Sociocultural Factors Influencing Human Relationships
To what extent do sociocultural factors influence human relationships?
Human relationships are complex and consist of many stages, such as attraction, formation and maintenance, and possibly ending. There are also different types of relationships, such as romantic relationships, friendships or relationships between kin. Many possible factors exist that can affect relationships, one of them being culture. Culture is hard to define, but it could be defined as a system of values that a group of people have in common. In the original cross cultural study of mate selection, Buss found that physical attractiveness is more important to men all over the world and that financial resources are more important to women – gender differences which appeared to be universal. However, culture had a powerful impact on some aspects of mate preferences. Chastity was the greatest factor that was affected by culture. In Scandinavian countries, in the Netherlands and West Germany, chastity was seen as irrelevant. However, in China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Palestinian Arab, a great importance was placed on chastity in a potential mate. This shows that there are differences between cultures when it comes to attraction to a certain mate. However, Levine and Kito investigated cultural differences in the formation and maintenance of relationships. Levine investigated the importance of love in marriage, and Kito examined the importance of self-disclosure in relationships.
Even though romantic love is an aspect that seems to be universal around the different cultures of the world, the importance of love for marriage is not seen as universally accepted. In many world cultures, marriage is arranged by family members and romantic love in these cultures is seen as irrelevant for marriages. Levine et al. conducted a study with the aim of examining the cross-cultural generality of the importance placed on romantic love in marriage decisions and to identify predictors and consequences of
Human relationships are complex and consist of many stages, such as attraction, formation and maintenance, and possibly ending. There are also different types of relationships, such as romantic relationships, friendships or relationships between kin. Many possible factors exist that can affect relationships, one of them being culture. Culture is hard to define, but it could be defined as a system of values that a group of people have in common. In the original cross cultural study of mate selection, Buss found that physical attractiveness is more important to men all over the world and that financial resources are more important to women – gender differences which appeared to be universal. However, culture had a powerful impact on some aspects of mate preferences. Chastity was the greatest factor that was affected by culture. In Scandinavian countries, in the Netherlands and West Germany, chastity was seen as irrelevant. However, in China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Palestinian Arab, a great importance was placed on chastity in a potential mate. This shows that there are differences between cultures when it comes to attraction to a certain mate. However, Levine and Kito investigated cultural differences in the formation and maintenance of relationships. Levine investigated the importance of love in marriage, and Kito examined the importance of self-disclosure in relationships.
Even though romantic love is an aspect that seems to be universal around the different cultures of the world, the importance of love for marriage is not seen as universally accepted. In many world cultures, marriage is arranged by family members and romantic love in these cultures is seen as irrelevant for marriages. Levine et al. conducted a study with the aim of examining the cross-cultural generality of the importance placed on romantic love in marriage decisions and to identify predictors and consequences of