Psychology

Critical analysis of mankinds history on Earth will reveal that a number of events were repeatedly performed by various people in different geographical and cultural conditions. Humans tend to duplicate the events that have already occurred in the past thereby giving the impression that people have learned nothing from the lessons that were attributed to these occurrences. The assemblage of events being described here includes societal complications, community mishaps, individual choices, and even mating preferences (Buunk et al., 2008).

Mating preferences describes the list of characteristics and attitudes that people desire to be possessed by their future lifetime partners and existing investigations of this area of learning are actually hinged on the concepts of Charles Darwins sexual selection theory which state that since the beginning of time, individuals are equipped with capabilities to independently decide on their mating behavioral patterns (Buunk et al., 2008). Unfortunately, the continuous emergence of movies, literary pieces, television shows and other tales, which are based on the disagreement of parents and children when choosing for the appropriate marital partner, questions the usage of Darwins approaches to human mating (Buunk et al., 2008). In this case, it is likely to consider the fact that mating preferences are influenced by a diversity of factors where the most notable is that of the parental desires to influence the choices of children and in some cases, to event try to insist that their child should marry the person that they have chosen for him or her (Buunk et al., 2008). Consequently, scientific perspectives must be re-evaluated to include the investigations of the influence of parents on the marital choices of their children, the historical and evolutionary origin of this conflict, the general effects, and to be able to formulate ways to address this kind of events. In line with this, the goals of this research study are to offer possible explanations of the origin of parent-offspring conflict, illustrate ways by which parents tend to influence the decisions of their children, and finally, to perform statistical test of the assumption that conflicts arise as a function of the offsprings aspiration to look for partners with heritable fitness which is in contrary to parents preference for childrens partners who shows parental investment and cooperation to the ingroup (Buunk et al., 2008). The fulfillment of this objective is highly significant to the enrichment of psychological knowledge on the dimensions and further conditions of successful human mate selection. The findings that will be gathered by this study will help future psychologists and other clinical psychology personnel to formulate ways by which human mate selection process can be better scrutinized in order to lessen, if not totally eliminate, the unwanted effects of parent-offspring conflict in the selection of possible romantic partners (Buunk et al., 2008). In effect, this study will address the following research question Do parental opinions or values play a pivotal role in their childrens mating habits Lastly, the title of this study is Parent-Offspring Conflict in Mate Preferences.

Overall Methodology and Approach
In order to test the acceptability of the postulates presented above, it would be necessary for the researchers to conduct experimental procedures. Such kind of experimental procedures must be formatted according to a specific research design so as to allow maximal organization of the experimental steps and to prevent the occurrence of research biases (). In connection to this, the specific research design that was used in this study was a quasi experimental design which involved the usage of 768 individuals separated into five culturally diverse groups (Buunk et al., 2008). Pre-selection randomizations were not employed on the selection of participants as shown by the fact that most of them were approached by the researchers and were actually asked to participate in the study (Buunk et al., 2008). Furthermore, the research tool that was used was questionnaires that are of two types, one which was composed of 22 characteristics while the other version was composed of 28 characteristics (Buunk et al., 2008). The gathered data was then subjected to t-test analysis and mean differentiations in order to test for consistency (Buunk et al., 2008).

Experimental procedures done under the areas of Social Sciences and Psychology made use of quasi experimental approach because it is very useful in measuring social variables (Shuttleworth, 2008). Although this research design is regarded to be unreliable and unscientific due to its prominent methodological weaknesses, statisticians still agree that the usage of the quasi experimental design does not put the validity of the research analysis in question as long as the experimental procedures are strictly followed and data analysis are closely monitored (Shuttleworth, 2008). As mentioned earlier, no random pre-selection of the participants was employed in the study because in most cases, pre-selection in psychological investigations will be very inconvenient for both the researchers and the participants or might even be detrimental to the ethical considerations of the study (Shuttleworth, 2008). Therefore, pre selection is omitted provided that the variable of interests is still possessed by the participants that will be selected for the study (Shuttleworth, 2008). Using this concept, participants that were used in this study were variably selected in order to allow for the manifestation of their diverse cultural backgrounds (Buunk et al., 2008).  Temporal sequencing of the research question involved both qualitative and quantitative elements where the former is characterized of the preferences of the participants and the latter describes the quantification of the preferences of the participants (Buunk et al., 2008). In general, the conditions of the usage of the quasi experimental design are in accordance with the manner by which the research question must be investigated, an event which permitted the maximal analysis of the variables of interest in this study.

Framework, Constructs, Variables, Operational Definitions
The sexual selection theory of Charles Darwin is the psychological theory from which the founding concepts of this research study will be based upon and it states that people from all backgrounds and across all cultural limitations throughout human history were given enough opportunity to control their mating behaviors (Buunk et al., 2008). This autonomy is the substrate of free choice mating which means that the union process of two persons is completely a result of their genuine love and intense affection for each other (Buunk et al., 2008). In accordance to the sexual selection theory of Darwin, the previously mentioned type of romantic union is free of any outside influences that could have altered the perception of one of the partners for the other. But in contrary to this, scrutiny of present marital conditions reveals that a large number of marriages across various nationalities have materialized because of the actions made by the parents of the couple and other kin (Buunk et al., 2008). The exploitation of this irregularity forms the conceptual constructs of this study.

Units of analysis define the specific entities that are to be investigated in the study (Buunk et al., 2008). In this particular scientific research, the units of analysis are preferences of the individual members of the five groups. Seven hundred sixty eight people have participated in this study and they were divided into five groups (Buunk et al., 2008). The goal of the experiment was to determine if certain traits are perceived to be more unacceptable by the child or if they believe that the same trait would be more unacceptable for their respective parents (Buunk et al., 2008). Hence, the characteristics preference is the specific attribute that will be measured from the units of analysis.    

As mentioned earlier, the specific research question that was investigated in this study involved the assessment of the degree of influence that a parents opinion bears on the decisions of the offspring regarding mating-related issues (Buunk et al., 2008). With this in mind, certain conceptual constructs were developed in the study in order to support the aforementioned research question which includes the following heritable fitness, parental investment, and cooperation, and additional characteristics (Buunk et al., 2008). These constructs can be given two types of considerations where the first one involves their distinction as variables and the second is described in their operational definition.

The consideration of the variable definition of the construct, heritable fitness, will include the properties such as body size, creativity, physical fitness and other traits that are likely to be passed on to the next generation (Buunk et al., 2008). In the experiment, these attributes were assigned with the values between 1 to 7, which represents the level of unacceptability to the offspring and their perceived level of unacceptability that their parents will assign on the said attributes (Buunk et al., 2008). In the scale of 1 to 7, 1 represents that highest level of unacceptability that is perceived by the child while 7 represents the highest degree of unacceptability for the parent, which is based upon the opinion of the child (Buunk et al., 2008).  After deciphering the specific numeral that will reflect their perceived unacceptability, each of the participants was then asked to complete the questionnaires that were given to them. In contrary to this, operational definition of heritable fitness was described in the analysis of the overall mean of the 22 traits or the units of analysis (). Data gathered from the five groups of samples were statistically treated to establish the overall mean where it is stated that those units having means less than the overall mean denotes all the traits that are unacceptable to the offspring while attributes whose means fall above the overall mean describe the traits that are most unacceptable to parents (Buunk et al., 2008).

The variable definition of parental investment and cooperation includes the scrutiny of the traits such as family background, religious beliefs, social class, education and other related characteristics (Buunk et al., 2008). These characteristics were also subjected to the same 1-7 scale that was mentioned earlier (Buunk et al., 2008). Operational definition of parental investment and cooperation, on the other hand, also focuses on the analysis of traits that are deemed to be included on the list of characteristics that parents believe are needed by their children to survive the pressures of lifetime unions (Buunk et al., 2008). Lastly, additional characteristics are given the variable definition of traits which are outside the constructs but are likely to affect the mating preferences of the progenies and parents and these may involve attitude, physical or mental illness, virginity, and temperament (Buunk et al., 2008). Operational definition of additional characteristics reveals that some attributes are considered to be unacceptable to both parents and offspring (Buunk et al., 2008). By analysis, all of the aforementioned variables are independent to each other which allow an autonomous analysis of each of them (Buunk et al., 2008).

Population and Sampling
The assemblage of all college students with diverse cultural backgrounds describes the population of interest of this research study and they can also be called as the larger aggregate of people from which the sample was derived (Buunk et al., 2008). A total of 768 samples were used in the study and they were separated into five groups that allowed better facilitation of the experimental procedures. The first group of participants was composed of 84 males and 287 female students who are students at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands (Buunk et al., 2008). These participants have a mean age of 20. 07 and they have completed their questionnaires as partial fulfillment of their course requirement in the university (Buunk et al., 2008). Students have answered the questionnaires, which were in Dutch, online (Buunk et al., 2008). The second group, sample 2, was composed of 40 males and 40 females who are all exchange students at the University of Groningen (Buunk et al., 2008). The mean age of the participants in the second group who answered the questionnaires in English is 23.01 (Buunk et al., 2008). Cultural diversity of these participants was justified by their various geographical origins ranging from Asian, European, and African countries (Buunk et al., 2008). Next, the third group is composed of 68 males and 59 females with mean age of 23. 11 and are residents of Kurdistan, Iraq (Buunk et al., 2008). The members of this sample has a diverse level of educational attainment which includes the inclusion of 35 of participants who had technical education, 16 who had some years of education after primary school, and 12 who were high schools students (Buunk et al., 2008). The participants from Kurdistan were approached and asked by two of the members of the research group to answer the questionnaires which were translated into Kurdish (Buunk et al., 2008). The fourth sample, on the other hand, is composed of 77 males and 40 females who are mostly Dutch students from the University of Groningen having  the mean age of 21.90 (Buunk et al., 2008). Consequently, questionnaires that were administered to this group were written in Dutch. Finally, the fifth group is composed of 22 males and 51 females whose mean age is 21.16 and they are all students of the Arizona State University (Buunk et al., 2008). Questionnaires administered to this group are in English (Buunk et al., 2008).    

