This study examined factors affecting mate selection among Chinese couples. Newly married Taiwanese couples (N = 70) participated in semistructured interviews where they were asked to remember, as accurately as possible, the events which led to their decision to marry. Four categories of subjective inferences: Intrapersonal/normative, dyadic, social network, and circumstantial were created. Each couple’s courtship pattern was placed into one of six categories based on the shape of their commitment graph. The four categories of inference were then analyzed in terms of the six relationship types. Results indicated that nondyadic factors such as the social network and circumstances were as important as dyadic reasons in determining perceptions of commitment changes. Findings are compared to those from the United States, and cultural differences are discussed.
Byrne, D. (1971). The attraction paradigm. New York: Academic Press .
2.
Cate, R. M. , Huston, T. L. , & Nesselroade, J. R. (1986). Premarital relationships: Toward the identification of alternative pathways to marriage . Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 4, 3-22 .
3.
Cate, R. M. , Levin, L. A. , & Richmond, L. S. (2002). Premarital relationship stability: A review of recent research . Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19, 261-284 .
4.
Cate, R. M. , & Lloyd, S. A. (1992). Courtship. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications .
5.
Chang, H. , & Holt, G. (1991). The concept of yuan and Chinese interpersonal relationships. In S. Ting-Toomey & F. Korzenny (Eds.), Cross-cultural interpersonal communication (pp. 28-57). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications .
6.
Chang, S. (2001) Mate selection processes: Toward the identification of developmental pathways to marriage . Formosa Journal of Mental Health, 14(4), 1-29 [in Chinese].
7.
Chia, R. C. , Allred, L. J. , & Jerzak, P. A. (1997). Attitudes toward women in Taiwan and China: Current status, problems, and suggestions for future research . Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 137-150 .
8.
Chuang, Y. (2002). Sex differences in mate selection preference and sexual strategy: Tests for evolutionary hypotheses . Chinese Journal of Psychology, 44(1), 75-93 [in Chinese].
9.
Gadlin, H. (1977). Private lives and public order: A critical view of the history of intimate relations in the United States. In G. Levinger & H. Raush (Eds.), Close relationships: Perspectives on the meaning of intimacy (pp. 33-72). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press .
10.
Goodwin, R. (1999). Personal relationships across cultures. London: Routledge .
11.
Goodwin, R. , & Findlay, C. (1997). ‘We were just fated together’: Chinese love and the concept of yuan in England and Hong Kong . Personal Relationships, 4, 85-92 .
12.
Han, K. , Li, M. , & Hwang, K. (2005). Cognitive responses to favor requests from different social targets in a Confucian society . Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22(2), 283-294 .
13.
Hsu, F. L. K. (1981). Americans and Chinese: Passage to differences. Honolulu, HI: Universirty of Hawaii Press .
14.
Huston, T. L. , Surra, C. , Fitzgerald, N. , & Cate, R. (1981). From courtship to marriage: Mate selection as an interpersonal process. In S. Duck & R. Gilmour (Eds.), Personal relationships 2: Developing personal relationships (pp. 53-88). London: Academic Press .
15.
Kerckhoff, A. C. , & Davis, K. E. (1962). Value consensus and need complementarity in mate selection . American Sociological Review, 27, 295-303 .
16.
Lloyd, S. A. , & Cate, R. M. (1985). Attributions associated with significant turning points in premarital relationship development and dissolution . Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2, 419-436 .
17.
Murstein, B. I. (1976). Who will marry whom?New York: Springer .
18.
Pimentel, E. E. (2000). Just how do I love thee? Marital relations in urban China . Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 32-47 .
19.
Riley, N. (1994). Interwoven lives: Parents, marriage, and Guanxi in China . Journal of Marriage and the Family, 56, 791-803 .
20.
Rothbaum, F. , & Tsang, B. Y. (1998). Lovesongs in the United States and China: On the nature of romantic love . Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 29, 306-319 .
21.
Rothman, E. K. (1984). Hands and hearts: A history of courtship in America. New York: Basic Books .
22.
Sprecher, S. , & Toro-Morn, M. (2003). A cross-cultural comparison of mate preferences among university students: The United States vs. The People’s Republic of China . Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 34, 151-171 .
23.
Surra, C. A. (1985). Courtship types: Variations in interdependence between partners and social network . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 357-375 .
24.
Surra, C. A. (1987). Reasons for changes in commitment: Variations by courtship style . Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 4, 17-33 .
25.
Surra, C. A. (1990). Research and theory on mate selection and premarital relationships in the 1980s . Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 844-865 .
26.
Surra, C. A. , Arizzi, P. , & Asmussen, L. L. (1988). The association between reasons for commitment and the development and outcome of marital relationships . Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 5, 47-63 .
27.
Surra, C. A. , & Huston, T. L. (1987). Mate selection as a social transition. In D. Perlman & S. Duck (Eds.), Intimate relations (pp. 53-88). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications .
28.
Thao, N. L. (2005). Narcissism and immature love as mediators of vertical individualism and ludic love style . Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22, 543-560 .
29.
Thornton, A. , & Lin, H. (1994). Social change and the family in Taiwan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
30.
Tsai, M. (2006). Sociable resources and close relationships: Intimate relatives and friends in Taiwan . Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 23(1), 151-169 .
31.
Tucker, L. R. (1966). Learning theory and multivariate experiment: Illustration by determination of generalized learning curves. In R. Cattell (Ed.), Handbook of multivariate experimental psychology (pp. 476-501). Chicago: Rand McNally .
32.
Winch, R. F. (1955). The theory of complementary needs in mate selection: Final results on the test of the general hypothesis . American Sociological Review, 20, 552-555 .
33.
Winch, R. F. (1958). Mate selection. New York: Harper .
34.
Xu, X. , & Whyte, M. K. (1990). Love matches and arranged marriage: A Chinese replication . Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 709-722 .
35.
Yang, K. S. , & Ho, D. (1988). The role of yuan in Chinese social life. In A. C. Panajpe , D. Ho , & R. C. Reiber (Eds.), Asian contributions to psychology (pp. 261-281). New York: Praeger .
