D.Phil. (Educational Psychology) / There is substantial evidence that potential marital partners have difficulty with their decision-making for a marital partner. As a result these potential marital partners often base their decisions of a marital partner on limited awareness. Little or no research has been done on the decision-making process of a marital partner, and that is why the question can be asked: "How did you make the choice for a marital partner?" The purpose of this study is to develop a model as framework of reference for the facilitation of awareness in the decision-making process for a marital partner as integral part of mental health. A theory generative, qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was used to conduct this study. The fieldwork was done by having semistructured phenomenological interviews with marital partners. The results obtained were analysed and categorised. The results obtained from the analysed data reflect the fact that potential marital partners make the choice of a marital partner based on limited awareness. The main concept of facilitation of awareness in the decision-making of a marital partner was identified and defined as creating a safe space wherein people can be assisted in becoming conscious about their inner and outer world. A model was developed as framework of reference to facilitate awareness in the decision-making process of a marital partner as integral part of mental health.

The aim of this research was to identify differences in personality that correlate with attraction to potentially psychopathic individuals. A sample of 587 (437 female) undergraduate psychology students at the University of Central Florida were recruited for participation. The participants were presented with a fictional dating profile of a psychopathic individual of the other sex. Participants were asked to rate their attraction to the individual portrayed in the dating profile, and proceeded to complete a series of personality instruments. Data was analyzed using a multiple regression analysis at a 0.05 confidence interval. High levels of attraction were significantly predicted by scores on psychopathy, need for affiliation, empathy, and impulsivity.

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While the marriage prospects of educated African American women are of particular interest to the media and scholars alike, very rarely do these two groups examine the ways in which African American men understand and perceive marriage. In particular, though they have successfully provided socio-cultural and historically specific examinations of the topic, scholars of African American Studies have not conducted in-depth empirical analyses of African American dating and marriage practices. Simultaneously, social scientists, while providing significant empirical data, have not supported their work with a cultural analysis specific to African American people. In an effort to merge these two areas of scholarship, this dissertation investigated the dating and relationship ideals of college-educated Black men and women. The purpose of this study was to: (1) discover what traits and criteria males and females consider most important in a potential mate, (2) understand the role that the current social and marriage market conditions such as sex ratio, socioeconomic status and education level play in mate selection among college educated Black men and women and (3) develop a culturally specific theory of Black marriage. Through the use of surveys administered online and in face-to-face sessions, this dissertation sought to explore how predictor variables such as age, sex, family economic status and education level influence how 123 college-educated Black males and females ages 18 and over view their dating and marriage prospects and the types of characteristics they assign to the ideal mate. Preliminary findings showed that participants placed a high level of importance on getting married, had positive attitudes toward marriage and were optimistic about their marriage prospects. Additionally, factors such as mate availability, educational attainment and economic ability were of particular importance to participants and play a role in their choices about if, when and who they would marry. Lastly, the author articulated a theory of marriage, the Preliminary Intersectional Factor Theory of Marriage Attitudes and Marital Behavior. Based on the findings, it was argued that the proposed preliminary theory of marriage takes into account the structural, economic and cultural factors that intersect to shape the lives, marital attitudes and marital behavior of Black men and women in America. / African American Studies

The data gathered for this exploratory study of parental influence on mate selection supported the thesis that parents influence their childrens' mate selection. Fifty married university students were interviewed and fifty-five of their parents returned mailed questionnaires. Although students indicated that they, themselves, had chosen their spouses, seventy per cent of the students perceived parental influence on their choice of mate. Thirty-six per cent of the parents felt that they had influenced their childrens' choice of a spouse. It was postulated that parents through socialization and by acting as validators of their childrens' choices--by encouraging approved matches and discouraging opposed matches, exerted influence. Three types of influence were found which were classified according to BurKess' typology of parental influence: controlling of social contacts, opposition to disapproved matches, and the child's conscious desire to choose a mate his or her parents would approve. In these ways, by determining an appropriate field of eligibles, the parents directly and indirectly had input into their childrens' choice of mates. The great majority of parents met the individuals dated and/ or courted by their children. Of these parents, most approved of the individuals met; if they disapproved they communicated their feelings very overtly. The “individual choice" explorations of mate selection are questioned, and it is suggested that a study with a larger representative sample be undertaken to ascertain parental influence on mate selection for the population. / Master of Science

Previous research has shown that male pigeons (Columba livia) respond with courtship displays to video playbacks of a female pigeon indicating that they 'recognize' the female as a potential mate. Courtship displays significantly decline when the head region of the female is occluded (Shimizu, 1998) suggesting that features located within the head are important for species recognition and mate selection. However, little is known about the exact visual features necessary to elicit displays. The current study examined the preference behavior of male pigeons when given a choice between photographic images of normal looking or altered female pigeon faces. The altered-face categories included: 1) enlarged or removed facial features such as the eyes or beak; 2) the eyes and beak reconfigured within the head; and 3) removed contour (outline). The results showed that subjects responded preferentially toward females with enlarged features (eyes or beak). However, subjects responded preferentially toward normal females when the alternative stimuli were faces that were missing the eyes and/or beak. Preference for normal females was also observed when females with "incorrect" configuration were shown. Finally, subjects responded significantly less to females lacking contour, even when the eyes and beak were visible. The overall findings suggest local facial components are important, although this effect diminishes if the contour of the female is not visible. These findings also suggest that pigeons attend to both local components and global configuration when they detect conspecifics and identify potential mates.

