Chapter 2

Q-1.3 components/Factors of marriage.

Ans: Marriage is the contral context within which work on intimacy and mature social relationships
usually takes place.About 80% of men and 90% of women are married by ages 25 to 34.Less than 10%
remain single.For most adults happyness in life depends more on having a statisfying happy
marriage,than any other domain of adult life.Including work,friendships,hobbies or community activities.
Three components of developmental task of marriage:
1)Readyness to marry
2)Selection of a marriage partner
3)Early years of marriage

1)Readyness to marry:
(a)One very important factor is the readyness of two individual for a long term commitment.Here,if
identity is developed there the possibility of a deep emotional involvement with another person is strong.
In studies of college student a relationship has been found between identity status and the quality of
intimacy.Those students who had achieved identity reported the most genuine intimate relationships,
while those who were characterized as diffused were less intimate and the most isolated.
(b)For some young adults,readyness for marriage is response to the social clock.In society there are
expectations about the best age for marriage.
-For working class groups the ideal age for marriage is between 18 to 22.
-Men are expected to marry later than women.
Finally,readyness may be determined by some other agenda.Such as finishing school,completing military
service or earning a certain income.

2)Selection of a partner:Once a person is ready for marry,he will then choose a marriage partner.
Three factors in choosing a marriage partner is determined-
a)Availability
b)Eligibility
c)Attractiveness

a)Availability:Partners are selected among those who are available for interaction.In the most general
sense which person are choose to marry will depend on the network of interaction in which one is
involved.More frequently interaction tends to increase fellings of similarity and liking.One is more likely
to feel attracted to a person with whom one has interacted frequently than to a stronger.
b)Eligibility:Partners are selected who are perceived as eligible.Eligible means that the person must be
viewed as qualified partner.Ofcourse eligibility defined differently by different people.For some any
person who is conscious is eligible.For others there are criteria that limit the choice of a marriage partners
to someone of a certain age range,religion,race,educational background or family background.
c)Attractiveness:A third factor influencing the choice of a marriage partner is attractiveness.This too an
exclusive dimension.Attractiveness is based on judgements of physical appearance, competence,
personality qualities or status.Similarity contributes to attaractiveness.Most people seek a marriage
partner who understand them and provide a sense of emotional supoort.They do not find attractive those
who hold opposing views.
Of course there are many dimensions along which two people can recognize similarities or
differences.Two people may seem quite different  on some dimensions (such as religion, social class)
Yet,discover that they are quite similar on other dimensions(political ideology).The more
we are aware of the themes that are central to our own sense of personal identity,the more we can
recognize the dimensions of attractiveness in the other person,that will contribute to a intimate
relationship.

3)Early Years of Marriage:The first few years

of marriage involve a process of mutual adaptation.These years may prove to be extremely
difficult.Evidence suggest that,the probality of divorce is highest during the first years of marriage and
peak between 2 and 4 years.About 50% of the marriages that will end in divorce are ended by the 7th year
of marriage(US. Bureau of the census,1976)

Q-2. Mate selection / selection of a partner

Ans: The most important factors that contribute to creation of a lifestyle are ones marriage partner,ones
children and ones work.
Marriage is the contral context within which work on intimacy and mature social relationships usually
takes place.
Once a person is ready for marry,he will then choose a marriage partner.
Three factors in choosing a marriage partner is determined-
a)Availability
b)Eligibility
c)Attractiveness

a)Availability:Partners are selected among those who are available for interaction.In the most general
sense which person are choose to marry will depend on the network of interaction in which one is
involved.More frequently interaction tends to increase fellings of similarity and liking.One is more likely
to feel attracted to a person with whom one has interacted frequently than to a stronger.

b)Eligibility:Partners are selected who are perceived as eligible.Eligible means that the person must be
viewed as qualified partner.Ofcourse eligibility defined differently by different people.For some any
person who is conscious is eligible.For others there are criteria that limit the choice of a marriage partners
to someone of a certain age range,religion,race,educational background or family background.

c)Attractiveness:A third factor influencing the choice of a marriage partner is attractiveness.This too an
exclusive dimension.Attractiveness is based on judgements of physical
appearance,competence,personality qualities or status.Similarity contributes to attaractiveness.Most
people seek a marriage partner who understand them and provide a sense of emotional supoort.They do
not find attractive those who hold opposing views.
Of course there are many dimensions along which two people can recognize similarities or
differences.Two people may seem quite different  on some dimensions (such as religion, social class)
Yet,discover that they are quite similar on other dimensions(political ideology).The more
we are aware of the themes that are central to our own sense of personal identity,the more we can
recognize the dimensions of attractiveness in the other person,that will contribute to a intimate
relationship.
Q-3. Marital adjustment

Ans: The young married partners attempt to arrive at

an intimate,mutually satisfying relationships.
There are many sources of conflict and strategies of conflict resolution among married couples.
Definition:Marital adjustment refers to those process that are presume to be necessary to achieve
harmonious and functional marital relationship.

Factor influencing marital adjustment:

1)Socioeconomic status: Many studies suggest that,there are positive correlation between SES and length
of marriage/happiness.(Barry,1970)
This SES indicates how significant feelings of security about basic needs are to the establishment of
intimacy.Doubt about job security meeting bills in the community will undetermine the married partners
efforts to meet each others emotional needs.

2)Adjust with stress:The second theme in marital adjustment is that,women experience more stress in
adjusting to marriage than man do.This observation can be explained in two ways-
a)when many women enter marriage,they have completed less work than their husbands on their identity
have no preparation for child bearing, which will be their dominant task.They dependent on their financial
security and social status.
b)Women are more adequately prepared for an intimate,open relationship than men are.They expect and
desire a degree of closeness that is often reciprocated in the marital relationship.On the other hand,man
are quiet satisfied with the degree of intimacy that they find in marriage and have fewer expectations or
less desire for a greater level of closeness.

3)Husbands level of psychosocial maturity:

It is the final theme.Mutual satisfaction in the marriage is depend on husband characteristics.(Including
the stability of his masculine identity,his educational level,SES).Barry(1970) hypothesized that,husbands
with stable self-identities can supply the security their wives,can support them emotionally in dificulty of
transition to married life.It is resonable to expect that the achievement of intimacy and high level of
marital satisfaction will require effective communication and the capacity to cope effectively with conflict
in the marriage.Conflict may be a product of the failure of relationship to meet critical expectations about
marriage.