This is an analysis of Bereczkei et al. (2014) article titled " Sexual Imprinting in Human Mate Race. ” This quantitative research assumed that human homogamy is partially achieved by the sexual imprint on the parents of the opposite-sexes when still children. Homogamy is an approach through which individuals select their mates based on similarity. For example, a daughter could pick her mates based on similar traits to his father's personality.
Bereczkei et al. (2014) begin by arguing that s tudies on humans and animals reveal that individuals choose their mates partially based on their similarities, a behavior referred to as homogamy. Several scholars have shown in their works that there is a unique, innate recognition mechanism that allows organisms to identify other organisms that resemble it. However, this school of thought and studies have faced several theoretical and scientific objections.
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Research Question
Bereczkei et al. (2004) objective in their study was to support homogamy. Their research question was, therefore, as follows: Does a woman select their spouses based on homogamy ? Does Bereczkei et al. (2004) journal support for the perception that individuals choose their mates partially based on their similarities. The study adopted both primary and secondary sources to answer the research question. On one hand, primary sources refer to the data gathered from the field through surveys while the secondary sources are the literature sources obtained from the different academic databases of similar research studies conducted earlier.
The Homogamy Perception
The scientists Bereczkei, Petra, and Weisfeld, argue in their journal that homogamy in human is partially achieved through sexual imprinting during childhood on the opposite sex parent. In the study, the scholars hypothesized that children create a mental framework of their parent's phenotypes of the opposite-sexes and use it as an example for identifying their mates. The research studied adopted daughters and their parents to unravel the impact of sexual impairing and phenotypic matching. The researchers discovered a high level of the resemblance of the facial features between the ladies' adoptive father and the ladies' husbands. The authors suggest that this impact could be changed through the quality of the daughter-father relations in her childhood. Daughters who had an emotional engagement with their fathers had a higher chance of selecting mates who resemble them compared to the girls with a less emotional attachment to their fathers.
Methodology
The paper uses an analytical and descriptive method to criticize Bereczkei et al. (2004) school of thoughts regarding mate selection homogamy findings. Qualitative method is used to analyze the data presented in earlier research studies concerning the area of study. Upon informed consent, the participants were shown pictures of their spouses and asked to rate the similarity of the facial features, and the four possible husbands, one being the actual spouse. While real photos of the husbands were used as the main experiment, extra pictures of young men in a range of comparable age were taken and used as a control group. The study used a random sample of 2442 students from 4 different countries.
Objective Research
The study by Bereczkei et al. (2004) was objective research. It was an impartial experiment because the research method is qualitative. As a result, it is fact-based, observable, and measurable. The researcher used well known ways to investigate by collecting data and statistically analyzing to find results.
Discussion
Bereczkei et al. (2004) support the status-caste framework in their study. The status caste model predicts that in amongst the interracial marriages, the social and economic status of a partner is exchanged for the other partner’s racial caste status. There is a lot of contradiction surrounding this argument. There are lots of inconsistencies in the divergent findings on intermarriages amongst the black and whites. The inequality between blacks and whites has obscured the actual status of homogamy that characterize intermarriages. The differences in gender amongst young couples are being mistaken for specific exchange race patterns. Lastly, the scientific results that seem to support Bereczkei et al. (2004) findings are not as robust as one would expect them to be. The methods used by the authors also cast doubt on their findings.
The Homogamy theories are not true, looking at the cross-classification table that Bereczkei et al. referred to as retrieved from a researcher (Fu 2001). The data by Fu was retrieved from the 1990 PUMS database. Fu's table validates the status exchange theory for intermarriages between blacks, Mexican Americans, and whites. Running a simple quasi-symmetry framework on the data shows that similar race and mixed-race marriages generally share a similar educational homogamy pattern. One can easily conclude that Bereczkei et al. (2004) findings were not based on the appropriate data. The scholars’ findings are not satisfactory and convincing because the validity and reliability of the data used are in question. Valid research needs to have reliable and dependable sources of data.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that there is very little suggestion or evidence supporting the status exchange theory. Additionally, the evidence strongly shows that there are a remarkable symmetry and consistency in wife/husband's educational achievements irrespective of race. Additionally, it can be observed that intermarriage couples share almost the same levels of education. Homogamy theories suggests that individuals select mates on the basis of shares traits which is implanted during childhood. The studied girls picked mates who in away resembled their fathers, not necessarily biological but the father figure. Homogamy is a difficult proposition to prove in inter-race marriages. Different scholars dismiss homogamy perception as a research that not based on appropriate data and the results are unsatisfactory.
Reference
Bereczkei, Tamás & Gyuris, Petra & Weisfeld, Glenn. (2004). Sexual Imprinting in Human Mate Choice. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society. 271. 1129-34. 10.1098/rspb.2003.2672.
