Abstract

DIAZ-LOVING, Rolando. Configuration and integration of psychosocial components in mexican couple relations. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2004, vol.21, n.1, pp.53-70. ISSN 1668-7027.

   Interest in the perceptions, expectations, behaviors, reactions, emotions and general functioning of couples has stimulated a great deal of psycho-social research in the past two decades in the West (e.g. Aron, Aron, & Smollan, 1992; Aronson, & Linder, 1965; Berscheid, & Walster, 1978; Díaz-Loving, 1996; Dion, & Dion, 1988; Freud, 1953; Fromm, 1956; Gurung, Sarason, & Sarason, 1997; Heider, 1958; Lamm, Weismann, & Keller, 1998; Rubin, 1973; Shaver, Hazan, & Bradshaw, 1987; Sternberg, 1986). However, research has either been empirically and question driven leaving little space for theoretical models or has been primarily based on intuitive and partial approaches that are not adequate to integrate findings and guide future research. In an attempt to describe the interrelationships of these phenomena among Mexican couples, an empirical structural model, which integrates variables in an ordered and logical fashion, is presented. Based on Díaz-Loving and Sánchez Aragón (2002), a bio-psycho-socio-cultural model was considered to select variables and measures. The first step included the conceptualization and development of valid, reliable and culturally sensitive measures of each construct. At a second stage, the created items were enriched with Mexican inventories of jealousy, couple interaction, and marital satisfaction. The research project was undertaken with 459 Mexico City middle, and lower socio-economic class couples who filled out the extensive self-report questionnaire. The inventory included a section of socio-demographic questions such as sex, age, education, lenght of the relationship, etc. and was followed by items which measured the perception and demonstration of love, affection, tenderness and dependency, violent behaviors, frequency and evaluation of sexual life, emotions produced by the interaction, reasons to end and maintain the relationship. All the items from this section were submitted to an orthogonal rotation factor analysis and the resulting dimensions were then checked for internal consistency. In addition, the previously validated multidimensional inventories of jealousy (Díaz-Loving, Rivera Aragón, & Flores Galaz, 1989), Marital Satisfaction (Cortes Martínez, Reyes Domínguez, Díaz-Loving, Rivera Aragón, & Monjaraz Carrasco, 1994) and Couple Interactions (Díaz-Loving, & Andrade Palos, 1996) were included. Once the new factors demonstrated acceptable reliability coefficients and the multidimensional scales demonstrated their stability, all dimensions were included in an orthogonal rotation second order factor analysis in which subjects were selected by sex. The structure provided by the second order factor analysis yields five factors with Eigen-values greater than one and conceptual clarity in the case of males. The dimensions in this case describe ideal love, hostility, affection and dependency, frustration and fear and self interests. A similar solution was found in females, with the exception that for them hostility and affection are not separate constructs but rather a bipolar dimension with affection as the opposite of hostility. Separate correlations between the dimensions in males and females show a consistent pattern in which ideal love and affection relate positively in both sexes. In the same way, hostility and fear-frustration go together and are negatively related to love and affection. The basic difference between the sexes is that personal interest is basically independent from all other factors in the case of males, while in the case of females it is positively correlated to both affection-love and fear-frustration. With regards to the differences in means, males significantly show more ideal love and females more fear-frustration scores.

Keywords : Couple relationships and interaction; Love; Jealousy; Behavior; Marital satisfaction.

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