Mate Selection

SOCIAL CHANGE AND THE FILIPINO FAMILY

MATE SELECTION

MATE SELECTION • Characteristics and values that humans utilize in choosing a mating partner in order to increase probability of reproductive success • Driven by evolved principles that increase likelihood of reproductive success and actual success depends on multiple factors

THEORIES OF MATE SELECTION • • • • •

GOOD GENES THEORY FILTER THEORY COMPLEMENTARY-NEEDS THEORY PARENTAL CHARACTERISTICS THEORY EXCHANGE THEORY

*** mainly suggest the factors that govern consciously or unconsciously an individual's choice for a mate

GOOD GENES THEORY • Looking for the best possible candidate for their offsprings • ♂ prefer ♀ who are young, attractive, and reproductively healthy • ♀ prefer ♂ with external ornaments like money and power

FILTER THEORY • Asserts that we sift eligible people according to specific criteria and thus narrow the pool of potential partners • HOMOGAMY THEORY major filtering mechanism individuals choose life partner who also has the same religion , race, social status & economical status as he or she has According to Psychologists the more the couple is homogamous, the better is their married life.

HOMOGAMY THEORY Elements • PROPINQUITY individuals often choose to marry a person with whom they are working in office for a long time or studying in same college or staying in same area or locality meet daily or occasionally & therefore develop some kind of attraction • PHYSICAL APPEARANCE Looks do matter! Individuals tend to choose partners whose physical attractiveness is similar to their own. Perception of beauty depends on culture.

HOMOGAMY THEORY Elements • SOCIAL CLASS Most marry within their own socio-economic class because they share similar attitudes, values, and lifestyles • VALUES Most value dependability, stability, intelligence, sociability, and looks among others • AGE individuals tend to choose partners within the same age group

men have tended to marry women slightly below them in age and education (Bernard 1982) • ETHNICITY AND RACE • RELIGION

COMPLEMENTARY-NEEDS THEORY • the individual seeks out a mate to complement his or her own personality (propounded by Winch) • Winch suggests that in mate selection the need pattern of each spouse will be complementary rather than similar to the need pattern of the other spouse. • The person choose a mate who will fill out the weaknesses in his or her personality.

PARENTAL IMAGE THEORY • Proposed by Sigmund Freud • A child develops a deep attachment for the parent of opposite sex. • Therefore in a partner the youth tends to seek the quality of his opposite sex parent. • Thus a girl wishes to marry a man who has similar traits of her father & man wants to marry a woman who has similar traits of his mother.

EXCHANGE THEORY • Emphasizes that mate selection is based on assessing who offers the greatest rewards at the lowest cost

MATE SELECTION AND SOCIAL CHANGE • Sex differences found in Western society are found across cultures and time periods tendency to judge men on the basis of physical strength, social position, and economic worth place more emphasis on a woman’s physical attractiveness

• In Asian countries, both men and women are marrying later than they did in the past

MATE SELECTION AND SOCIAL CHANGE • Warfare, migration, and random historical and geographic variations lead to relatively more available ♀ than ♂ in the pool of eligible mates • Surplus of women  later marriage, more divorce, more permissive sexual norms

• Surplus of men  more stable relationships and male willingness to commit to monogamous relationships

PHILIPPINE SETTING: FAMILY HEALTH • Culture and Customs of the Philippines by P.A.Rodell Filipinos have strong endogamous (within the group) marriage preference. same town or surrounding area another family with whom fortunes can be combined to increase one’s collective standing select suitable partners from one’s own socioeconomic class (rare scenario of rich & poor)

PHILIPPINE SETTING: FAMILY HEALTH • Culture and Customs of the Philippines by P.A.Rodell

Religion is a major factor for mate selection Roman Catholic Church & Iglesia Ni Cristo are opposed to marriage to outsider Muslims need to be converted first mixed marriage is certain to encounter strong opposition from family and friends

PHILIPPINE SETTING: FAMILY HEALTH • Kim and Kim, 1992 physical appearance, personality, affection are the major determinants findings consistently suggests that men and women would marry someone of a similar social background and ask their parents for permission to marry Negative reaction from parents would result in a weakening of the relationship. Although mates are not chosen directly by the parents, they are chosen with a clear consciousness of the extent to which the potential spouse would meet the approval of the parents

PHILIPPINE SETTING: FAMILY HEALTH • Heaton, Jacobson, and Holland. 1999 • Sweeney. 2007 Personality characteristics, romantic love, physical attraction, economics, and religion are alleged to be significant variables in mate selection Most studies focus on cohabitation and the motivating factors for having children

PHILIPPINE SETTING: FAMILY HEALTH • P. Policarpio and L. Jocano. 1974 rural Filipinos carefully examine genealogies when choosing friends and possible spouses to assess virtues and shortcomings because they believed that a person’s hereditary character shows the traditional Filipino family acknowledges the importance of both consaguineal (blood) and affinal (marriage) ties

PHILIPPINE SETTING: MATE SELECTION ISSUES • MAIL-ORDER BRIDE SYSTEM Filipinas of lower socio-economic class resort to marrying foreigners to be able to alleviate them from poverty life • INDIVIDUALISTIC TRENDS Young adults have now more opportunities for leisure and recreation More chance of interaction with the opposite sex without parent’s supervision Romantic love as basis for marriage

PHILIPPINE SETTING: MATE SELECTION ISSUES • Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion in the Philippines by S. Singh Nearly half of all pregnancies in the Philippines is unintended 6 out of 10 Filipino women say they have had experienced an unintended pregnancy at some point in their lives 1/3 of those who experienced an unintended pregnancy resorted to abortion Decision-making: 43% consulted their partners, 25% consulted family or friends Higher proportion of unintended pregnancies and those that lead to abortion in Metro Manila

MATE SELECTION • Beck and Beck-Gersheim. 1995 • Schoen and Wooldredge. 1989

individual characteristics such as physical attractiveness, romantic love, and interpersonal communication will increasingly come to play important roles in the mate selection process in postmodern society