TITLE:
Fundamental Factors in Marital Satisfaction: An Assessment of Brazilian Couples
AUTHORS:
Keila Rebello, Mauro Dias Silva Junior, Regina Célia Sousa Brito
KEYWORDS:
Marital Satisfaction, Jealousy, Love, Evolutionary Psychology
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.7,
May
28,
2014
ABSTRACT: In this research
we aimed to study how couples perceive their marital relationships. More specifically,
our goal was to ascertain the way middle class couples, living in Brazil, evaluate
the quality of their current marital relationships. 100 cohabiting couples were
asked to fulfill the Marriage and Relationship Questionnaire (MARQ), and we found
that 86% lived together for 12.62 years on average and declared to be satisfied
with their relationship. Jealousy, partnership and love were found to be the most
relevant factors for marital satisfaction, thereby reaffirming the Evolutionary
Psychology hypotheses about the omnipresence of love and jealousy as elements of
cohesion in humans. Selection for those factors may have occurred from early mankind
on, particularly with regard to the establishment and maintenance of affective partnerships.