Study Analysis: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Study summary Gentle hands Prefer BlondesKwong Ho KuenE preciseday Social Psychology Report on Media name 2A intelligence service clause from The Independent describe that modern gentleman preferred brains sort of than fairs (Lusher, 2014). Why do men value nurtureal directs or intelligence over physical attraction? Is this argument just objective opinion or is it scientifically proved? If the phenomenon is true, back end it be explained by genial psychology?In this paper, we volition take a closer look at the issue with the assistance of concepts and theories of social psychology. We will eldest look back the intelligence service name and scram the of import ideas of it. Then, we will further investigate the scientific evidence referred by the word denomination. Afterwards, we will define the main issue sack to be discussed. Finally, we will get a line related verifiable diary articles and apply the findings to the write up of the issue.Introduction of th e IssueReview of the news articleAt the genuinely beginning, lets review the news article and summarize its main points. The news article is epithetd Gentlemen prefer brains alike(p)ly educated couples detain. It was make in The Independent on July 27, 2014. It reports some findings from a young fill of man and wife about associations amongst tuitional levels and part companionships. It guesss that marriages amid a better educated married woman and little educated economise from 1950 to 1979 were 34 percentage much believably to divorce than the polar one.Furtherto a greater extent, it is describe that couples having similar levels of tuition conduct a trim rate of divorce than marriages mingled with a better educated husband and a slight educated wife. Therefore, the article declares that similarly educated couples blend in. The article quotes the title of a classic film called Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It suggests that in that respect was a parkland belief in the past that men preferred a little educated and maybe physically attractive wife. However, the look into result suggests the opposite of it.Closer look at the study creation referred toDoes this article recoil the study finding subjectively? Is there ar any in the flesh(predicate) opinions added to the article? With a view to escort the accuracy of report and hit further details about the study, the research being referred to in the news article is anchor. It is an empirical journal article titled The reversal of the sexual urge Gap in Education and Trends in matrimonial Dissolution (Schwartz Han, 2014). It was published in the American Sociological Review, an academic journal, in 2014.In this study, the researchers discover to examine the risk of marital dissolution among marriages of couples with antithetical combinations of educational level. These combinations take on hypogamous marriages which a high(prenominal) educated wife is get hitched with to a lower educated husband hypergamous marriages which a lower educated wife is married to a high educated husband and a homogamous marriage which a couple with similar educational level get married.The study makes intent of demographic data in American from the National Survey of Family Growth, bloodshed Study of Income Dynamics and Current Population Survey from 1950 to 2009. It examines the divorce rate of hypogamous, hypergamous and homogamous marriages. In addition to comparing the divorce rate, the study overly tries to examine the changes in relative risk of divorce among ternary types of marriages over decades. 2 major results argon make up. runner, as reported in the news article, it is found that hypogamous marriages had a higher divorce rate than the hypergamous marriages before 1980. However, the association of higher divorce rate and hypogamous marriages no longer exists since 1990. In an early(a) word, the marriages between higher educated wives and lower educ ated husband be no longer much likely to break up in new-fangled times. The study further driveed if these hypogamous couples atomic number 18 slight likely to divorce than hypergamous couples, simply no conclusive evidence is found.In addition to what the news article reports, the study also attempts to find out factors behind this change. It suggested that an increase in education level may affect. Although the relative educational attainment of wives in hypogamous marriages is electrostatic higher, the data signaled that the un carve upd educational attainment of both wife and husband in hypogamous marriages increase over the decades. However, no evidence can be found by utilize Cox proportional fate model, a statistical analysis method.On the different hand, the study also discovers that homogamous couples are less(prenominal) likely to divorce compared to hypergamous couples, as reported. What the news article does not include is the change of stability in these ho mogamous marriages. In 1950s, homogamous couples are no to a greater extent likely to divorce than hypergamous couples. However, they are even less likely to divorce than the hypergamous couples after 1990.Going back to the news article, it is partly true to say that similarly educated couples last. It is true that homogamous couples are less likely to divorce compared to hypergamous couples. However, it is not make lovely accurate to say homogamous couples are least likely to divorce among all. It is because the study did not trial any three group comparison like Analysis of unevenness to find reinforcement evidence. Also, it is accurate for the news to say that gentlemen prefer brains to blonde. In the study, physical attracter was not measured and analyzed in any stages.Defining the issue to be discussedThere are three ideas described in the news article. runner, it is the mating preference of men to distinguish brains which is believed to be education level or intelligen ce over blondes which is believed to be physical attractiveness. As mentioned above, it is the reporter own comment rather what the research study finds. So, we are not going to focus on this idea.The insurgent idea is the relative divorce rate among hypogamous couples comparing to hypergamous couples. There is a change from plus correlation before 1980 to no association afterward. However, it is still inconclusive whether a reversed situation has occurred. At the same time, researchers have attempted, but fail to discover the contributing factors behind. The phenomenon is still being canvass by researchers. We cannot enlarge much about this idea at the moment.Finally, it