Loredana Ruxandra Gherasim
Associated Lecturer
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Department of Psychology
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania
Andreea Mihaela Mihalca
MSc candidate
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Department of Psychological Counseling and Psychotherapy
Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
Abstract
Background: Interpersonal attraction is influenced by many factors like physical attraction, similarity or proximity. The impact of chronic illnesses on romantic relationships hasn’t been studied very deeply. Method. An experimental study was completed in order to analyze how the chronic disease influences the choice of a romantic partner and the compensatory role of partner’s personality traits on relationship assessment. Five hundred and forty undergraduate students (270 men and 270 women from 18 to 31 years old) participated in this experiment. Results. The effect of chronic disease upon romantic partner’s choice proved to depend on the type of partner’s personality traits. The positive personality traits compensated the physical chronic disease and the chronic diseases compensated the negative traits of personality. This study is one of the few done in this field and brought valuable information’s about ill person’s assessment as a partner in a romantic relationship.
Keywords: chronic disease, romantic availability, personality traits, gender, choosing a romantic partner
During the years, numerous studies have been completed in order to identify the factors that established interpersonal relationship and romantic partner choice. There are many theories that explain interpersonal attraction: the proximity effect (Berscheid & Reis, 1998, Byrne 1997), the similarity theory (Klohnen & Luo, 2003, Berscheid, 1985), the reciprocal linking (Kenny, 1994, Murray & col., 1998), the physical attraction (Berscheid & Reis, 1998). There are also more theories that tried to explain attraction and love: the social exchange theory (Rusbult, Martz & Agnew, 1998), the equality theory (Clark, 1984), the evolutionist theory (Buss, 1996) and the socio-cultural perspective of couple’s relationship (Archer, 1996).
Even if there are numerous studies regarding human attitudes toward ill persons, only few researches focused on the attitude toward the intimate relationship and marriage with ill persons. The negative attitude and the increased social distance regarding ill persons are well documented, studies demonstrating that mental diseased and retarded persons are the least socially accepted (Corrigan & col., 2001; Link & Phelan, 1999). Some of the researches indicated that healthy individuals perceive their interactions with ill ones as being difficult, forced and discomfort inducing (Evans, 1976). Healthy persons consider ill individuals as being more socially anxious, uneasy about dating, less likely to date (Fichten, 1989). The cultural perspective on mental illness explains the interaction difficulties through the existing social stereotypes, ill persons being perceived as having more undesirable characteristics (Link & Phelan, 1999; Martin, Pescosolido & Tuch, 2000). It seems that an increased social contact and a better understanding of illness improve the attitude toward ill persons (Corrigan & col., 2001; Link & Phelan, 1999). Some authors consider that the attitude regarding ill persons has to be examined in a certain social context and for certain types of illnesses. So, it has been found that people have a more positive attitude regarding ill persons at work than when it comes about intimate relationship and marriage (Wright, 1988; Grand, Bernier & Strohmer, 1982). Also, people have a more positive attitude regarding persons with physical diseases than the ones with mental diseases, avoidance tendency increasing with the severity of disease’s symptoms (Socall & Holtgraves, 1992). Based on these findings, this research focuses on the impact of chronic disease on romantic partner choice. The study started from the hypothesis that the romantic availability for a heterosexual relationship with a person suffering of a chronic disease (physical or psychological) depends on target’s personality traits and on the gender of the person who makes the choice.
Method
Participants
Five hundred and forty undergraduate students (270 men and 270 women from 18 to 31 years old) from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi participated voluntary in this experiment. The experiment followed a 2 (Gender: men vs. women) x 3 (Information Type: positive, negative and control) x 3 (Chronic Disease Type: physical, psychological and control) factorial design.
Instruments: In a preliminary study (N=270, 135 men, 135 women aged 19-25 years) undergraduate students were asked to describe specific initiating and avoiding behaviors of heterosexual romantic relationships in order to make an instrument to measure the availability for romantic relationship. The final form of Availability for Romantic Relationship Scale (ARR) had an increased level of internal consistency (α=0.83), likewise for Initiating Romantic Relationship subscale (IRR, α=0.95) and Avoiding Romantic Relationship subscale (AvRR, α=0.92). To manipulate the type of chronic disease there were used descriptions of physical and psychological chronic diseases from scientific literature (Giorgianni, Grana & Scipioni, 2001, Wahl, 2003) and those done by 17 students in the last year from University of Medicine of Iasi (i. e. the person is suffering from a long term disease (lasting more than three months) which isn’t spontaneously cured; periods of amelioration alternate with acute periods (of relapse); general evolution of the disease is towards progressive aggravation; the person needs long-life treatments and observations, but will never be completely cured; on long terms, may appear complications that affect more organs, leaving behind disabilities for physical chronic disease or involution of psychological capacities for psychological chronic disease). These general descriptions of physical and psychological chronic diseases were subsequently evaluated by undergraduate students (N=20, 10 men and 10 women aged 20-25 years), in order to assess the level of recognition of those two types of chronic diseases. To manipulate the type of personality information 5 positive adjective traits (i.e. sincere, tender, understanding) and 5 negative adjective traits (i.e. arrogant, liar, selfish) were used, resulted from a preliminary survey in which undergraduate students (N=90, 45 men and 45 women aged 20-26 years), were asked to specify personality traits that they would, and respectively, would not like their partners to have.
