Marriage
Forms and Outcomes
Marriage
• 9 out of 10 whites and 2 out of three African
Americans are projected to marry
eventually
• Shifts in the meaning and nature of
marriage
– Institutional marriage
– Companionship Marriage
– Individualized marriage
Institutional Marriage
• A marriage in which the emphasis is on
male authority, duty and conformity to social
norms.
• Unifying factors tend to be external
– The law
– Public opinion
– Social mores
– tradition
Companionship Marriage
• 1920s to 1950s transition
• Emphasized affection, friendship, and
sexual gratification, especially male
gratification
• Still relied on a sharp division of labor in
roles
“The central thesis of this volume is that the family in
historical times has been, and at present is, in
transition from an institution to a companionship. In
the past the important factors unifying the family
have been external, formal, and authoritarian, as the
law, the mores, public opinion, tradition, the authority
of the family head, rigid discipline, and elaborate
ritual. At present, in the new emerging form of the
companionship family, its unity inheres less and less
in community pressures and more and more in such
interpersonal relations as the mutual affection, the
sympathetic understanding, and the comradeship of
its members.” (Burgess & Locke, 1945)
Individualized Marriage
• Late 1960s through the 1970s a transitional
period
• Emphasis becomes individuals’ own
personal sense of fulfillment, emotional
satisfaction, and self-development
• Changed Beliefs
– Self-development
– Roles should be flexible and negotiable
– Communication and openness essential
Percentage of magazine articles containing at least one of three
themes about marriage: self development, flexible and negotiable roles,
and communication and openness, 1900-1979 (Cancian, 1987)
How Happy?
Five Types of Marriage
• Vitalized
• Harmonious
• Traditional
• Conflicted
• Devitalized