In most cultures, the parents of the bride and groom selected the future spouse and made the most of the arrangements for the marriage ceremony.

Parent- Arranged Marriage - are based on the principle that the elders in the community have the wisdom to select the appropriate spouse.

Advantages of arranged marriages - usually very stable, divorce is virtually un heard of, there is virtually no risk of being rejected or of losing one's ture love, and one does not have to determine wheter on'es parterner is committed to the relationship.

• Dating leads to intimacy but not necessarily to commitment.
• Dating tends to skip friendship, which should be the foundation of a stable relationship.
• Dating focuses on romantic attraction, so it lasts only as long as the romantic feelings remain.
• Dating focuses on enjoying love and romance solely for their recreational value.
• Dating often mistakes a physical relationship for love. 
• Dating often isolates a couple from other vital relationships, leaving important friendships in despair.
• Dating takes a lot of time and energy, which can distract young adults from their primary responsibility of preparing for the future.
• Dating creates and artificial environment for evaluating another person's character.

In developing countries that are moving away from arranged marriages, the influence of cultural tradition may be combined with modern sensibilities.  

China - there has been a dramatic change in mate selection from parent-arranged marriage to love-based marriage. 

Japan - one of the current industrial giants of the Pacific, has generally moved from arranges marriages to love-based marriage.

Scandinavian - parent-arranged marriages disappeared decades ago and cohabitation has become the most common type of relationship until after the birth of a child. 

• Marriage is a major life goal for the majority of college women.
• Most women would like to meet a spouse while at college.
• Relationships between college women and college men are often characterized by either too little commitment or too much.
• "Hooking up" is a distinctive sex-without-commitment interaction between college students and has many levels ranging from only kissing to oral sex and intercourse.
• The ambiguity of the phrase "hooking up" is part of the reason for its popular appeal.
• "Hooking up" is widespread on most campuses.
• Dating carries multiple meanings from hanging out (being together) to a high level of commitment.
• It is rare for college men to ask women out on dates or to acknowledge when they have become a couple.
• In areas such as marriage aspirations, getting advice from parents, and "hooking up," college women from divorced families differ significantly from women who grew up in intact families. 

• Date, fall in love, and behave romaantically in ways similar to the young.
• "The sweaty-palm syndrome"  
• "Physiological and psychological somersaults" 
• Saw romance as candlelight dinners, long walks in the park, exchanging flowers and candy.
• "Far more varied and creative"
• Passionate love = have learned through their marriages the value of companionate love "the steady, buring fire: that endures and deepens over time. 
• Face a number of delemmas and difficulties in dating. Such as marriage and family

• "The sweaty-palm syndrome"  
• "Physiological and psychological somersaults" 
• Saw romance as candlelight dinners, long walks in the park, exchanging flowers and candy.
• Passionate love = tend to equate passionate love with real love; once intensity faides, they think love is gone. 
• Face a number of delemmas and difficulties in dating. Such as marriage and family

Mating Gradient - the tendency of women to marry men who are better educated or more successful than they are. 

Sex Ratio - indicates the relationship between the number of men and the number of woment of a given age. 

Rapport - refers to the procsess of communication in which two people develop understanding and a sense of closeness.

Self- Revelation - which is the disclosing of personal information about oneself.

Mutual Dependency - a relationship in which each person wants and needs the other person.

Intimacy Need Fulfillment - the satisfaction one receives from having personal needs fulfilled, which leads to greather intimacy.

The incidence of reported violence is 25% for women and 10% for men in dating relationships. 

Jealously and differences in level of commitment are only two of numerous causes for conflict between dating partners.