Consequently, to read Tucker’s (1992) correct results you just needed to read his results backwards.
The terrible fact is that subsequent researchers did not pick up on Tucker’s statistical error when compiling further studies. Australian researchers, Hong & Faedda (1994) administered a survey assessing attitudes towards 13 romantic acts to 1207 adults, ages ranging from 18 to 45 years, 476 were university students and 732 were non-university students. The male/female ratio was fairly even in comparison to previous studies. The top 3 responses for non-university women was (1) hearing or saying ‘I love you’ (2) kissing (3) cuddling, simular for university women (1) kissing (2) cuddling (3) hugging however male non-university students had responses (1) making love (2) kissing (3) hearing or saying ‘I love you’ and male university students (1) making love (2) kissing (3) cuddling. Hong & Faedda (1994) went on to compare their study with Tucker’s (1992) statistically problematic study. Hong & Faedda stated that there were ‘striking differences’ between the rankings by the participants in the two studies, it is evident they obviously did not recognise Tucker’s (1992) mistake. If Hong & Faedda had turned Tucker’s ranking scores around as discussed above, they would have realised the results from the two studies were in fact very simular.
Portuguese researcher Neto (1997) also did not pick up on Tucker (1992) statistical error when making comparisons with his research. Neto (1997) found, according to female university student participants the five most highly ranked romantic acts were (1) cuddling (2) gazing (3) hugging (4) kissing (5) making love. Neto (1997) stated that ‘this is a difference from Tucker’s study (1992) wherein the most highly ranked items were related to material objects, i.e., flowers, gifts, card, and letters.’
Neto and his colleague Barros (1998) did further study in Portugal and Cape Verde with male and female participants with a mean age of 21.2 and 22.2 respectively. They found that both men and women from both cultures ranked physical behaviours and intimacy as the most important romantic acts. Again Neto & Barros (1998) did not notice Tucker’s (1992) statistical error stating ‘this differs from Tuckers study (1992), in which the most highly ranked items were related to material objects.
The present study aims to replicate the research by Tucker and his associates using a wider age bracket and an equal male/female ratio. It is firstly hypothesised that the sex of the participant will provide a simular pattern of results to the previous studies. That is that there will be a distinct difference in the rankings and important scores of romantic acts by participants from the two sexes. It is secondly hypothesised that there will be a difference between how participant’s ranked romantic acts and rated importance scores. It is thirdly hypothesised that there will be a distinct difference in the pattern importance scores of romantic acts by participants from the six age brackets.
Method
Design
Psychology students from Charles Sturt University completing ‘Social Psychology’ were each responsible for recruiting one couple to be participants in the present study. Students were each designated an age bracket to select their participants according to a table of criteria arranged by surnames.
Your surname Subject age group
…Select your subjects from the…
Aaa to Con 18-25
Coo to Hal 26-35
Ham to Lev 36-45
Lew to Pat 46-55
Pau to Tay 56-65
Taz to Zzz 65+
Along with finding participants within the specified age brackets, there were three other important criteria in selecting appropriate participants for the present study.
- Couples must have been in a permanent relationship of more than 6 months.
- Couples must have both be Caucasian in ethnicity. This was to reduce any possible confounding results due to ethnicity and cultural differences of the participants.
- Couples must have been in a heterosexual relationship. This was because there would not be sufficient data available to analyse those participant’s in other types of relationships such as a homosexual relationship.
Participants completed a differential survey titled ‘Questionnaire on Attitudes to Romantic Acts.’ Differential Surveys are survey’s concerned with establishing typical differences between individuals or between classes of individuals.
Participants
There were a total of 280 Caucasian participants between the ages of 18 and 79 who contributed to the present study. Data from 140 heterosexual couples involved in a permanent relationship was included in the final data analysis, this including 140 Male participants with an average age of (M = 40.52, SD = 15.02) and 140 Female participants with an average age of (M = 38.14, SD = 14.06). The average length of the participant’s relationships in years was recorded to be (M = 14.46, SD = 13.49) and 52% of couples reported having children. It should be noted that some participant’s data was omitted from the final data analysis because it was either incorrectly obtained by students or arrived late to the University Psychology Department.
Apparatus/Materials
To gain data for the present research, couples each completed their own copy of a ‘Questionnaire on Attitudes to Romantic Acts’. Participants completed the questionnaire with a pen, and the experimenter immediately stapled them closed and placed them in a sealed envelope for confidentiality. The Questionnaire was 4 pages long, with 4 sections and 12 questions.