is outlay noticing about the stability of homogamous marriages. It is found that couples with similar educational background has less chance of marital dissolution comparing to hypergamous marriages. In this paper, we are going to embellish this issue by social psychology concepts. We will put through why multitude with similar educational background are attracted to separately other. And we will crack why couples of similar education background plosive speech sound with distributively other.Empirical ledger condition and applications programme to the Issue (1) tenderness between People with Similar Educational LevelTo become a stable marital relationship, the couples should be attracted to separately other at the very first place. The news article said that similarly educated couples are less likely to divorce. In another word, people with similar educational background are attracted to each other. Can social psychology concepts illustrate that similar people attract each other? To be much specific, do people of similar educational level attract each other?In Search of Empirical Journal ArticleIn order to find supporting evidence, a search of empirical journal articles is conducted. The search is carried out in a database of peer reviewed psychology bookish journals called PsycINFO. To find the linkage between education and mating selection with similar others, the key lyric poem of education and assortative mating are used. With a view to include results of words with similar meaning, the search further includes educational attainment and educational level as alternative keywords to education. This is done with the help of the advanced search function.The preceding searches gave 61 results in total including 55 studious journals, 5 dissertations or thesis and 1 book. To further refine the search, the results are limited to scholarly journals. Results are also limited to, publication after 2000 in order to obtain most updated evidence. Afterwards, 33 results are left.Related Empirical Journal Article FoundAmong the 33 journal articles, one titled stop Makers and Deal Breakers Analyses of Assortative Mating in Newlywed Couples published in the Journal of Personality is selected (Watson et al., 2004). It tries to answer what qualities people look for in their spouses. It proposes that there are two ways in answering the question. One is to examine which traits or characteristics like social lieu or physical attractiveness people found desirable. The other method, which is used in this study, is to examine whether couples look for resemblance or complementary in various aspects in their partners.To see whether resemblance or complementary people found desirable, the study looks into saucily married couples. It is supposed that newly married couples are attracted to each other well enough so that they decide to get married. If proportion rather than complementary in most aspects is found among them, it may be inferred that people look for similarity in their romantic partners. To take one note further, it also examines the similarities in which aspects are more important.The study uses a seek of 291 couples married in less than one year in Iowa. They were invited to as current a small group session lasted for around two ho urs. During the session, participants were asked to complete questionnaires and took different tests. Information was collected regarding their demographic background, personality, emotional expression style, prominent attachment style, religious attitudes, political attitudes, values, and intelligence.After data collection, the researchers calculated the simple two-tail correlations between the husbands and wives scores on each aspect. If a immobile correlation is found, similar in that aspect is large for newlywed couples. In fact, strong similarity is found in age, religious and political views. Moderate similarity is found in educational attainment and verbal intelligence. Modest similarity is found in values. Little similarity is found in other aspects like personality and attachment styles.In summary, this study finds significant similarities on various aspects among newly married couples in American. Newly married couples normally love each other to a certain extend that they opinionated to get married. Therefore, similarities in newlywed may suggest that people are attracted to similarities rather than complementary to others, peculiarly in age, religion, political views, education and intelligence. finishing to the issueIs similarity related to attraction as the news article writers? This is an issue in social psychology termed as assortative mating which is specify to be the nonrandom coupling of individuals based on their resemblance to each other on one or more characteristics (Buss, 1984). It is called positive salmagundi when significant similarity is found between husbands and wives. Conversely, it is called negative assortment when significant complementary is found among couples.To date, there is much more evidence on positive assortment rather than the negative assortment (Bouchard Loehlin, 2001 Mathews Reus, 2001). It suggests that people do prefer similarity in their romantic partners rather than differences. In fact, the empirical journal article above also confirms that many similarities are found among newly married couples (Watson et al., 2004). To be more specific, moderate similarity in educational attainment is also found among newlywed in the study (Watson et al., 2004). This may illustrate why similarly educated couples get in concert as said in the news article.Empirical Journal Article and Application to the Issue (2)Relationship with Similar Education Background at lastSimilarly educated couples getting together is only half of the story. The news article suggests that these couples also last longer. To be more accurate, the study being referred to finds that these couples have a lower risk of divorce comparing to couples with higher educated husbands. Why do similar couples divorce less? Do similar couples enjoy higher marital rejoicing? To be more specific, does similar education background associate with marital blessedness?In Search of Empirical Journal ArticleAgain, in search of supportin g evidences, we make use of the scholarly journal database PsycINFO. To find the linkage between similarity in couples and rejoicing in their relationships, the keywords of similarity and marital satisfaction are used. There are 240 results in this preliminary searches, including 152 scholarly journals, 77 dissertations or thesis and 11 book. To further refine the search, one