Section 3: Singleness
Advanced Psychology Seminar
Questionnaire
A. Married first marriage
B. Cohabiting relationship
C. Never married
If you were a landlord, to whom would you most likely choose to rent your house?
Who would you choose as the most likely to be socially immature?
Who would you choose as the most likely to be afraid of commitment?
Who would you choose as the most likely to be self-centered?
Who would you choose as the most likely to be unhappy?
You have a new employer who you discover is 40 years old and has never been
married. Does this information make an impression on you? If so, what is that
impression?
Paulo and Morris (2005)
Singles in Society and Science
An attempt about starting a conversation about the place of singles in society
and how our societal perspective on singles and marriage shapes our research
questions, processes, and interpretations.
The Ideology of Marriage and Family
Assumptions:
Just about everyone wants to marry, and just about everyone does (90%, in fact).
Sexual partnership is the one truly important peer relationship.
Those who have a sexual partnership are better, more valuable, more worthy, more
important. Compared to people who do not have that relationship, they are
probably happier, more mature, less lonely, and their lives are probably more
meaningful and complete.
Who counts as single?
Stigmatized from the start – defined by who they are not, what they do not have
Legal and bureaucratic distinctions – married vs. never married
Social and personal distinctions – sexual partnership or not?
The Rising Tide of Singles
1970 – 38 million adults who were divorced, widowed, or always single
2002 – 86 million adults who were divorced widowed, or always single (only 11
million were cohabiting)
Adults now spend more of their adult years single than married
Singlism in Society
Are singles the target of negative stereotypes? – college students consistently
rated married targets as happier, socially mature, and less likely to have an
STD or AIDS.
Harsh judgments of singles: the evidence
Pervasive beliefs; many groups derogate singles
The older the single person, the more negative the beliefs (ex. 40-year Old
Virgin)
Divorced perceived as more attractive and sociable but less stable than singles
Even well-liked and accomplished singles were derogated
Singles claims of happiness are not believed by participants.
Singles appear to be rejected interpersonally though more research needed.
Are singles economically disadvantaged and discriminated against?
Discrimination is legal
Real-world examples: higher salaries and lower taxes of
married
Experimental evidence: prefer married tenants
Singlism without compunction or awareness
Perceptions of singles seem unselfconsciously harsh
Is there any awareness of singles that they are stigmatized?
– little, 4 – 30%
Invisibility – in psychology and politics
Singlism in Science
Seligman’s claim that married people overwhelmingly report being happier.
Longitudinal study: just as many people were less happy after marriage as there
were who were more happy
Potential moderators of the link between civil status and well-being
Gender – women more attuned to relationship quality; women
more likely to break up and stay single
Men have been found to benefit from marriage
Women have been found to suffer from marriage
Relationship quality: wives found to be linked to very good or very bad
outcomes; however, study placed divorced, widowed, and always single into one
group, as were all categories of married people.
Potential moderators (cont.)
Type of civil status
Social class, income, and wealth
Race and ethnicity
Attitudes toward civil status
Age
Timing of measurements
Cohort, culture, and context
So why aren’t singles miserable?
Because they DO have relationships that last a lifetime.
Singles and their siblings
Singles and their friends
Singles and adult children – interactions of elderly with
friends found to be better predictors of well-being
Other paths
Why does singlism persist?
Are sexual partners fundamentally important?
Evolutionary perspective
Attachment perspective
The social problems perspective – ‘deviant’ lifestyle
The cult of the couple
From many adult relationships to just one
From marriage as economic unit to marriage as companionship
and intimacy
From sexuality in reproduction to sexuality as intimacy
All-in-one: the common thread
The marriage and family ideology is a cultural worldview – interpersonal
versions of the American dream
Conclusion
Adults are “single” because of one thing: they do not have a sexual partnership
Challenges:
Singlehood should not be equated with living alone or feeling
alone
Being single does not necessarily mean having no sex, having
a lot of sex, or having sex with a lot of people
Being single does not necessarily imply that a person is
looking for a mate
Having a sexual partnership does not mean living alone or
feeling alone
Valuing of coupling can be good. We challenge:
Cultish overvaluing of couples
Devaluing and dismissing of other important relationships
Stigmatizing of not coupling
We want a broader and more imaginative science
Singles are stigmatized
Research should reflect these complexities
Importance of relationships other than sexual partnerships and the importance of
other life pursuits.
Byrne and Carr (2005)
Is singlehood a stigmatized identity?
The subtle stigma of singlehood: empirical evidence
Why does interpersonal descrimination persist? Cultural lag
Implications and future directions
Discussion Questions
In our last class period, students agreed that marriage is not idealized in
current society? Do you still believe this after reading this article? Why or
why not?
Critique the argument presented in this article. Do you agree in the proposition
that singleness is marginalized and stigmatized? Why or why not?