- Section 1 – Demographic Information
- Section 2 – Closeness of Relationship
- Section 3 – Composition of the Family
- Section 4 – Romantic Acts
Procedure
Before the participants were given the opportunity to consent to participation in the present study they were read a brief explanation by the experimenter.
‘As part of my studies at Charles Sturt University we are conducting a study into what people, in various kinds of relationships, regard as romantic behaviour or acts. In order to do this we also need some information about your relationship, your age, occupation and residential location, etc.
This is the questionnaire (show it to the person) we are asking people to ‘fill out’. If you feel there are any questions, which you will not answer, or even, might feel uncomfortable answering, I will ask someone else to complete it.
The data collected from this project may be used in additional research at the University. Of course, your personal identity will remain totally anonymous except for myself.’
After reading this statement participants were asked if they consented to participation in the study. If the couple did agree to participation in the study, they were seated in a comfortable location where they could complete the questionnaire. It was important that the questionnaire was completed entirely with no breaks or interruptions. The couple were instructed to jointly complete Section 1 of the questionnaire and record their answers on their individual questionnaire forms. For Sections 2, 3 and 4 however there was to be no discussion of their responses as it was important to gain independent information from both individuals. The other reason for completing these sections individually was to avoid any possibility of unpleasantness and interpersonal conflicts that could have arisen out of differences in perceptions and attitudes expressed in answering the questions.
After the couple had completed each of their questionnaires they were asked to double check all the questions were answered appropriately. Following this, in the presence of the couple, the experimenter stapled closed both questionnaires and placed them immediately in a sealed envelope for purposes of confidentiality.
After the completion of the experiment, student’s posted their participant’s questionnaires to Charles Sturt University Psychology Department for data analysis procedures.
.
Treatment of Results
It is important to note that only part of the data collected from the questionnaires was analysed, as the analysis of all the results was simply too extensive for inclusion in a level 2, undergraduate Psychology report. Data concerning the type and nature of the participant’s current relationships and the positive/negative affect in that relationship was not analysed.
For the data analysis, the sex and age differences of participants were analysed in relation to:
- The ranking of Tucker’s 13 romantic acts
And
- The Importance scores of Tucker’s 13 romantic acts
Descriptive statistics were implemented to allow for comparisons of means and standard deviations, particularly in relation to participant’s ranking and importance score allocation of Tucker’s 13 romantic acts. Factor Analysis was implemented to analyse all 280 participant importance scores. The type of Factor Analysis used was ‘Principal components analysis using an orthogonal rotation. The factors distinguished were (1) physical intimacy (romantic acts 1 – 6), (2) acts of giving (romantic acts 7 – 9), (3) activities together (romantic acts 10 – 13). Factor Analysis was selected for the purpose of this data analysis to allow for further interpretation of whether age had any bearing on the participant’s ranking and importance scores of the three factors.
Results
The total obtained rankings for both male and female participants can be found in Table 1 and the total obtained importance scores for both male and female participants can be found in Table 2.
Table 1
Means, Standard Deviations and Group RANKINGS of Tucker’s 13 Romantic Acts for males, females and total sample
From Table 1, it is evident the top 5 rankings from both men and women, although ranked differently, were all physical romantic acts. Men ranked ‘making love’ as the most romantic act, however women ranked ‘cuddling’ as the most romantic act.
Table 2
Means, Standard Deviations and Group IMPORTANCE Scores of Tucker’s 13 Romantic Acts for males, females and total sample
From Table 2, it is evident the top 5 Importance score ranking’s from both men and women, although ranked differently, are again all physical romantic acts. Men again ranked ‘making love’ as the most important romantic act to them, whilst women ranked hearing/saying ‘I love you’ the most important romantic act to them.
From Table 1 and 2 it is evident that the rankings and importance scores from male and female participants were not fundamentally different.
The Factor analysis employed was the principal components analysis using an orthogonal rotation. Table 3 shows the allocation of the factors along with their weight/loading. Table 4 shows what importance each factor of romance rates according to the age of the participant.
Table 3
Rotated Factor Matrix of Tucker's Thirteen Romantic Acts - Three Factor Solution
From the results in Table 4, it was found that the need and importance for Factor 1 – ‘physical intimacy’, decreased as the age of female participants increased. This result was the same when the scores from both male and female participants were combined. Results found that when the age of males and females increased, the importance participants placed for the need of physical intimacy decreased.
Table 4
Correlation Matrix of Age and Factors in the Three-Factor Solution
* = p < .05 ** = p < .01
Although not providing a statistically significant result, it is important to note that factor 2, acts of giving, for the male participants showed trends of a decrease in importance as males increased in age.
