This study is an attempt to analyze some of the social psychological underpinnings of the contemporary trends in postponement of marriage and possible increase in singlehood in the U. S. Recent census data, for 1970-78 specifically, and for 1960 to date generally, show marked increases in that direction among the young marriageables 18 to 34 years old. / After reviewing the available literatue, we have identified three loosely defined categories of writings that exist on the topic, namely, "psychological-ideological", "structural", and "social psychological." For reasons of parsimony, as well as in view of other theoretical considerations, we favor the social psychological analyses as a source of our hypotheses in this study. Therefore, utilizing primarily social psychological theory and research we have proposed a model relating the peer group, the family, and selected personality variables to traditionalism in individual sex role perceptions and to singlehood predispositon, and stated thirteen hypotheses which were tested from empirical data gathered for the study. / The data were gathered by the use of a questionnaire which was administered to a probability sample of some four hundred and fifty undergraduate students on the campus of a small, private, independent, midwestern university in the fall of 1976. The actual sample size used in the analysis consisted of 394 students (233 males and 161 females): some 56 questionnaires had to be rejected for various reasons such as those with incomplete responses, or those completed by married or divorced individuals, etc. / The data tended to support some of our hypotheses and indicated rejection of others thus providing only selective support for our over all model. Our central hypothesis positing a negative correlation between the degree of traditionalism in individual sex role perceptions and singlehood predisposition was supported by our data for males only even though we obtained a somewhat low correlation (Gamma = -.130). For females we found a relatively stronger positive association (Gamma = +.37). It is our interpretation that the more the females perceive traditionalism in societal sex role definitions the more they are likely to choose the singlehood alternative. / It seems that future work and career plans may be important factors in current marriage postponement among the college females studied. We found a strong association between future work and career plans and singlehood for females (Gamma = +.622). Marriage interest in general is still very high in this generation and all but a small minority intend to marry ultimately. There is also strong attitudinal support for the "liberal" view of sex rule definitions in general. / Our most significant findings were in the area of male-female differences where we frequently found correlations in the opposite directions for the two sexes. The study found the males to be a bit more likely to uphold traditional view of sex roles. Whereas personality variables (assertiveness and dependence) appeared to be unrelated to the degree of traditionalism in individual sex role perceptions and to singlehood predisposition, happiness and conflict in the family of orientation seemed to influence marriage decisions. Males from happy families and females from unhappy families of orientation were somewhat more likely to choose marriage; at the same time there is low positive correlation between family conflict and choosing marriage for males and negative correlation for females in this respect. / We find it challenging to extrapolate from our data and analysis the implication that those men who marry or those who prefer to remain single choose those states for different, even opposite, reasons from those of the females. What meaning this has for the marriages of those who do marry and for the sex role relationships of those who remain single is an intriguing question somewhat beyond the scope of our present study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.68577 |
| Date | January 1980 |
| Creators | Najmi, M. A. (Mohamed A.), 1932- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Sociology) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000092312, proquestno: AAINK52048, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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