Preferences and Expectations of Romantic Relationships: Influences of Sociobiology and Gender Socialization
Date
1994
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the nature of preferences and expectations of romantic relationships. Fifty-one undergraduates (31 female, 20 male) were given a modified version of the Marital Preferences Questionnaire (Gough, 1973) and asked to rate a list of 76 traits as to how much they would be desired in a potential partner as well as how characteristics they were of themselves. The results show that females rated ambitious and career-oriented, intelligent, kind, honest, dependable and considerate, significantly higher than men did, while males showed no significantly higher ratings on any of the traits. Men did, however, prefer someone who was affectionate in nature, faithful, has an exciting personality and is understanding, but no more so than women. A series of projective open-ended questions was then asked to investigate the process behind the formation of a romantic relationship and to allow subjects to elaborate on their feelings about various relationship scenarios. The theoretical approaches of sociobiology and gender socialization are considered as possible explanations for these results.