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Parents and partners: patterns of perceived similarity and their correlates in women
Author(s) -
LIPPE ANNA LOUISE VON DER
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1984.tb01027.x
Subject(s) - spouse , psychology , closeness , similarity (geometry) , social psychology , developmental psychology , dominance (genetics) , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , artificial intelligence , gene , sociology , anthropology , computer science , image (mathematics)
Patterns of similarity between descriptions of partners and parents were analyzed to determine the differential importance of both parents for partner‐choice in a sample of 76 married student and health‐professional couples. The wives were grouped according to high parent‐spouse similarity, low parent‐spouse similarity, low mother‐, high father‐spouse similarity and high mother‐, low father‐spouse similarity, using Q‐sort descriptions of spouse and parents. Q‐sorts of self, self‐ideal, spouse and parents and inventory scores were analyzed for the subgroups. It was anticipated that the influence of parents on mate‐choice would be mediated through the self‐ideal. Choice of husbands resembling fathers was anticipated to be beneficial for women only in the context of a good mother‐relationship, otherwise it would serve defensive purposes. The results supported these expectations. Symmetry with regard to capacity for emotional closeness or emotional distance was interpreted to underlie partner‐choice resembling both parents or no parent, while complementarity with regard to dominance and submission was interpreted to underlie partner‐choice exclusively resembling one parent.