This research is very important as it shows that there is a considerable difference in preferred female body size in women across cultures. However, this is contrary to some conclusions made by psychologist studying socio-biology that have found that most men of most cultures find the ‘hour-glass’ shape attractive as it is shows a woman to be fertile. One consistency has been found cross-culturally. David Buss (1994) found that men tend to value physical attractiveness and favour a younger partner, whereas women prefer status and favour an older partner. This is all consistent with the theory of socio-biology.
In North America and Western Europe homosexuality is generally accepted, however, in some countries it is illegal. In East Bay, Melanesia, it is encouraged to the extent that during adolescence a father will choose an older male partner for his son to educate him in sexual techniques (Davenport 1965). In most of North America and Western Europe, it is believed that women have the same right to derive pleasure from sex as men, but the Chiricahua Apache Indians believe it is wrong for women to show and emotion before or during sexual activities (Ford and Beach 1951). Men from a village in Mexico try to avoid arousing their wife because they believe a sexually passive wife is more likely to remain faithful (Lewis 1960).
There are even major differences in love between cultures. Lee (1973) developed six styles of love; game-playing (Ludus), possessive (Mania), logical (Pragma), altruistic (Agape), companionate or friendship (Storge) and erotic/romantic (Eros). Goodwin (1999) carried out a study to examine whether there are differences between culture groups and different love styles. Conclusions included;
Hong Kong Chinese students were found to be more pragmatic (logical) and agapic (altruistic) and less erotic (romantic) than British students.
When comparing North American, Russian and Japanese students (Sprecher et al. 1994) Americans were higher on erotic (romantic) love. There was also an interesting gender effect found here, in the American sample men were more ludic (game-playing) and manic (possessive) which was not found in the Russian or Japanese samples.
However, these results are not very accurate because most of the research into culture variation has taken place with different ethnic groups within North America.
Individualistic cultures emphasise on the individual person, which is the opposite of collectivistic cultures which value the ‘we’ over the ‘I’ because behaviour generally behaviour effects the group rather than just the person in collectivistic societies. Goodwin (1999) claimed that certain issues makes a culture collectivist or individualistic; economic wealth, the West is more likely to afford land to move away from collectivistic societies unlike non-West countries, religion, the ancient Eastern philosophy of Confucianism puts a very high value upon collectivism and geographical proximity, individualism and collectivism tends to cluster together globally, maybe related to climate. Hofstead (1994) claims that in colder climates, survival may be down to individual initiative.
Moghaddam et al. (1993) claims that relationships in Western societies, cultures tend to be more individualistic and non-Western societies tend to be more collectivistic.
Arranged marriages all over the world ranges from having no choice whatsoever in whom they marry, to those where the decisions are completely made by themselves. The West generally do not have arranged marriages, i.e. ‘I’ fell I love, ‘I’ will marry him, which is individualistic, whereas in non-West, collectivist cultures, marriage is seen as a joining of families and therefore arranged marriages are more likely to occur in collectivist societies.
Almost all cultures allow divorce, although it is a greater taboo in cultures where arranged marriages are popular, mostly collectivist societies. The most common ground for divorce is infidelity, (Betzig (1996) who studies divorce in 160 countries) however, there is considerable cross-cultural variations in reasons for marital breakdown.
Goodwin (1999) found that in china, the divorce rate is very low, less than four percent, and carries shame on both parties and their families. This is a clear example of collectivist values. Simmel (1971) argues that individualism is associated with higher divorce rates as it encourages the individual to constantly seek their ideal partner. In Poland, where divorce rates are very low it is usually women who file for divorce usually due to maltreatment caused by husbands’ alcohol abuse. However, in Saudi Arabia, a man does not have to give a reason for divorcing his wife, but the wife can only initiate a divorce if this is specifically stated in the marriage contract as being allowed (Minai 1981).
Problems with non-Western results are that they can be inaccurate due to communication difficulties. For example, some exact translations can be impossible and certain emphasises may be missed or misunderstood.
