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CAN USE MERE EXPOSURE FOR SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH !!!!!

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Studies

Cultural psychologists argue that passionate love is largely a Western phenomenon. In the West, marriage is seen as the culmination of a loving relationship. In cultures where arranged marriages occur, the relationship between love and marriage is the other way around.

Levine et al. (1995) found that individualistic countries were more likely to rate love as essential for marriage and to agree that the disappearance of love is a sufficient reason to end a marriage.  Dion & Dion (1993) have noted that in traditional societies, marriage is often seen as more than just the union of two individuals; it is held to be a union and alliance between two families. Whereas Americans tend to view marriage as a lifetime companionship between two individuals in love, people of many other cultures view marriage more as a partnership formed in order to have children and for economic and social support.

• Individualistic culture- importance given to romantic love
• the feeling of passionate desire and infatuation with another person is considered essential in marriage
• The purpose of marriage is for two people in love to share a lifetime of romance, which also implies that falling "out of love" is reason enough to end a marriage
• Marrying someone you aren't in love with is considered a tragedy
• In collectivistic countries, marriage is seen as a union and alliance between two families
• The purpose of marriage is a partnership to raise children, and for social and economic support
• Strong feelings of romantic love are less important in collectivistic countries than finding a suitable match with the right family and cultural background
• Cultural psychologists argue that passionate love is largely a western phenomenon
• In cultures where arranged marriages occur, the relationship between love and marriage is different
• In a conversation about the high US divorce rates with someone from a non-western culture, Matsumoto (in Matsumoto & Juang, 2004) noted that he received the following response The reason for this difference is quite clear. You Americans marry the person you love; we love the person we marry
• This was supported in a study by Gupta & Singh (1982) who surveyed 50 couples and found that couples in India who married for love reported diminished feelings of love if they had been married for more than five years
• Those who had arranged marriages reported higher levels of love
• In a more recent study, Regan et al (2012) studied 58 Indian couples living in the US
• 28 couples were in arranged marriages and 30 were in “love-based” marriages
• They were asked to complete surveys to measure their marital satisfaction, commitment, and passionate love
• The researchers found no difference between participants in arranged and love-based marriages