more keyword socioeconomic is added to explore specific if the similarity in socioeconomic status predicts marital satisfaction. Afterwards, 6 results are left.Related Empirical Journal Article FoundAmong the 6 results, an article titled Does semblance Breed Marital and Sexual Satisfaction published in the Journal of Sex investigate is selected (Zhang, Ho Yip, 2012). In this study, the researchers want to know if the similarity in couples is associated with marital satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. To take one step further, they also humble to find out similarity in which aspects correlated stronger wi th marital satisfaction and sexual satisfaction than other aspects.This study makes use of the data from Knowledge, Attitude, and use survey in 2002. It is the longest running survey of family planning in Hong Kong. 1,083 couples are chosen randomly from groups stratified by their living districts. They were invited to an individual interview answering a number of questions. Information is collected on their marital satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, socioeconomic background, religion, age, educational attainment, employment, and birthplace.For each aspect, the researchers group the respondents fit their similarity. For example, they divide the respondents into three education homogamy groups, namely husbands with higher education level, wives with higher education level and couples with the same education level. Then, for each group, the researchers further divide the respondents into martially satisfied or dissatisfied groups according to their scores of marital satisfaction. Fi nally, the researchers calculate the correlation between different groups and their marital satisfaction using chi-square tests.If significant correlation is found, it may suggest that similarity in certain aspect is associated with the marital and sexual satisfaction. In fact, this study finds out that education homogamy is a significant factor related to marital satisfaction especially the wives marital satisfaction. There are other influencing factors like employment homogamy, date some of them are not influencing like religious homogamy and birthplace homogamy.Application to the issueThe news article says that similarly educated couples last. First of all, lets look at what makes a marriage last before discussing why similarly educated couples last. In social psychology, there are sufficient evidences that marital satisfaction predicts divorce (Hirschberger et al., 2009). Marital satisfaction is defined as the global evaluation of the marital relationship, which depicts a comm and picture of the relationship (Glenn, 1990). Generally speaking, the more the couples are satisfied with their relationships, the less likely they will divorce. In layman terms, happy marriages last.If happy marriages last, is similarity related to marital satisfaction? There are evidences that couples with different age, religion, education or cultural have more conflicts than the counterpart (Cao, Fragmiere, Gauthier, Sapin Widmer, 2010). To be more specific, does similarity in educational attainment associate with marital satisfaction? In fact, the empirical journal article we found do suggest that education homogamy is correlated with marital satisfaction (Zhang, Ho Yip, 2012). This may illustrate why marriages of similarly educated couples last.To look at the reason behind, social psychologists suggest that similarity in attraction is enhanced by the positive feeling resulted from consensual validation (Byrne, 1971). Similar people usually helping the same values and attit udes and they socially validated each other. We may knob that similarity in education predict similarity in other aspects, because education is correlated with socioeconomic status like occupation, lifestyles, and abilities (Zhang, Ho Yip, 2012). Therefore, more consensual validation may be found in education homogamy couples. As a result, the satisfaction resulted from social validation may sour the stability of their marriage.ConclusionIn a nutshell, we read a news article from The Independent says similarly educated couples last. We first ask why similarly educated couples get together. Social psychology concepts show that people are attracted by similarity of others. We also find the first empirical journal article supporting that similarity in educational background is desirable in marriages (Watson et al., 2004). Then, we ask why similarly educated marriages last. A second empirical journal article shows that similarity in educational background is related to higher marital satisfaction (Zhang, Ho Yip, 2012). And marital satisfaction is associated with divorce (Hirschberger et al., 2009). These all together illustrated the issue that marriage between a similarly educated couple is less likely to divorce.ReferencesBouchard, T. J. Jr., Loehlin, J. C. (2001). Genes, evolution, and personality. Behavior Genetics, 31, 243273.Buss, D. M. (1984). Marital assortment for personality dispositions Assessment with three different data sources. Behavior Genetics, 14, 111123.Byrne, D. E. 1971. The Attraction Paradigm. New York Academic Press.Cao, N. V., Fragmiere, E., Gauthier, J. A., Sapin, M., Widmer, E. D. (2010). Optimizing the marriage mart An application of the linear assignment model. European Journal of Operational Research, 202, 547553.Glenn, N. D. (1990). numeric research on marital quality in the 1980s A critical review. Journal of Marriage the Family, 52, 818831.Hirschberger G., Srivastava S., Marsh P., Cowan C. P., Cowan P. A. (2009). Attachment, Marital Satisfaction, and Divorce During the First Fifteen Years of Parenthood. Personal Relationships, 16, 3, 401420.Lusher, A. (2014, July 27). Gentlemen prefer brains similarly educated couples last. The Independent. Retrieved from http//www.independent.co.uk/news/ science/gentlemen-prefer-brains-similarly-educated-couples-last-9631871.htmlMathews, C. A., Reus, V. I. (2001). Assortative mating in the affective disorders A systematic review and meta-analysis. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 42, 257262.Schwartz, R. Han, H. (2014). The Reversal of the Gender Gap in Education and Trends in Marital Dissolution. American Sociological Review, 79(4), 605-629.Watson D., Klohnen E. C., Casillas A., Simms E.N., Haig J., Berry D.S. (2004). Match makers and deal breaker analyses of assortative mating in newlywed couples. Journal of Personality, 72, 5, 1029-1068.Zhang H., Ho S. Y., Yip S. F. (2012). Does Similarity Breed Marital and Sexual Satisfaction? Journal of Sex Research, 49, 6, 583-593.