Procedure
First of all subjects received information about target’s personality, some of the participants receiving the negative traits, others the positive ones and others no information about the target’s personality traits. Then, the subjects from each group received the description of the physical chronic disease, or the description of the psychological chronic disease, or no information about the presence of the chronic disease. The disease type manipulation messages contained information about the long lasting and oscillating disease evolution, the long term effects (physical disabilities for the physical disease condition and the involution of the psychological capacities for the psychological disease condition) and about the treatment necessity and permanent observation of the ill person. Finally, participants filled out the Availability for Romantic Relationship Scale (ARR), consisting of 67 items, 38 out of them measuring the initiation of a romantic relationship (i.e. “I initiate discussion to identify common interest points”) and 25 items focused on the relationship avoidance (i.e. “I avoid the groups of friends he/she is a part of”). Participants were asked to evaluate each item on a scale with 6 points, from total disagreement (1) to total agreement (6).
Results
The data were analyzed by univaried analyses of variance (ANOVAs) for information type, chronic disease type and gender. The main effect of the information type emerged for scores of ARR (F(2,539)=50,841; p<0,001), but also for scores of both IRR (F(2,539)=38,06; p<0,001) and AvRR (F(2,539)=51,30; p<0,001) subscales. The Bonferroni test indicated that in the negative information condition, participants showed less availability for relationship (MARR=236,30), initiating less romantic relationships (MIRR=127,03) compare to the participants from the positive information condition (MARR=281,78; MIRR=154,82) and to the ones from the control condition (MARR=276,87; MIRR=151,13). In the negative information condition, subjects had a powerful tendency to avoid romantic relationship (MAvRR=65,73) compared to those in the positive information condition (MAvRR=48,04) and to the ones in the control group (MAvRR=49,25). The ANOVA yielded a significant interaction effect for Information Type and Chronic Disease Type on the results for ARR (F(4,539)=10,407; p<0,01), but also for both IRR (F(4,539)=8,64; p<0,01) and AvRR (F(4,539)=7,46; p<0,01) subscales. When the information about disease was not provided, the subjects from NI condition were less open to romantic relationship compared to the ones in PI and NoI conditions. The participants that received the descriptions of the physical and psychological chronic diseases, in NI condition indicated less romantic availability than the ones from PI and NoI condition. In PI condition, the participants showed more romantic availability in the lack of disease condition compared to psychological chronic disease condition. In NI condition the participants were more open to romantic relationship in the physical and psychological chronic disease conditions than in no disease condition (see Table 1).
Table 1 - Means of ARR scale, and IRR and AvRR subscales by Information Type and Chronic Disease Type
No –no information, PI–positive information, NI–negative information
The 2 x 3 (Gender x Chronic Disease Type) ANOVA on scores of availability for romantic relationship indicated a main significant effect of the subject’s gender on the ARR scores (F(1,539)=7,10; p<0,05) and on IRR subscale (F(1,539)=7,32; p<0,05). Men were more open to a romantic relationship (MARR=270,80), having an increased tendency to initialize it (MIRR=148,46) than women have (MARR=259,17; MIRR=140,20). There was a significant interaction effect of Chronic Disease Type and Gender on total scores for ARR (F(4,539)=3,78; p<0,05), but also for IRR subscale (F(2,539)=4,21; p<0,05). In NoD condition, men indicated more availability for a romantic relationship than women did. In PhCD condition women had a higher level of romantic availability than in NoD condition. In PsCD condition, men were more open to relationship than women were (see Table 2).
