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Social Role Theory

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Influence of Social Role Theory on Mate Preferences in Different Relationships
Sumer Pirzada Colorado State University

Abstract

This study was conducted in order to find if social role influence mate preference in short-term relationships. The hypothesis was not supported after carrying out the research process. There were 35.5% male respondents and the remaining respondents were 64.5% female. Of the 31 participants, which were recruited from pool of friends on Facebook to take the fifteen minute survey, the sample size was predominantly European/White with the mean age of 21 years. The participants took three surveys in order to identify whether they fall in homemaker or provider category then they took the third survey on their preference mate. Even though there was only a single significant finding: that homemakers prefer other homemakers when considering mates for a short term relationship, this study indicates that most college students fall into provider role probably because they want to pursue a career after graduating so they prefer homemaker as their mate regardless of being in long-term or short-term relationship.

Keywords: social roles, mate preferences, physical traits, college students, short term relationship, long term relationship

Influence of Social Role Theory on Mate Preferences in Different Relationships
People choose their mates based on many human characteristics. These characteristics may vary for each individual, type of relationship (short-term, long-term), age group, gender and even nation. Men and women don’t prefer all members of opposite sex equally. Often women pick one man over another and vice versa. When choosing mates some major factors that play role include physical attractiveness, similarity in interests and values, physical proximity, and reciprocation among others to be important contributors to relationship initiation (Holmes &Kimberly, 2009). However, this study will unfold how social role theory which is usually seem fit for long-term relationships, influences mate preference in relationships, long-term and short-term, of college students especially since social role theory does not address short-term relationships.
Traditional gender ideologies in individuals play a major role when it comes to mate preferences. For traditional men and women age, financial prospect and housekeeping skills are strong indicators (Eastwich, Eagly, Glick, Johannesen-Schmidt, Fiske, Blum, &....Volpato, 2006). Women prefer older men with a strong financial prospect in order to play a provider role while men prefer women that are younger and have good cooking and housekeeping skills (Eastwich et al, 2006). These preferences are based on individual’s traditions from the country they are from. Where in some countries despite of inequality in opportunities among genders people look for these characteristics in their mates.
In their study, Eagly, Eastwich & Johannesen- Schmidt (2009) justifies that even though in the past men preferred younger wife and women preferred older men since men used to be the strong provider and women used to good for homemakers and child rearing, things have changed and women has gotten more status in our society than they used to have. Based on that they studied if social role theory is still effective in recent time and it turns out as it shows in their reply that it does because it’s a convenient way to divide the labor among the couples that are in long-term relationship. In this study we took one step further to test whether or not social role theory influence’s mate preference in short-term relationships as it influence mate preference in long-term relationships.
Social Role Theory
Social role theory suggests that men and women will conform to socially predetermined roles with men being breadwinner in a relationship and women being the homemaker. It identifies the division of labor or assumed responsibilities that men and women have in a relationship. It further confirms that by the fact that most people will search for mates that complement their own attributes. For example a young woman who is domestically devoted may seek a male who is more financially secure and able to support her. On the other hand, a financially secure male may seek a female who will be a good homemaker (Eagly, Eastwich & Johannesen- Schmidt, 2009). Even though the main focus of this study is to find out the influence of social role theory on long-term and short-term relationships, there’s another factor included that could shift or influence the results of our study; physical traits.
Darwin’s ‘Sexual Selection’
There is a list of valued characteristics between men and women. These values vary between men and women as a nature of mating type (i.e., long-term vs. short-term). Charles Darwin proposed that human sex differences evolved based on sexual selection. In this theory certain physical, mental or psychological traits evolved. The evolution of these characteristics caused the aid in competition among individuals for preferred mates and also to enhance the traits that are helpful in attracting mates. He defined the process by saying that it ‘depends on the advantage which certain individuals have over other individuals of the same sex and species, in exclusive relation to reproduction’. Focusing on physical attributes he also suggested that female features are important in mating success, such as beauty, red lips, shapely breasts, as well as artificial means such as jewelry and make up. He also emphasized on the point that different cultures have different views on attractiveness (Bus & Barns, 1986).
Hypothesis
When these ideas and theories are combined there is so much that can influence people mate preferences. There seem to be a difference in mate preferences when it comes to the nature of relationships (i.e. long-term and short-term). As social role theory indicates the importance of characteristics in mates that complement their own characteristics when looking for a mate, this idea is most commonly adapted by people that are looking for long term relationships. This idea promotes our first hypothesis.
Hypothesis 1: When imagining long-term relationships college students prefer roles that complement their own, as opposed to merely physical traits.
Along with sexual selection theory and attachment theory, physical attractiveness is a stronger a predictor of relationship for males than females in initiation dating phases (Paulson, Holman, Busby & Carroll, 2013). The study done by Paulson, Holman, Busby & Carroll (2013) also suggests that physical attractiveness is highly rated to be a characteristic when it comes to the preference of an ideal partner. This leads us to the second hypothesis of our study.
Hypothesis 2: When imagining short term relationships college students prefer physically attractive traits, and place less of an emphasis on social roles.

