This literature review will focus on the differences and similarities between free choice marriages in the U.S. and arranged marriages in India. Concepts that will be looked at with greater detail are: how love emerges and marital happiness in India, wellness and satisfaction in both India and the U.S., mate selection among younger generations, and how social institutions affect the decision of arranged marriage among the youth. These two cultures both have very different beliefs and ideas on how marriage works properly. The research being done has the intent to help us become more accepting towards each other’s reasoning on marriage and to provide a better understanding on why each culture choses to accept the marriage traditions in which they participate in. The studies also provides a greater knowledge and benefit when working with people who come from different backgrounds.
…show more content…
This is especially helpful to those who work as therapists, social workers, counselors, and others since having a more knowledgeable understanding of diverse culture’s traditions and norms improves your ability to work with those clients.
When looking at Western traditions and beliefs towards marriage, the term love is already a requirement of marriage. Those who marry in the U.S. carry more subtle traditions and beliefs that you must choose to marry someone you truly love. When looking at arranged marriages in India, though love isn’t the first component in a marriage, it doesn’t exclude love all together, there is still plenty of time for love to grow within an arranged marriage. A study done to compare where the love level is at in both arranged and free choice marriages at the beginning of marriage as well where the love level is at the time of the interviews, they actually found very few differences. In both arranged and free choice marriages, they found that the level of love was a lot higher after marriage than when both individuals got married. Even though Indian marriages started with no love, the numbers given by both cultures were very similar. Both arranged and free choice couples gave very similar reasons to why their love had grown over the years, it included having children, parenting, communication skills, accommodation by their partner, etc. Of course, not all arranged marriages work as well, the study says, “Not all arranged marriages are successful; some are abusive or coercive, and we estimate that love emerges in perhaps only half of arranged marriages (cf. Liao, 2006; Sahni, 2007). Nevertheless, we believe that the arranged marriage is an ideal vehicle for studying how love can be built over time by two committed partners and that there is value in trying to understand how this works” (Epstein, Pandit, and Thakar, 2013). The research showed that whether you were in an arranged or free choice marriage, love still grows over time, love isn’t determined at the start of marriage or before the marriage, it is gradual process that both partners will experience with time. Of course, if love has emerged in arranged marriages the happiness and satisfaction of that marriage is also a huge factor in both arranged and free choice marriages. Aside from love, there are more components to keep a marriage striving and in the study done here the focus was the happiness, family and faithful features of marriage. The study conducted by Bowman and Dollahite focused primarily on Indian ethnicity couples who were in arranged marriages; they interviewed them to find out why their marriages were so successful. The researchers did this by asking the couples what they thought was the best reason(s) why their marriage had been so satisfying to them both. The feedback from the couples was that family and religion played the biggest role in their marriage leading to the most successful couples, however, in Indian culture divorce is highly looked down upon which cause couples to look towards religion for a better path to resolve marital issues. Lastly, the researchers commented that, “Given the very high divorce rates in contemporary marriage, it is clear that having complete freedom in choice of marital partner does not guarantee marital success or stability. Conversely, given the results of the current study, it is also clear that having the choice of marital
This is especially helpful to those who work as therapists, social workers, counselors, and others since having a more knowledgeable understanding of diverse culture’s traditions and norms improves your ability to work with those clients.
When looking at Western traditions and beliefs towards marriage, the term love is already a requirement of marriage. Those who marry in the U.S. carry more subtle traditions and beliefs that you must choose to marry someone you truly love. When looking at arranged marriages in India, though love isn’t the first component in a marriage, it doesn’t exclude love all together, there is still plenty of time for love to grow within an arranged marriage. A study done to compare where the love level is at in both arranged and free choice marriages at the beginning of marriage as well where the love level is at the time of the interviews, they actually found very few differences. In both arranged and free choice marriages, they found that the level of love was a lot higher after marriage than when both individuals got married. Even though Indian marriages started with no love, the numbers given by both cultures were very similar. Both arranged and free choice couples gave very similar reasons to why their love had grown over the years, it included having children, parenting, communication skills, accommodation by their partner, etc. Of course, not all arranged marriages work as well, the study says, “Not all arranged marriages are successful; some are abusive or coercive, and we estimate that love emerges in perhaps only half of arranged marriages (cf. Liao, 2006; Sahni, 2007). Nevertheless, we believe that the arranged marriage is an ideal vehicle for studying how love can be built over time by two committed partners and that there is value in trying to understand how this works” (Epstein, Pandit, and Thakar, 2013). The research showed that whether you were in an arranged or free choice marriage, love still grows over time, love isn’t determined at the start of marriage or before the marriage, it is gradual process that both partners will experience with time. Of course, if love has emerged in arranged marriages the happiness and satisfaction of that marriage is also a huge factor in both arranged and free choice marriages. Aside from love, there are more components to keep a marriage striving and in the study done here the focus was the happiness, family and faithful features of marriage. The study conducted by Bowman and Dollahite focused primarily on Indian ethnicity couples who were in arranged marriages; they interviewed them to find out why their marriages were so successful. The researchers did this by asking the couples what they thought was the best reason(s) why their marriage had been so satisfying to them both. The feedback from the couples was that family and religion played the biggest role in their marriage leading to the most successful couples, however, in Indian culture divorce is highly looked down upon which cause couples to look towards religion for a better path to resolve marital issues. Lastly, the researchers commented that, “Given the very high divorce rates in contemporary marriage, it is clear that having complete freedom in choice of marital partner does not guarantee marital success or stability. Conversely, given the results of the current study, it is also clear that having the choice of marital