ArticleCritique
The research tried to answer the question “do the parents havespecific preferences for the spouses that their offspring choose?”The symbol for the Null hypothesis is (H0) and theAlternative Hypothesis has the symbol (H1) (ReSukal,2013). In fact, the null hypothesis in this study will be the parentshaving control over the spouses of their offspring. The alternativehypothesis will be that the parents prefer the son-in-law to bewealthier while the daughter-in-law only needs to have good behavior,qualities, and heredity too. More importantly, the study saw the useof the standard crosscultural sample (SCCS) in understanding thevariables that were being used. The variables, on the other hand,were the parent’s preferences and the marriage patterns evident inthe societies chosen. Besides that, the study relied on research as adata collection method to get enough data to help the researchers.The test on the hypothesis led to the analysis being conducted ononly 55 cases so as to ascertain how the parents had control over theboth the son-in-law and the daughter (Apostolou, 2010). The resultwas that the parents decided that the resource acquisition capacityof the son-in-law was more essential than in a daughter-in-law. Morespecifically, the findings of the research showed that the parentsoften valued son-in-law that have the resource acquisition capacitywhile daughter-in-laws are expected to have good behavior and goodheredity qualities too (Apostolou, 2010). Such a scenario shows thatthe parents really have the preferences that the spouses of theiroffspring will possess. The results might be unreliable because thereare some minor categories apart from the agricultural-pastoral andthe hunting and gathering societies. The other categories might haveother patterns and preferences that the parents might have. Hence,generalizing the preferences and patterns might seem a bitinaccurate, and there is the need to include even the minorcategories too.
References
Apostolou, M. (2010). Parental choice: What parents want in ason‐in‐lawand a daughter‐in‐lawacross 67 pre‐industrialsocieties? British Journal of Psychology, 101(4),695-704. doi: 10.1348/000712609X480634
ReSukal, M. (2013). Research Methods: Applying Statistics inResearch. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.