Intimate Relationship on Social Psychology Term Paper

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Intimate Relationships

The human animal is indeed a social animal. Throughout our history, Homo sapiens has demonstrated its need to maintain and make new social bonds, especially in the romantic and sexual arena. This short report examines the factors that modern individuals reports as important in beginning a personal relationship. Both single and committed males and females will be surveyed, and results compared withy regard to gender, age, and divorce and past experience.

This survey consisted of asking eight individuals the following question: "What factors were important in choosing your current (or last) relationship partner?" Four women were interviewed; two were married [one married four months (age 28), and the other married twenty years (age 48)], and two were unmarried [one divorced (age 35), and one never married (age 23)]. Four men were interviewed; two were married [one married four months (age 24), and the other married twenty years (age 52)], and two single [one divorced (age 27), and one never married (age 37)].

There were some important differences between males and females in the factors that they reported as important in beginning a personal relationship. Women on average reported personal characteristics like a sense of humor, intelligence, and kindness at a slightly higher rate than did the men. Men, however, reported physical characteristics like attractive breasts or legs at a slightly higher rate. These differing responses may reflect the importance of physical characteristics in choosing a mate for males, and the importance of personal characteristics for females.

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However, this difference may also be explained by the influence of age and marital status. Age played perhaps a more important role in determining the importance of physical and personal characteristics than did the gender of the respondent. Older individuals rarely mentioned physical characteristics as important in choosing a mate, regardless of their gender. Married individuals also rarely mentioned physical characteristics as an important component of choosing a relationship partner. Only one of the married individuals in the survey mentioned more than one physical characteristic as important; this was the 24-year-old-married male, who reported seven of ten important characteristics as physical in nature. Interestingly, the young age of this individual may indicate that his age was the primary determinant in his choice of physical characteristics over personal characteristics. In support of this theory, the 23-year-old unmarried female listed physical characteristics as four of her nine characteristics. In contrast, the 35-year-old divorced female chose no physical characteristics in her list of factors. Similarly, the….....

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"Intimate Relationship On Social Psychology" (2004, May 19) Retrieved June 5, 2026, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/intimate-relationship-social-psychology-172065

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"Intimate Relationship On Social Psychology" 19 May 2004. Web.5 June. 2026. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/intimate-relationship-social-psychology-172065>

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"Intimate Relationship On Social Psychology", 19 May 2004, Accessed.5 June. 2026,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/intimate-relationship-social-psychology-172065
   

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