Section 9-2: Lessons in Love

-Courtesy of 49firstdates.com-

If my experience with romantic love have taught me anything it's that all women are evil there is not a particular defining trait in an individual that will cause me to find them as a suitable life partner. While I have viewed all of my previous partners as physically attractive, I am prone to the subjectivity of experience in this matter. When I view an individual as attractive in one area (say, style of humor) my overall view of them becomes more attractive, and I know this, but I also know that thus I cannot make an objective opinion on the attractiveness of my mate. If you apply this to the 'matching hypothesis' I guess I consider myself to be the most attractive individual around as I tend to view my current partner (whomever she may be) as the most attractive individual around.

One section of Interpersonal attraction in which I disagree is the fact that Married and dating couples tend to be similar on many traits. I believe there must be certain levels of connection where viewpoints are the same but that if there are no areas where conflict arises an individual will become bored of the relationship after a period of time.

Consider if you will my two longest term relationships thus far (both 2+ years of length) and the differences between the two of them. My first long term relationship was with a petite and highly athletic brunette 3 years younger than myself, we had similar senses of humor, enjoyed the same types of movies, but compared to her I was an incredibly low energy individual and her need for continual physical (athletic) stimulation would clash with my needs for intellectual stimulation quite frequently. In my second significant relationship I was paired with a curvy blonde who was 5 years older than myself, her energy level was more on par with mine and she enjoyed gaming and some of the other same social activities I did, but our senses of humor could not have been farther apart, I cannot recall once one another laughing at each others jokes, and I found her favorite programming choices on television to be offensive and crude. So while there were factors on which I associated with each of them, I found I was equally attracted to the similarities as I was to some of the differences and the differences between each of these Individuals shows no preference for age, lifestyle, race, religion, or otherwise.