Table 2 - Means of ARR scale, and IRR and AvRR subscales by Chronic Disease Type and Gender
Discussion
This study started from the small number of studies regarding the theme of romantic relationships with persons suffering of degenerating chronic diseases and it focused on the ill person’s assessment as a partner in a romantic relationship. The results indicated that the availability for romantic relationship isn’t dependent on the presence of chronic disease, this being salient only in association with the information about the target’s personality and the gender of the person who makes the choice. When the chronic disease wasn’t mentioned, the romantic relationship with persons who have negative traits was least preferred. These results indicate that people evaluate the implications that partner’s personality traits has on the romantic relationship, negative information having a stronger impact on the evaluation than the positive ones has (Ito & col., 1998). It seems that people feel the need for having agreeable persons around and this may explain the tendency to make “the person with positive traits” assumption even for the targets they have no information about. The visibility of stigma could explain the reduced romantic availability in physical chronic disease condition compared to no disease condition (Corrigan & col., 2001, Joachim & Acorn, 2000). The psychological chronic diseases are not so visible; in consequence, the stigmatization couldn’t be achieved from the first interaction. Stigma associated with the ill person may be transferred upon the romantic partner, this being the so called “tribal stigma” (Joachim & Acorn, 2000). The low romantic availability, no matter the type of chronic disease, could be explained by the responsibilities and costs involved in this kind of relationship. It was also found that only the physical chronic diseases are compensated by the positive traits, the psychological chronic diseases being even more prejudiced when giving the negative information. The compensation of physical chronic disease by the positive traits could be the consequence of the increased interactions with this category of persons; this leading to a decrease of prejudices (Corrigan and col., 2001; Link & Phelan, 1999). The compensation of psychological chronic disease by positive traits would be in contradiction with the prejudice regarding this kind of persons, like lack of judgment or antisocial behaviors (Link & Phelan, 1999; Martin, Pescosolido & Tuch, 2000). Otherwise, the negative personality traits are compensated by the presence of degenerating chronic disease and this indicates that the reasons why the negative traits emerge have an important role in assessment. So, it is possible for the participants to consider the negative personality traits as being consequences of lack of disease control, defense or uprising modalities against their chronic disease.
The chronic disease effect on the availability for romantic relationship depends on the gender of the one who makes the assessment. It turned out that both sexes are interested in a possible romantic relationship with an ill person. The only difference found was in the type of chronic disease they “preferred” in their possible romantic partner. So, men are more available to romantic relationships with partners suffering of psychological chronic disease than women are. The results sustain the evolutionist theory, according to which men are looking for women with a good capacity of reproduction, being more focused on the female physical aspect than on their mental health (Archer, 1996). On the other hand, women showed an increased level of interest for those relationships that involved partners suffering of a physical chronic disease. These results contradict the ideas of evolutionist theory that sustains that women look for men that will provide the material support needed for raising their children. In fact, the results sustain the social role theory according to which women assume the role of the family caregiver (Archer, 1996). In all, the results of this research showed that even if there are differences in the availability for romantic relationships with persons suffering from chronic disease, this group of people isn’t significantly avoided. The mystery surrounding the chronic disease and the desire of knowing may break out in others the desire to connect with this group of people too.
Limits: A limit of this study is the lack of evaluation of participant’s level of understanding of the implications that chronic disease has upon the romantic partner; participants may have different levels of comprehension of the effects of partner’s physical or psychological chronic disease upon them. Also, there was no evaluation of the presence of a person suffering from a chronic disease in participant’s life and of the type of this relationship, nor of the implication of the participant in a current romantic relationship, things that could influence the results. Likewise, it wasn’t mentioned what type of romantic relationship the participants had to think about, in consequence, we don’t know if the participants though about a long term or short term relationship, or about a relationship with someone to have children with and settle down or about a companion but not marriage.
Further research: This study does not analyze in exhaustion the impact of chronic disease on romantic relationships. The effects of chronic diseases could be analyzed within a more complex factors assembly that influences the choice of a romantic partner. It is possible to analyze the romantic availability for a relationship with a person suffering of a degenerating chronic disease based on the short term or long term relationship duration that can be finalized with a possible marriage. It is also possible to study unmarried but stable couples in which one is suffering of a degenerating chronic disease, in order to identify what specific elements compensate the chronic disease and what are the reasons that maintain this kind of relationship.
Biographical Notes
Loredana Ruxandra Gherasim, associated lecturer at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Department of Psychology, Toma Cozma Street, no 3, Iasi, Romania, e-mail gloreda@uaic.ro, Tel: +40 741 785739. She has competences in social cognitive psychology domain in which she is preparing the PhD thesis and in which she has published articles (like, “Gender or genders of the social representation of power”, Social Psychology Review, 2005, 14, 49-69; “Mental map of Romania a source to maintain the self-esteem in self-image threatening situations”, Social Psychology Review, 2002, 8, 77-90). Also, she has attended national (like “Effects of learned helplessness on academic performance”, Conference organized by Romanian Psychologists Association, Neptun, Romania, 2002) and international conferences (like, “Depression and learned helplessness: reactions to exposure to lack of control” in 5th International Conference of PHD Students, University of Miskolc, Miskolc Hungary, 2005; “The influence of ego-discrepancies on the self-evaluation of rich and poor attributes”, in International Conference “Poverty- Psychosocial aspects”, Iaşi, Romania, 1998 “) with papers in this field.
Andreea Mihaela Mihalca, MSc candidate, at Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Department of Psychological Counseling and Psychotherapy, Republicii Street, no 37, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, e-mail: mi_deea@yahoo.com, Tel: +40 740 248076. She has graduated Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, General Psychology specialization in 2005. This paper is an abstract of her diploma thesis at which she has collaborated with Loredana Gherasim.
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