Factors facilitating romantic attraction and their relation to styles of loving, relationship satisfaction and complementarity theory.
Item
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Title
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Factors facilitating romantic attraction and their relation to styles of loving, relationship satisfaction and complementarity theory.
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Identifier
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AAI9009742
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identifier
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9009742
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Creator
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Jacobs, John Russell.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Alden Wessman
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Date
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1989
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Personality | Psychology, Social | Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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Experimental studies and clinical speculation have suggested that numerous internal states and/or external conditions facilitate romantic attraction. The responses of 190 adults consisting of 129 females and 61 males to a Romantic Attraction Questionnaire were investigated. Approximately two-thirds of the subjects were under 25 years of age and over 95 percent were under 40. Items comprising possible facilitators were factor analyzed, resulting in four internally consistent scales labelled: aging fears and social expectations, desire for self-expansion, relief from adversity, and sexual desire. As hypothesized only subjects reporting an intensification of desire for self-expansion prior to romantic involvement choose lovers described as having complementary characteristics. Subjects reporting an intensification on the other facilitating factors choose lovers described as having similar traits. This finding suggests that complementary attractions are not relevant for all romantic involvements but perhaps only in those where one partner's primary desire is characteriological change rather than ameliorating distress. Subjects reporting an intensification of any of the facilitating factors also reported, in Lee's (1977) terminology, more "manic" symptoms characterized by affective ability and somatic discomfort. Women reported not only more manic symptoms than men, but also were more likely to begin the most important romantic relationship of their life influenced by the desire for self-expansion and pressure from aging fears and social expectations. Men were most likely to report being influenced by an intensification in sexual desire. Gender differences involving facilitating factors lend support to Blau's (1964) social exchange theory or sociobiological theorists such as Buss (1987) and Symons' (1979) contentions that the early stages of romantic involvements involve women's exchange of sexual services for evidence of commitment, economic stability, and willingness to share economic resources. The author views this exchange as a result of the prevalence of traditional attitudes about sex roles, achievement, and long-standing conditions of socio-economic disparity.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