Methods
Participants
For this study we were able to recruit 31 participants between the dates of April 1, 2014 and April 15, 2014. The mean age of the participants was 21.26 years with a standard deviation of 2.37. Thirty-five and five tenths percent of respondents were male, with the remaining 64.5% being female. The ethnic distribution was 71% European/White, 9.7% Hispanic/Latino/Latina, 6.5% Asian American/Pacific Islander, 3.1% African American/Black and 9.7% identified as other. Ninety-six and eight tenths percent of participants were heterosexual, 3.2% were gay or lesbian. Current relationship status was also taken into account, with 38.7% being single, 51.6% in a romantic relationship, and 9.7% were married. Finally, college standing was recorded with the following distribution: 16.1% freshman, 12.9% sophomore, 22.6% junior, and 48.4% senior.
Research Design This study will utilize a between subjects design to determine mate preferences when relationship type is manipulated. Participants will be randomly assigned to take either a short term or long term mate preferences survey to account for each level of relationship type. This will provide data to determine what qualities (social role versus physical characteristics) each participant values for either level of the independent variable (long term or short term relationship). We are interested in participants’ actual social roles and mate preferences to discover whether or not social role theory accurately predicts characteristics that individuals ought to be attracted to, given their own social role. Specifically, we wish to see if this particular demographic prefers mates with social roles that complement their own, as demonstrated by Eagly, Eastwick and Johannesen-Schmidt (2009).

Materials The initial survey will measure participants’ current social roles, utilizing items related to those used by Baber and Tucker (2006). We will determine whether a participant fulfills a homemaker or provider role, as demonstrated by Eagly, Eastwick and Johannesen-Schmidt (2009). The survey will ask questions pertaining to what qualities a participant has that relate to each role. Items such as “my education is important to my future” (example of provider characteristic) and “I prefer working around the home as opposed to doing schoolwork” (example of homemaker characteristic) will be ranked by participants on a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, with a neutral option included as well. These items will be scored to determine if the participant is a provider or homemaker, which we hypothesized will influence responses questions regarding mate preferences. One of two randomly assigned surveys will be administered next to discover what traits a participant prefers in a mate when imagining themselves in a long term relationship, one where the participant is committed, monogamous, and plans to be romantically linked with their significant other for a period longer than three months (DeLeece, Polheber & Matchock, 2013). This survey contains items relating to each of the questions in the preliminary survey, as demonstrated by Baber and Tucker. However, each participant is asked to rank the importance of a given characteristic in regards to the imagined long term mate. Questions include “it is important for my mate to utilize their education” (preference for provider role) and “it is important for my mate to be competent at performing household duties” (preference for homemaker role). These items will be ranked on the same disagree-agree Likert scale. Questions will also be asked to determine the importance of physical characteristics when imagining long term mate selection. Items such as “it is important that my partner look a certain way” and “I will never date somebody who doesn’t meet my standards of attractiveness” will be ranked in the same fashion.
A separate survey which half of participants will be assigned to take will measure participants’ preferences for characteristics when imagining a short term relationship, a one-time sexual encounter that involves no romanticism with the partner (DeLeece, Polheber & Matchock, 2013). Identical items will be presented on this survey as seen in the long term level, but adjusted for short term relationships and with an emphasis on considering the importance of traits for short term partners. For example, “I will never date somebody who doesn’t meet my standards of attractiveness” will be altered to “I will never have a one night stand with somebody who doesn’t meet my standards of attractiveness”. Both role related and physical related items will be ranked by participants for importance on the same scale and calculated similarly.
Procedure

We will advertise our study on Facebook and invite participants amongst our pool of friends who are currently enrolled in college, and are between the ages of 18 and 25 years of age. Participants will be recruited using a Facebook status containing a link to the survey, hosted on the website qualtrics.com. Before being directed to complete the three surveys, participants will view an informed consent page wherein they will be instructed of the surveys they will take and agree to have data measured on their personal mate preferences. Also, we will stress that the participants’ data is completely anonymous and will remain confidential. Participants will be asked to complete a 20 minute series of surveys pertaining to their own social roles and social roles of possible mates when considering short term and long term relationships. Participants will be notified that we are interested in physical characteristics, along with social characteristics. After agreeing to the terms of the study, participants will receive instructions for completing each survey. After completing the surveys, participants will be directed to a page of debriefing information, where they will be informed that the true purpose of our study was to determine the interaction between social roles, physical attractiveness, relationship type and mate preferences. We will provide a link to the Colorado State University counseling office in case of any stress our surveys may have caused participants. We will also provide links for our introduction and methods sections to aid in the debriefing.

