The diverse types of relationships between people and the process of their forming have interested scholars in the field of psychology, sociology, and culture studies for many years. Love, friendship, family ties, and other forms of relationships, are based on people’s attitudes to one another depending on the environment they occupy. Different cultures produce varying types of relationships which is an interesting issue to address from a scholarly point of view.
To identify the power of influence of key concepts impacting the relationship, it is essential to discover the decisive role each of them plays in interpersonal connections. Marriage as one of the most widely spread types of connection between people undergoes a series of changes provoking active discussions due to the shift in traditional conservative views, as well as the emergence of same-sex marriages (Yarhouse and Nowacki 36). The same kind of relationship would appear and evolve differently when its decisive concepts are applied from the perspective of a different culture.
The relationship chosen for the analysis in the paper is a romantic connection between a young man and a young woman from the USA in their twentieth. Both partners’ attachment style is characterized as a secure one based on shared respect, support, and love. The essential concepts applicable to this relationship are the age of the partners, the type of society they live in, romantic love, and marital satisfaction. In the analyzed situation, these four concepts were incorporated to influence the development of the relationship.
The young age of the partners enhanced their wish to create a family together based on the romantic feelings of love that evolved between them as the result of attraction. Being the representatives of an individualistic society that prevails in the USA, the young people had the power of free choice and eventually established a legal marriage that led to their marital satisfaction (Madathil and Benshoff 223-224). Therefore, the concepts crucial for interpersonal relationships might be addressed from an alternative perspective regarding their role in a particular society.
Given the significant differences between cultures and religions in the world and their vision of relationships and marriage, the analyzed relationship would evolve differently if placed in another cultural context. Indeed, Indian society with its idea of marriage as a social agreement between the families does not recognize romantic love as an immediate characteristic of marital relationships (Yarhouse and Nowacki 36-37).
If the analyzed relationship developed in the Indian cultural environment, it would be an arranged marriage regardless of the age of the partners or their interpersonal attraction. The collectivist society type prevailing in India would restrict any personal views of young people and would impose different characteristics of marital satisfaction (Yarhouse and Nowacki 37). This satisfaction would have nothing to do with romantic love but instead concentrate on the relationship between families who arranged the marriage.
To summarize the discussion, the diverse forms of human interpersonal connections employ the main concepts differently concerning a particular cultural or social environment. Such fundamental factors as age, romantic love, type of society, and marital satisfaction differ depending on the cultural context people live in. The analyzed young married couple from the USA would experience less freedom of choice and, therefore, less marital satisfaction lacking romantic love if they were placed in an Indian society where marriage is regarded as an essential social connection between families rather than a romantic affair. Thus, the development of human relationships cannot be maintained in isolation from key cultural laws or religious beliefs dominating in a particular society.
Works Cited
Madathil, Jayamala, and James M. Benshoff. “Importance of Marital Characteristics and Marital Satisfaction: A Comparison of Asian Indians in Arranged Marriages and Americans in Marriages of Choice.” Family Journal, vol. 16, no. 3, 2008, pp. 222-230.
Yarhouse, Mark A., and Stephani Kaye Nowacki. “The Many Meanings of Marriage: Divergent Perspectives Seeking Common Ground.” Family Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, 2007, pp. 36-45.