Boston Couples Study

Question 1

Did couple members agree on objective questions like what month they met and what month they started dating?

Answer 1

Yes, there was high agreement

Question 2

How many couples disagreed on subjective questions such as who was more involved and who had more say?

Answer 2

Half of the couples disagreed on subjective questions

Question 3

What are three reasons why members of a couple might disagree on who had more say?
(ID. DI. DP)

Answer 3

1. The Importance of the Decisions
2. Differing Styles of Influence
3. Delegation of Power

Question 4

When during the year were dating couples more likely to break up?

Answer 4

At the beginning and end of the semesters

• September-October, December-January, May-June

Question 5

What are three reasons why breakups might occur at those times?

Answer 5

• 1. You need to make decisions, which may cause you to re-evaluate the relationship.
• 2. You are more likely to meet new people; this is due to changes in your schedule
• 3. These times provide convenient excuses for changing the status of the relationship

Question 6

Would you expect the same pattern of breakups in a non-college sample?
- Might similar conclusions about external factors apply?

Answer 6

Yes, you would expect the same pattern but they wouldn’t necessarily occur at the same times of the year; they might occur whenever people change jobs or move.

Question 7

Was the desire to break up generally mutual? Explain.

Answer 7

No it was not.
- In only 7% of the couples did both partners say that they both wanted to break up; this shows that the breakup is usually one-sided.

Question 8

Were men or women more likely to want to break up?

Answer 8

The women were somewhat more likely to end the relationships than the men.

Question 9

Were more intimate couples more likely to stay together, in general?

Answer 9

Yes, those who stayed together had been more intimate

Question 10

Is high intimacy a guarantee of staying together? Explain.

Answer 10

No it is not; while love was necessary for staying together, it was no guarantee.
- Among those who stayed together, 80% had said that they were both in love
- Among those who broke up, 55% had also said that they were both in love.

Question 11

What two important measures of intimacy were not related to staying together?

Answer 11

1. whether or not the couple had had sexual intercourse
2. whether or not the couple were living together

Question 12

Explain the three attitudes about love and sex?
(ST. SM. SL)

Answer 12

1. Sexual traditionalists : who felt that pre-marital sex was wrong
2. Sexual moderates : who felt that causal sex was wrong, but sex was okay if you are in love
3. Sexual liberals : who felt that sex was okay even if you are not in love

Question 13

On what characteristics were couple members similar to each other?
(A. EP. SS. PA)

Answer 13

Age, educational plans, SAT scores, and physical attractiveness

Question 14

Was there support for Blau’s hypothesis concerning equal involvement?

Answer 14

Yes; couples who were unequally involved were twice as likely to break up.

Question 15

Was there support for the principle of least interest? Explain.

Answer 15

Yes
- When one person is more involved than the other, that gives the other person more POWER.
- The less involved person can more easily walk away; the more involved person wants to do things to keep the other person in the relationship, and pretty soon was giving in to the demands of that person

Question 16

What three other factors were related to the balance of power?
(RA. SRA. EP)

Answer 16

• Relative attractiveness – the person rated higher in attractiveness by judges was seen as more powerful by the couple member because that person can more easily find an alternative partner
• Sex role attitudes – those with traditional attitudes report more male dominance although there are exceptions
• Educational plans – women who planned more education reported more egalitarian relationships (the men’s educational plans did not affect power)

Question 17

Were any of the factors related to power intercorrelated with each other? For whom?

Answer 17

Yes women with liberal sex-role attitudes reported more educational planing and less relationship involvement

Question 18

Couples often thought that they met by fate, but this was called what in class? Is it totally random? Explain.

Answer 18

This was called “chance”; their meeting was not random and instead it was socially structured chance

Question 19

Were most of the meetings exotic or romantic?

Answer 19

No, they were rarely exotic or romantic

Question 20

How important were other people in these meetings?

Answer 20

Other people were very important in bringing couples together

• More than half were introduced by someone else

Question 21

What evidence is there of choice among those whom one met?

Answer 21

The fact that they tended to be similar to each other; it wasn’t just a matter of who you encounter but there is choice

Question 22

Based on the fifteen-year followup, how many couples eventually married each other, and at least how many were still married?

Answer 22

73 of the original couples had married each other

• Among the 73 who married their original partner, at least 50 were still married.

Question 23

What percentage of individuals were married to someone, whether or not to their original partner?

Answer 23

75%

Question 24

What was the best predictor of which couples eventually married and stayed married?

Answer 24

Equal involvement in the relationship.

Question 25

Whose graduate school plans also affected breakups?

Answer 25

Women who planned to attend graduate school were more likely to break up with their college boyfriend

Question 26

Why is it risky for a woman to put her husband through graduate or professional school?

Answer 26

Often men who married expected their wives to work and help put them through graduate school.
- This was not always good for the women who married them.
- Sometimes the men felt that they had outgrown their wives after they had more education than them.

Question 27

In the long run, did physical attractiveness affect staying together? Explain.

Answer 27

Matching on physical attractiveness did NOT predict marriage or staying married

Question 28

On the twenty-five year followup, what was important for life satisfaction?

Answer 28

The quality of their personal relationships :
- with a spouse or partner
- with children, if any
- with their parents
- with their friends

Question 29

What measure on the original questionnaire predicted life satisfaction twenty-five years later?

Answer 29

How satisfied you were with yourself

Question 30

What were the two reasons why we were concerned about being in the study affecting couples’ relationships?

Answer 30

1. Affecting their relationships might change the results
2. Affecting their relationships might raise ethical concerns