Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site hao.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!mhuxj!houxm!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!woods From: woods@hao.UUCP (Greg Woods) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: what does single really mean? Message-ID: <1303@hao.UUCP> Date: Wed, 12-Dec-84 19:24:22 EST Article-I.D.: hao.1303 Posted: Wed Dec 12 19:24:22 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 15-Dec-84 00:42:44 EST References: <4487@tektronix.UUCP> Organization: High Altitude Obs./NCAR, Boulder CO Lines: 35 > This amazes me! I know I have always been one of the "different drummer" > people, but are "intimate relationships" so pervasively important to > women, that their entire sense of well-being rests on it? I have two things to say about this: firstly, I doubt if women have a monopoly on this statistic. I find that I myself (a man!) am much happier when involved with a relationship, even one that is not particularly close. One reason for this is that people tend to have more hope that a close relationship (that they really want) will develop out of a not-so-close one then they have that it will develop out of no relationship at all. Plus, you still get the status symbol and approval from others even if your relationship isn't as close as you would like (as long as it isn't totally antagonistic, but I think those are extreme cases). And further, even not-so- close relationships have their close moments. Secondly, about the only useful piece of information I gained while getting a B.A. in Pscyhology was that one must be very careful when making conclusions based on study results. In this case, it could be that a relationship is the most important factor, but it doesn't show that there aren't exceptions to the rule, nor does it show that there aren't other factors that also contribute. And lets face it, this is an awfully small sample. I doubt if it does a very good job of representing the general female population. In addition, we don't know that the happiness isn't related to some other factor (self-esteem, maybe?) that is also correlated with whether or not an intimate relationship exists. All we can guess from the results of this study is that there is some kind of correlation between having an intimate relationship and being happy. Above all, there is *no* eveidence to suggest a cause-->effect relationship one way or the other. --Greg -- {ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | decvax!stcvax | harpo!seismo | ihnp4!stcvax} !hao!woods "...once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right..."