What motives do people prioritize in their social lives? Historically, social psychologists, especially those adopting an evolutionary perspective, have devoted a great deal of research attention to sexual attraction and romantic-partner choice (mate seeking). Research on long-term familial bonds (mate retention and kin care) has been less thoroughly connected to relevant comparative and evolutionary work on other species, and in the case of kin care, these bonds have been less well researched. Examining varied sources of data from 27 societies around the world, we found that people generally view familial motives as primary in importance and mate-seeking motives as relatively low in importance. Compared with other groups, college students, single people, and men place relatively higher emphasis on mate seeking, but even those samples rated kin-care motives as more important. Furthermore, motives linked to long-term familial bonds are positively associated with psychological well-being, but mate-seeking motives are associated with anxiety and depression. We address theoretical and empirical reasons why there has been extensive research on mate seeking and why people prioritize goals related to long-term familial bonds over mating goals. Reallocating relatively greater research effort toward long-term familial relationships would likely yield many interesting new findings relevant to everyday people’s highest social priorities.
The present study provided some insights into the family's functioning and on the maternal and paternal differential contribution to the family's social interaction in a low-income population living in São Paulo, Brazil. The main objectives of the study were to compare mothers and fathers on their children's socialization goals (SGs) and familism (FAM) and to examine the associations between maternal and paternal SGs and FAM and triadic interactional synchronies during a family-free play session (motherfather-child). Multidimension assessments of the degree of triadic synchronies were made (interpersonal distance, visual and body orientation, play involvement, and shared affect). Differences in FAM variance scores were found between mothers and fathers, with fathers showing a greater variability in the scores, as expected. Maternal and paternal culture variables were associated with triadic mother-father-child interactional synchrony scores in different ways. Our findings suggest that fathers may have a more traditional cultural orientation in their children's SGs than mothers, and that fathers' SGs impacts the family social interaction more than mothers' SGs. On the contrary, mothers' FAM impacts the family social interaction more than fathers' FAM. In addition, the data indicates a negotiation between the parents, partially mediated by parental SGs and FAM, in the construction of the triadic space configuration, consistent with a family system perspective (Minuchin, 1985). Finally, the authors argue that an in depth understanding of the family functioning within adverse contexts will help tailor public policies centered on the family that could help buffering the negative effects of adversity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.