Table 1: Multinomial logistic regression of relationship/mate preferences | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Variable | OR | 95% CI | Wald Test | df | P | | | | | | | Short term relationships | | | | | | | | | | | | Homemaker (reference: physical traits) | 452m | 77m-2633m | 491.75 | 1 | <.001 | | | | | | | Provider (reference: physical traits) | 578m | 578m-578m | | 1 | | | | | | | | Provider (reference: homemaker) | 1.28 | .220- 7.45 | 0.075 | 1 | 0.784 | | | | | | | Homemaker | | | | | | | | | | | | Homemaker (reference: physical traits) | 0.97 | .1- 9.411 | 0.001 | 1 | 0.979 | | | | | | | Provider (reference: physical traits) | 0.44 | .026- 7.318 | 0.334 | 1 | 0.563 | | | | | | | Provider (reference: homemaker) | 0.45 | .037- 5.476 | 0.395 | 1 | 0.448 | | | | | | | OR= Odds Ratio, CI= Confidence Interval, m= 1,000,000 | | | | | | |

Results
Of the 31 participants, only 19.4% were calculated to be homemakers. Seventy and nine tenths percent were identified as providers as determined by the initial survey, and 9.7% of participants failed to provide valid data. Forty-five and two tenths percent of participants were randomly assigned into the short term mate preferences level, leaving 54.8% to respond to the long term scenario. In total, 51.6% of participants preferred a mate who fulfilled a homemaker role, 29% preferred a provider, and 19.4% preferred physical traits over social role. These results indicate that some participants preferred mates who shared their own social role. Furthermore, few participants preferred physical traits over social role, given the number of participants placed in the short term variable. Our study utilized two binary independent variables: relationship type (short term or long term) and social role (homemaker or provider). These variables were used to measure their effect on a single discreet, categorical variable, which was mate preference (homemaker, provider, or physical traits). Because of these factors, a multinomial logistic regression was the appropriate statistical analysis, which determined the likelihood of a particular mate preference, given preexisting characteristics (social role and relationship type). The likelihood of preferring homemakers as opposed to physical traits for those in short term relationships is 45.2 billion percent greater when social role is controlled for (this high number is due to sample size constraints, p<.001). This was the sole significant finding of the study. The likelihood of preferring homemakers as opposed to physical traits for those who are homemakers is 3% lower when relationship type is controlled for (p=.979). The likelihood of preferring providers as opposed to physical traits for those who are homemakers is 56.5% lower when relationship type is controlled for (p=.563). The likelihood of preferring providers as opposed to homemakers for those in short term relationships is 28% greater when social role is controlled for (p=.784). The likelihood of preferring providers as opposed to homemakers for those who are homemakers is 55.2% lower when relationship type is controlled for (p=.530). The likelihood of preferring physical traits as opposed to homemakers for those who are homemakers is 3.1% greater when relationship type is controlled for (p=.979). All other combinations of social role, relationship type and mate preference were calculated to be redundant. Please reference the table below for information regarding these data.