M.A. (Clinical Psychology) / The overall aim of this study is to establish whether theories on mate selection apply more to first than to subsequent marriages. In the case of subsequent marriages synthesis of the hypotheses is made more difficult by the lack of available research results on the role of internal factors involved in mate selection. It is reasonable to assume differences between first and subsequent marriages in terms of factors that play a significant role in mate selection. Several theories on mate selection have evolved since the formulation of psycho-analytical theory. Initially attempts were made to find a single factor or principle to explain mate selection and it would seem that in most theories complementarity plays a role in some way or another. Hegel (in Murstein, 1976) was one of the earliest champions of theories emphasizing the :. attraction of opposites. According to him the interaction between two opposites results in a new and more viable entity...

Interest in the question of when and how species recognition and mate preferences emerge in animals with strong species-typical predispositions has faded since the time of the classical ethologists. In its place, the role of plasticity has surfaced as a central emphasis in the study of animal behavior. Here, I step back and examine the origin and execution of sexual behavior in a tropical frog for which auditory predispositions are key. These experiments challenge assumptions about behavioral development, auditory perception, and stereotyped behavior. First, I illustrate when and how a sex- and species-typical behavior—conspecific phonotaxis—emerges during development. This study demonstrates that phonotaxis, presumably restricted to mature females, is present in both sexes early in postmetamorphic development—potentially long before such behavior might serve an adaptive function. I place this result in the context of hypotheses regarding the development of learned versus non-learned behaviors, and in light of the potential for perception to be altered by physiological changes occurring concomitantly with ontogeny. Next, I describe a set of dynamic mate choice studies that highlight how decision-making in a relatively simple system is more flexible, and less stereotyped, than was previously assumed. Results here show that frogs temporally update their mate choice decisions in a moment-to-moment fashion as advertisement signals change in real time. By decomposing the decision-making process, I determine the stimulus parameters essential for commitment to an initial phonotactic approach. These studies are followed up by experiments that reveal a high level of individual variation in female choosiness during mate choice. Lastly, I describe a mate choice study that revealed categorical perception in frogs, the first “lower” vertebrate now known to exhibit a perceptual mode previously considered a hallmark of “higher” organisms. Collectively, I make the following arguments: (1) constraints on sensory systems play a larger role in shaping behavior than is generally appreciated, irrespective of the involvement of learning; (2) unstudied sources of variation may contribute significantly to the raw material for sexual selection; and (3) phonotaxis in anurans amphibians is not the simple, stereotyped behavior that has been suggested of it in the past. / text

Mate preferences provide an opportunity to explore the validity of evolutionary and social role origin theories of sex differences in human behaviour. In evolutionary models, preferences are sex-specific adaptive responses to constraints to reproductive success. In social role models, sex differences arise from the allocation of men and women to different gender roles. I explored the effects of the status of women on preferences to assess the validity of the origin theories. I developed an adequate measure of female status (i.e. resource control), and explored its effects on female preferences in an online survey (Chapter 3), a mail-shot survey (Chapter 4), and a sample of non-industrial societies (Chapter 5). Results implicated a role of constraints on women in the expression of female-typical preferences. In an experimental manipulation of female perceptions of their status, results enabled greater confidence in the attribution of causal direction to relationships (Chapter 6). In Chapter 7, I explored the conditions under which the relationships of interest occurred. In Chapter 8, to further explore the origin models I investigated the effects of resource control on the magnitudes of sex differences in preferences. In Chapter 9, I explored relationships between a characteristic more closely related to the male gender role (i.e. apparent intelligence) and femininity in female faces. Women who were considered to look more intelligent were perceived as less feminine. In Chapter 10, I investigated the effects of reproductive strategy on mate preferences. Results were consistent with evolutionary models of behaviour. I argue that “status” is a multidimensional construct, and that its effects on mate preferences are complex, that while results were generally more consistent with an evolutionary than the biosocial model, integration of models would provide greater insight into human mate preferences.

Evidence in humans suggests that men are especially competitive with other men over resources and, if successful, are valued as attractive mating prospects by women. Previous studies also show that men experience an increase in testosterone following a win and a decrease in testosterone following a loss. If an increase in testosterone following a victory is an evolved physiological response aimed at readying a man for an increase in mating opportunities, then experimentally manipulating competitive outcomes should differentially affect men’s sex-drive. One-hundred thirteen men were randomly assigned to experience a win, a loss, or no competitive feedback. Participants’ sex-drive was gauged by their responses to photographs of women of differential attractiveness. Results showed that only single men exhibited a higher sex-drive in the winning condition, followed by the control and losing conditions, respectively. Limitations and practical applications to decreasing instances of rape and sexual coercion are discussed. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection