Month: February 2019

Romance as a means to marriage is, on the average, more important to girls than to boys. By marriage a woman can obtain from a man not only companionship but economic and social advantages for the rest of her life. There is, of course, a penalty for the importance of romance in the life of the girl, for a failure in this realm leaves her relatively fewer alternative sources of ego satisfaction. Given the tradition of femininity, a woman is restricted in taking the initiative in making contact with the opposite sex.

When love is thought of simply as feelings of the individual subject directed toward various person-objects, the possible variations are almost infinite, because the linkages are acquired and not inborn. Human beings live in groups, however, and certain things are true of group living whether the members of the group are Hottentots, Wisconsin farmers, New York suburbanites, or howler monkeys. For example, all groups develop leaders and followers and rules of possession. The very nature of the group narrows the range of possible behavior, but it also enriches and intensifies experience within these limits.