Discuss influence of culture on romantic relationships
Discuss the influence of culture on romantic relationships
Psychologists have found differences between western and non-western cultures in relationships. There are voluntary and non-voluntary relationships. Voluntary relationships are most common in western culture as you’d expect; due to urban settings and east geographical & social mobility, so interaction with others occurs on a much greater scale. Leading to a higher degree of choice of partners. In non-western cultures however it is found that there are more non-voluntary relationships. This is due to less cities and less mobility, so less choice of people to interact with. In this setting relationships are usually ties to family or economic resources. In these cases culture seems to have an influence on the relationships formed where they live dictates how many people are available for them to form a relationship with. But tradition may play a bigger role in non-western cultures. Epstein found non-voluntary/arranged marriages seem to work and found low divorce rates, and partners state they have ‘fallen in love’. In addition, people living in non-western cultures still have arranged marriages, so perhaps culture doesn’t have that much of an influence of romantic relationships. Myers et al studied Indian arranged marriages, and no difference was reported in marriage satisfaction when compared to US non-arranged marriages. Gupta and Singh assessed 50 married couples, half arranged marriage and half love marriages. They were assessed on how much they liked or loved each other. They found love is higher in first stage of ‘love marriage’ but this decreases over time, and vice versa. This suggest that relationships based on romantic love aren’t always most fruitful.
Moghaddam et al believed that western cultures tend to have relationships that are individualist, voluntary and temporary, whilst non-western cultures tend to have relationships that are collectivist, involuntary and permanent. However no
Psychologists have found differences between western and non-western cultures in relationships. There are voluntary and non-voluntary relationships. Voluntary relationships are most common in western culture as you’d expect; due to urban settings and east geographical & social mobility, so interaction with others occurs on a much greater scale. Leading to a higher degree of choice of partners. In non-western cultures however it is found that there are more non-voluntary relationships. This is due to less cities and less mobility, so less choice of people to interact with. In this setting relationships are usually ties to family or economic resources. In these cases culture seems to have an influence on the relationships formed where they live dictates how many people are available for them to form a relationship with. But tradition may play a bigger role in non-western cultures. Epstein found non-voluntary/arranged marriages seem to work and found low divorce rates, and partners state they have ‘fallen in love’. In addition, people living in non-western cultures still have arranged marriages, so perhaps culture doesn’t have that much of an influence of romantic relationships. Myers et al studied Indian arranged marriages, and no difference was reported in marriage satisfaction when compared to US non-arranged marriages. Gupta and Singh assessed 50 married couples, half arranged marriage and half love marriages. They were assessed on how much they liked or loved each other. They found love is higher in first stage of ‘love marriage’ but this decreases over time, and vice versa. This suggest that relationships based on romantic love aren’t always most fruitful.
Moghaddam et al believed that western cultures tend to have relationships that are individualist, voluntary and temporary, whilst non-western cultures tend to have relationships that are collectivist, involuntary and permanent. However no