Two Key Studies of the Role of Culture in Communication (DP IB Psychology)

Key study one: Ahmad & Reid (2008)

Aim:  To see if there is a link between traditional marital expectations and listening styles in arranged marriage couples

Participants:

• 114 Indo-Pakistani married couples who were in arranged marriages

• The couples lived in a large city in Canada

• The participants were 19-67 years old (mean age 36); 51 males and 63 females

• The couples had been married from 6 months to 35 years (mean 12.5 years)

Procedure:

• Participants completed the Marital Satisfaction Scale which measured variables including:

  • Listening styles (e.g. did their spouse pay full attention to them when they were talking)

• How traditional each participant’s attitude towards marriage was in terms of roles within the marriage (e.g. how they felt about women going out to work)

• How satisfied they were with the marriage (e.g. did they feel they were getting out of the marriage what they put into it)

Results:

• The more traditional the marriage was then the less satisfaction was reported

• This finding was also linked to communication, with lower levels of active listening being linked to a traditional attitude/expectation towards marriage

• There was an interaction between traditional beliefs, listening style and marital satisfaction:

  • in other words the less someone listens to their partner then the lower the marital satisfaction is

Conclusion:

• Perceptions of equality and communication styles can predict how satisfied a couple is with their arranged marriage

• Communication seems to play a key role in the maintenance of arranged marriages along with traditional beliefs about marriage roles

Evaluation of Ahmad & Reid (2008)

Strengths

• The measure used is replicable which means that:

  • both external and internal reliability can be checked

  • external reliability can be checked using the test-retest method

  • Internal reliability can be checked using the split-half method

  • Each method looks for consistency, either over time and within the measure itself

• There is a wide age range represented in the sample which makes the results generalisable within that demographic

 Limitations

• The statements rated on the Marital Satisfaction Scale may not adequately sum up or express exactly how the participant felt about their partner:

  • If a measure does not reflect what is being measured then it lowers the validity of the findings

• Responding to a scale is limited in terms of the insight it can shed on highly subjective and complex variables such as were measured in this study.

Key study two: Regan et al. (2012)

Aim: To investigate differences in feelings about arranged or love-based marriages in an immigrant community.

Participants:

• 58 Indian adults (34 female; 24 male) aged 23-55 years

• The participants were living in a city in the USA

• The participants were married (though none of their spouses were included in the sample) and the average length of marriage was 9.7 years

• 28 of the participants reported that they had had an arranged marriage; 30 reported that their marriage was love-based (i.e. self-chosen) 

Procedure:

• Participants completed rating scales designed to measure:

  • companionate love (e.g. how much they cared about their spouse)

  • passionate love (e.g. how much ‘in love’ they were with their spouse)

  • relationship satisfaction and commitment (e.g. how much they wanted to stay with their partner).

Results:

• There was no difference found between arranged marriages and love marriages:

  • Both types of marriages produced responses from those in them that were high in love, commitment and satisfaction

  • Men across both groups reported higher levels of commitment, passionate love and companionate love than the women did

Conclusion: There may be little difference in how married Indian people view their marriage,  whether it is arranged or love-based

Evaluation of Regan et al. (2012)

Strengths

• The use of an immigrant community living in the USA means that the study has cultural relativism:

  • It does not take an ‘outsider’ perspective which would have occurred if a non-culturally specific sample had been used

  • It does not make assumptions about arranged marriages or Indian culture

• The findings go some way towards challenging the idea that arranged marriages are not as loving or satisfying for those involved in them as love-based marriages are

Limitations

• The use of such a small sample means that the results lack statistical power: 

  • a larger sample might have yielded some evidence of differences between the marriage types

• All of the participants lived in the USA and had married there which means that:

  • they may already have been of a similar mind-set compared to Indians living in India, particularly in more rural areas

  • the findings lack external validity as they represent a limited demographic