MATE SELECTION: IS IT LOVE OR DEMOGRAPHICS?
POTENTIAL RESEARCH QUESTION(S):
How do people select a marital partner? Is the process in the United States similar or different to mate selection processes in other countries? Is it true that "opposites attract" or that "birds of a feather flock together?" Do people choose spouses who are demographically similar or dissimilar to them? What patterns exist and why?
Use of Supplementary Materials
I recommend that you read the following book:
Whyte, Martin King 1992. Dating, Mating, and Marriage. New York. Aldine De Gruyter.
This will depend on the specific research question you, or your group decides to adopt. Remember, a hypothesis is a speculative statement about the relationship between two variables.
METHODS AND DATA COLLECTION:
This project requires you to perform statistical analysis of existing resources. You will use data such as the GSS, CULTURES, National Survey of Children and World Factbook Datasets.
This will be determined by the previous step in the research process.
In your analysis, you must explain WHY you have observed the relationships that you described in your findings section. This is most effectively done my using one of the three theoretical approaches that we have learned in class (Functionalism, Conflict Theory, or Interactionism).