Types of Marriages

Introduction

There are many different ways of classifying marriages. One way is to look at the maturity level of the marriage. I have found it helpful to classify marriages as one of three different types. The first type of marriage is the mature marriage. The mature marriage is a marriage where both individuals are mature and neither is significantly more or less mature than the other. For this to occur usually both individuals had to be raised in homes with two mature parents that allowed for and encouraged maturity. This seems to occur in less than twenty-five per cent of marriages.

These marriages can have problems but the problems are usually not the result of something the couple has done but something done to the individuals or couple. It is usually an external rather than an internal crisis. External crises are ones from outside the control of the marriage such as job loss due to the closing of a plant or factory, a house fire, or even a disease or handicap child. None of these things are within the couple's control.

Types of Maturity

We have been discussing maturity, but what does that mean? There are different ingredients to maturity. We can see how physically mature a person is by just looking at them. But how do we determine emotional and spiritual maturity? Sometimes we can determine mental maturity through language development or intelligence. What about experiential maturity or the ability to relate maturely to someone? Each of these brings to maturity a different ingredient. Taken together they can give us an indication of the maturation of an individual or a marriage.

Research on Gender Roles

A gender role is a set of expectations that decide how females or males should think, act, or feel. We will now explore the effects of gender roles in marriage in the past and present by summarizing research on various structures of marriage and their effects. Research completed on the formation of gender can also be used to examine the formation of gender roles within a marriage. The Evolutionary Psychology Theory of Gender says that differing roles in reproduction places different pressures on males and females, which creates gender roles as the man being the more competitive and violent figure, while the women being more involved in nurturing activities. The Social Role Theory of Gender says that gender roles are formed by psychological gender differences caused by contrasting social roles of women and men. The Social Cognitive Theory of gender states that children's gender development occurs through observation and imitation of gender behavior. While our conclusions will not be based on these theories but on the interviewee's family, religious, and educational background, these theories do help explain the formation and change of gender roles across time.

A Brief History of Change in Marriage Roles in the United States

Throughout the history of the United State's families, there is evidence of shifts in the spectrum of gender roles. In the years before the civil war, the notion of ...