Discussion

In two experiments, participants, that were college students, imagined themselves in a long-term relationship after which they report their preference of roles of their partner that either complement their own roles or are only based on physical traits. This study was conducted to find out whether social role theory influence mate preferences in long-term and short-term relationships. The hypothesis was not supported after carrying out the research process. Then they imagined themselves in short term relationships and reported their preferences of their partner to either base on physically attractive traits or lower emphasis on social roles.
Both hypothesis were not supported after carrying out the research process. College students prefer homemaker since being a college student they want to have a job and a career which would put them in a provider role. Of all combinations that includes comparing the references of dependent variable which is broken down into three groups or levels, there was only one significant finding. We posted a survey on Facebook in order to recruit people for this study. It was not a very effective way of recruiting people because a lot of times people on Facebook prefer to like the status instead of leaving a comment so probably the same thing happened when the survey for this study was posted. The survey was overlooked because Facebook friends probably thought that there are so many other people that may be taking the survey so they don’t need to just like the bystander effect. It would have been more affective if we made paper survey and asked people in plaza or in different classes to take the survey. If we did that we probably wouldn’t have incomplete surveys either.
The results indicated that some participants preferred mates who shared their own social role, which is contrary to our first hypothesis. The second hypothesis was contradictory as well because very few participant preferred physical traits over social role given the number of participants in short term variable. Two binary independent variables were used in this study: relationship type (short term or long term) and social role (homemaker or provider). These variables were used to measure their effect on a single variable, mate preference. The analysis showed only a single significant finding: that homemakers prefer other homemakers when considering mates for a short term relationship.
Our methodology could have been different since having two independent variables and three groups or levels of dependent variable made our surveys complicated since we needed to access multiple and distinctive information from each participants. If it was based two levels of independent variable and on dependent variable not only our survey but our entire study would have been simpler and more affective. There could be a better methodology by having the participants imagining themselves in long-term and short-term relationships and describing in text how would that look like (Eagly, Eastwich, & Johanneesen-Schmidt, 2009).
The main limitation in this experiment was that social role theory does not adequately address short-term relationships. It also does not specify any demographic in particular. These hypotheses are rooted in previous literature. According to Eagly, Eastwick, and Johannesen-Schmidt (2009), both men and alter their mate preferences to accommodate for perceived social roles. That is, specific traits associated with different social roles (e.g. high earning potential for the bread winner of the two partners), determine how attractive a potential mate will seem when considering one’s own social/ gender role within relationship. To further expand on that idea a variety of evidence shows that selecting a mate can be influenced by environmental, social and personal factors (Allen & Hauber, 2013). Fletcher et al. (2013) also determined that men and women place differing values on certain traits when considering whether or not to pursue a relationship. Because of these results, we expected stereotypical gender roles to influence the attractiveness of imagined mates. However, short-term relationships had differing goals (instant gratification, sexual satisfaction etc.) from long-term relationships (finding am ate with complementary traits, emotional satisfaction, etc.) in our study but differing values did not show any difference neither did it support the study. To support the significant finding of this study, Allen & Hauber (2013) suggest that some individuals are more inclined to seek mates who possess qualities similar to their own because eventually in relationships, partners incline to resemble one another in characteristics which is known as ‘likes attract’.
Our study was unique in a way because of the focus on specific demographics; college students which broadened our understanding of relationships in that group. Furthermore, it narrowed down to short term and long term relationships since the social role theory does not really address short term relationships we now know what was the interaction between the two phenomena. Consequently, research attempts to draw broad generalizations about the influence of social role theory in short-term relationships employed with college students is uncommon. For future studies, the researchers should use a more affective methodology in order to gain a good sample size and generalize data.

References
Holmes, B. M., Kimberly R. Johnson, K. R. (2009). Adult attachment and romantic partner preference: A review. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 26(6–7), 833–852.
DOI: 10.1177/026540750934565
Buss, D. M., & Barnes, M. (1986). Preferences in human mate selection. Journal Of Personality And Social
Psychology, 50(3), 559-570. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.3.559

Eastwick, P. W., Eagly, A. H., Glick, P., Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C., Fiske, S. T., Blum, A. B., &...Volpato, C. (2006). Is traditional gender ideology associated with sex-typed mate preferences? A test in nine nations. Sex Roles, 54(9-10), 603-614. doi: 10.1007/s11199-006-9027-x

Eagly, A. H., Eastwick, P. W., & Johannesen-Schmidt, M. (2009). Possible selves in marital roles: the impact of the anticipated division of labor on the mate preferences of men and women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 403-414. doi: 10. 1177/0146167208329696
Poulsen, F. O., Holman, T. B., Busby, D. M., & Carroll, J. S. (2013). Physical attraction, attachment styles, and dating development. Journal Of Social And Personal
Relationships, 30(3), 301-319.
Allen, K. R., & Hauber, M. E. (2013). Self-referencing and mate choice among college students:
Epiphenomenon or consistent patterns of preference across populations?. Journal Of
Social, Evolutionary, And Cultural Psychology, 7(2), 163-174. doi:10.1037/h0099204

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...Learning Theories of Personalities Kristie Tripaldi, Tandy Noonan, Charlie Fritz, Jodie Bowes, and Velinda Chandler PSY/405 March 5, 2012 Angela Snelling Learning Theories of Personalities As individual’s study human behavior, he or she notices that there several theories with plenty of philosophers and psychologists to give his or her own personal observations. However, there are several limitations and strengths of learning theories. The three main theorist of the social learning theory are Albert Bandura, B.F. Skinner, and Julian Rotter. Each of these theorists describes how learning theories affect an individual’s personality. Bandura and Skinner’s theories both explain how an individual learns from his or her environment. Bandura’s social learning theory also explains an individual’s reaction to what he or she observes. Rotter’s theory provides reasoning in environment and personal factors that influences an individual’s behavior. Strengths of Learning Theories Behavior analysis can examine the results of behavior through the calculated experiments of individual, social, and cultural context application (Cherry, 2012). Pavlov’s dog is a very famous experiment of behavioral analysis that proves this theories strength. In anticipation of receiving a meal, the dog would start to salivate. Soon, the dog associated food with the white lab...

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