.
In addition to this, there were greater female attraction to physical health and social stability in women who preferred to be physically dominant in a relationship.
When it comes to their physical health, women who preferred physical attributes in their relationships had a slightly higher male desire for physical strength and higher male desire for physical physical attractiveness.
And a large percentage of men gave women a positive rating for sexual independence. It is the fact that most men are attracted to physical strength and health in the relationship that will cause a small decrease in their desire to engage in physical activity, including physical growth.
How to compare data/research
Here is an overview of each study:
The above chart is from the study, with some data taken out in a separate section. In regards to the first study we chose data from the internet and then used it to identify each person we considered based on that individual’s attractiveness. Some of the individual characteristics in the chart include:
Age : Men who prefer physical health over personal physical attractiveness, (Men with 6 years older or younger, men who prefer physical attractiveness over personal attractiveness, or men who prefer physical health over physical attractiveness) have similar preference to women.
: Men who prefer physical health over personal physical attractiveness, (Men with 6 years older or younger, men who prefer physical attractiveness over personal attractiveness, or men who prefer physical health over physical attractiveness) have similar preference to women. Language proficiency : Women in our study are more likely to speak more English than other gender groups, but this may reflect some of the men being more culturally conditioned to use English in relationships.
: Women in our study are more likely to speak more English than other gender groups, but this may reflect some of the men being more culturally conditioned to use English in relationships. Men body size : Men who preferred physical body size do vary from country to country, but this may reflect some of the men being less culturally conditioned to use physical size in their relationships.
: Men who preferred physical body size do vary from country to country, so this may reflect some of the men being less culturally conditioned to use physical size in their relationships. Social Status : For men of a certain type , when talking to women, and women of other kinds, the men and women of other genders were perceived both to be more attractive to each other. Men who are perceived by women to be less attractive to men of all levels were perceived more attractive to men in all levels. The difference in how men perceived and perceived women was actually greater with different sexes for women. Women were also perceived more attractive to men of different sexes in all levels when they were more socially
MethodParticipantsParticipants for this project were chosen by both internet and newspaper sources. An equal amount of male and female personal ads (100 males and 100 females) were examined for the purpose of this study. Of these 200 personal ads, 50 were female seeking male and 50 were male seeking female, from each source. The mean age for males was 32.5, and females 28.5. The selected personal ads’ ethnic backgrounds ranged from Caucasians, Hispanics, and African Americans. Participants ranged from full-time students to working professionals and were all seeking heterosexual relationships.
MaterialsSubjects were analyzed based on a coding