This study followed 156 couples from 1989 until present day, these couples are now middle aged or older.During the duration of the study each couple was asked every 5 years to come into a lab and have their marital satisfaction and interaction with one another evaluated and observed. Researches were observing conversation each couple had and wold look for facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and the topic of the conversation in which the couples were having. Out of the 156 original couple participating 125 of those couples gave DNA samples which was used to match their genotype with their own marital satisfaction and interactions with each other that were observed in the lab. The study found that couples and participants with 2 short 5-HTTLPR alleles where the most unhappy when there was to much talk and focus on negative emotional, but were the happiest when around happier emotions. Those that had 1 or 2 long alleles were less affected by the emotions that were taking place in their marriage. Neither of these alleles have a positive or negative advantage. Those who had 2 short alleles which was 17% showed a strong connection between emotions and their marriage, 83% of the couples showed no correlation between their emotions and their marriage.
I chose to write about this article because I found it interseting that how happy a person could be in a relationship is do to a gene they have and not how fulfilling the relationship may actually be. But I also found it interesting how more couples had no correlation between their emotions and their marriage.
Very interesting concept! I find that it is believable that there could possibly be some correlation between genetics and emotional satisfaction. I think that this is very easy to comprehend because if your parents have emotional stability issues within their relationship, that gene can be inherited from them. It is also possible that the emotional instability can be interpreted and internalized by the child, and this ultimately and innately implemented in to the child's adult life and relationships. However, I am having a hard time understanding that if 83% of the couples showed no correlation between their marriage and their emotions, then how can this be a valid study? How can one claim that marital satisfaction is caused by a gene variant? This is a very intriguing concept. Great work!
ReplyDeleteI agree that there may possibly be a genetic aspect that contributes to emotional satisfaction, but to ascribe a genetic basis to relationships may be a bit of a stretch; especially when there are so many other contributing factors, such as environment, compatibility, and effort and understanding to work through issues that arise in relationships.
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