Factor 3, the act of participating in activities together, although not returning a statistically significant result, showed trends of a slight increase of importance as participants increased in age.
Discussion
The results from the present study found evidence supporting the first hypothesis, that the sex of the participant would provide a simular pattern of results to the previous studies, being that there would be a distinct difference in the rankings and importance scores of romantic acts by participants from the two sexes. There was no strong evidence found in support of the second hypothesis that there would be a difference between how participant’s ranked romantic acts and rated importance scores. The third hypothesis was also only partially supported in that there would be a distinct difference in the pattern of importance scores of romantic acts by participants from the six age brackets.
One of the most striking findings from the present study was that the top five rankings and importance scores for both men and women were all romantic acts of physical intimacy. This was not the case from the results found in Tucker, Marvin & Vivian (1991) study, as both male and female participants ranked romantic acts of ‘giving’ and ‘activities together’ in their top five responses, the most highly ranked romantic act of physical intimacy, mentioned by participants in this study was kissing, ranked 2 by men and 3 by women. In contrast, Tucker & Yuhas-Byers (1991) study, from a combined male and female sample found the top 4 romantic acts to be ranked were all in fact ‘physically intimate’ with (1) Saying ‘I love you’, (2) a hug, (3) holding hands and (4) kissing, this proving to be far more simular to the present study’s results. Neto & Barros (1998) also reported findings from their study, which were very simular to the present study as both men and women from Portugal and Cape Verde ranked physical behaviours and intimacy as the most important.
Even though both males and females top 5 rankings and importance scores were all romantic acts of ‘physical intimacy’, the actual ranking of these acts by males and females were quite different. The most dramatic difference between males and females was in the rankings and importance scores of the romantic act of ‘making love’. Male participants ranked ‘making love’ as 1 for both their ranking and importance score, whereas women ranked ‘making love’ as 5 for their ranking and 4 for their importance score. These findings were simular to those of Hong and Faedda (1994) whereby men from both a university and non-university sample ranked ‘making love’ as 1. The findings from Neto (1997) study were also simular to the present findings whereby women ranked ‘making love’ as 5.
The results did not find a striking difference in how participant’s ranked romantic acts in comparison to how they rated importance scores. One possible reason for this result may be because participant’s perceived ‘ranking’ a romantic act as the same task as rating the ‘importance’ of it to them. There has not been any previous research to make any comparisons to this study therefore further research would prove useful.
The most dramatic finding in relation to the participant’s age bracket and their importance score was that as the age of female participants increased the importance of physically intimate romantic acts decreased. One possibility for this result may be due to older participants being in longer relationships therefore holding different romantic acts more important to them rather than solely physically intimate acts as younger participants, in shorter relationships may feel to be more important.
Although not found to be statistically significant, it is interesting to note that romantic acts of giving were found to be of less importance to male participants as they increased in age. One possibility for this result may be due to older men being in a long-term relationship and not seeing the importance of e.g. giving flowers to their partner as important as a younger man might when impressing his new partner.
Although again not statistically supported it is interesting to note that as participants increased in age there was a trend in more importance given to participating in acts of romance that involve activities than that of the younger participants. One possible reason for this trend may be that older participants find they have more time to spend together for such romantic activities as long walks and dinners and therefore feel these acts of romance to be more important to them.
In summary, it is clear from the present study that although males and females from all age groups all feel romantic acts of a physical nature are the most romantic, males and females differ rate these physically intimate romantic acts very differently. From the study there was no confirming evidence found indicating participants ranked and rated importance scores differently. There were some positive results in support of increasing age in female participants and a decreased importance placed upon physically intimate romantic acts. From these results some findings have been confirmed and new findings have been made and with further research these new findings may be able to be confirmed.
References
Hong, S.M. & Faedda, S. (1994). Ranking of romantic acts by an Australian sample. Psychological Reports, 74, 471 – 474.
Neto, F. (1997). Romantic acts in Portugal. Psychological Reports, 81, 147-151.
Neto, F & Barros, J. (1998). Ranking of romantic acts among Cape Verdean and Portuguese students. Psychological Reports, 83 (3), 1315 – 1318.
Tucker, R.K. (1992). Men’s and women’s rankings of thirteen acts of romance. Psychological Reports, 71, 640 – 642.
Tucker, R.K. & Marvin, M.G. (1992). Operationalizing the romance construct in an adult sample. Psychological Reports, 71, 115 – 120.
Tucker, R.K., Marvin, M.G. & Vivian, B. (1991). What constitutes an romantic act? An empirical study. Psychological Reports, 69, 651 – 654.