By analysis, it can be inferred that the first group was recruited using the internet while second group was approached by their fellow exchange students (Buunk et al., 2008). Approaches via youth organizations were the method of participant selection of the third group while the fourth group was selected through a laboratory study (Buunk et al., 2008). Lastly, members of the fifth group were approached by the third author of the study at the Arizona College and were asked to answer the questionnaires (Buunk et al., 2008). These methods of choosing for the participants resulted to the inclusion of a total of 768 participants, a quantity which is considerably large to allow for the statistical validity of the sample size (Buunk et al., 2008). Consequently, the sampling methods mentioned earlier were intended to achieve the best opportunity for analyzing data from various cultural backgrounds (Buunk et al., 2008). Despite of the researchers desire to maximize the opportunity for data analysis, ethical considerations were not taken for granted and this is evident in the fact that no monetary incentive was promised as a reward to the participants thereby eliminating the issues ion equity and research biases (Buunk et al., 2008). Furthermore, informed consent was applied so that all of the participants were aware of the purpose of the research and on the manner by which their responses will be used and all of the information gathered from the samples were kept as confidential (Buunk et al., 2008).

Hypotheses and Data Types
The following is the research question that was addressed in this study Do parental opinions or values play a pivotal role in their childrens mating habits In line with this, the hypothesis of the study states that children may have relative preference for mates with traits indicative of heritable fitness, whereas parents have preference for mates with traits indicative of parental investment and cooperation with the ingroup (Buunk et al., 2008). In order to test for the hypothesis, the researchers made use of a two tailed research design where it is said that failure of the hypothesis results in a new hypothesis (Buunk et al., 2008). The variables that were investigated were heritable fitness and parental investment and cooperation where the former describes ordinal data and the latter include ordinal data (Buunk et al., 2008).

Measures, Field Tests, Data Collection, and Analysis
Data gathering procedures were performed outside laboratory settings. Hence, field testing was implemented in this study and involved the usage of questionnaires as the field testing instrument (Buunk et al., 2008). These questionnaires were divided into types, one which had 22 traits to be analyzed while the other was composed of 28 characteristics (Buunk et al., 2008). In each of these attributes, a scale was provided in order to assess the degree of unacceptability of these qualities and it was noted that in the 22-item version, male and female participants received the same questions except for queries pertaining on height while on the 28-item questionnaire, items on age differed between the female and male participants (Buunk et al., 2008). Further analysis of the data collection procedures reveal that a non-strict course of action was implemented in the study as certified by the fact that participants were informed of the confidentiality with which the results would be treated questionnaires were handed to them freely without the usage of forceful actions (Buunk et al., 2008).

Members of the sample groups were also given the option to answer the questionnaires within the room premises or in any other place which they believe are most suitable for them to fill in such kind of sensitive topics (Buunk et al., 2008). The previously mentioned statement comprises one of the four ethical considerations that were implemented in this study. The other three involved the non-implementation of cash encouragement, non-provision of the names of the participants but their ethnic origin and age instead, and the structuring of the questionnaire in an easy-to-understand format (Buunk et al., 2008). Statistical considerations of the data, on the other hand, involved the usage of arithmetic mean followed by a t-test so as to permit measurement of the consistency of the data (Buunk et al., 2008).

Researchers Critical Analysis of Design
The general format for the research design that was implemented on this study is shown below
Identify potential participant            Inform participants of their role and seek their consent           Distribute questionnaires           Receive questionnaires          Initiate data analysis          Prepare report           Get a peer review of the report          Publish the report        

Moreover, risk of participant discomfort or harm was evaluated in each step of the experiment and it was found out that six out of the seven levels posed minimal harm to the participants and the only level which was noted for more than minimal threat was the data collection procedure, which includes member checking (Buunk et al., 2008). Aside from this, assumptions were formulated in the study which divulged the idea that theoretical assumption is based on the notion that sexual theory implies that women chose the person that will be their marital partner while topical assumption states that this study has treated all the traits necessary for mating preferences of both parents and offspring with equal importance (). Alternatively, methodological assumptions dealt on the concept that the research question utilized in this scientific study was not able to properly discern if the relationship that must be considered in the analysis is short term or long term. In addition to this, methodological assumption assumed that both sexes had the same set of preferences. Further scrutiny of the research method shows that the major strength of this scientific study lies in the diversity of the participants and the large sample size. These two features of the methodological analysis permitted the testing of each construct within a wide range of cultural facets. Consequently, the most notable limitation of the research methods is based on the fact that researchers failed to get an input from parents because they have completely relied on the interpretations of the children, an event which may not accurately reflect the belief patterns of the parents. Hence, an exploration of these limitations may be used to serve as the founding principles of future research investigations that will base its concepts on the findings of this study. In general, this study was able to establish the notion that the mating behavioral patterns of children are significantly affected by the preferences of their parents thereby resulting in a conflict. The findings of this study show that the presence of limited knowledge on mating preferences must be addressed in order to come up with more effective designs that will measure the effects of suppressed mating preferences and its associated implications. Nevertheless, this research study is the first to assess the influence of parental views on the mating preferences of their children.