The Mating Game

SUMMARY

Mate selection processes of couples have been of interest to a multitude of disciplines ranging from biology to psychology to social psychology. Debates usually center around “like marries like” or “opposites attract.” While generally the research indicates, at least with regard to social variables, that similarities among couples is the norm, little systematic empirical research exists which examined this basic belief. Family therapists, also adhering to this basic assumption in their notions of couple selection, collusion, and reciprocal patterns of interaction, have not empirically tested this assumption either. The present paper examines the literature from the biological, psychological, and social psychological disciplines and discusses these assumptions in family therapy theory. A discussion of the implications for couple therapy is then presented.