Practices of marriages are different indifferent cultures, such as monogamy , polygamy, polyandry, homo and lesbian relations.
The traditional concept of
marriage is monogamical in nature. And this is for the legal procreation of descents. Rearing of siblings and giving them socialization and mutual sharing. Through marriage a person is partaking in the wellbeing and stability of the society. Sociologists and psychologists have identified a variety of factors that operate to attract people together and have mate selection ,which are
1. Physical attractiveness.
2. Nearness/propinquity
3. Cultural equality/homogamy
And some theorists add further such as
4. Complementary needs
5. Social exchange
There are many psychological factors for developing individual interests. Over the past twenty years there have been very sharp rise in the rate of single parent families in which children are victims of that. Mutual separation and divorce are getting social acceptance. Number of couples that are living together without proper satisfaction is also increased.
Acceptance of marital partners are based on certain aspects which are, style of childhood rearing, the affect of parent’s mutual relations and acceptance, how resolving conflicts of each development stages, peer group pressure, effect of medias and effect of role models etc:
Men and women develop aspirations of marital partner and many of these expectations may not fulfill because of the difference of individual differences So after marriage couples feel frustration, or repress their expectation. This may cause problems in marital relationship.
The development of expectations is knitted together fantasies of each person in his/her developmental stages. So if we can understand how these fantasies are developed and what are its effects, we can have more insight and which will help us to more flexible in our adjustment.
A child identifies with his/her same sex parent. The opposite sex parent helps her/him to formulate ideas of the opposite sex world. So the opposite sex parent
is the basis of knowing the whole opposite sex world. The psychoanalytic theorists more or less equally propose this. Anslem Strauss (1945) in his study found that a person thus make an ideal image of a mate in his mind. “These ideal mate images operate more or less conscious instrument in the initial state of mate selection. More often he makes a compromise and finds other factors to be more important”. To make an ideal mate the person a child adds fantasies to the idea got from opposite sex parent. An example can clear the idea. A girl does not accept the uncaring or a rude parents attitude. So she adds kindness, love, sympathy etc. in her fantasy to the ideal-mate. This fantasy can be taken from medias, watching other person etc.etc.
And when a person makes mate selection he/she tries to associate the qualities together, ie.the quality of the ideal-mate and the real mate. Then after marriage he/she experiences difference in his/her aspirations and reality , then marital dissatisfaction arises. So there is a link between the qualities of opposite sex parent, the ideal-mate concept and the spouse. If we can assess the perception of opposite sex parent and what happens on the way towards the ideal- mate concept and to the life partner we can help a person to know the problems in his/ her aspirations. So this study may lead us to an insight therapy.
To test perception, fantasy which leading to mate selection process and identifying the psychological factors, and thus make life happier is the main emphasis of this study. So the study is further step of the study of Terman on marital satisfaction, Strauss on the ideal-mate and others. The study is justified in the context of Kerala and elsewhere that family sates faction is thwarted day by day, by many reasons. If we give insight to couples that what happened in their process of mate selection, by going back on the pathway of fantasy, which will enable them to have a wish full adjustment.