HOW TO SELECT A MATE

You may think you know why you like certain women—but you'll be surprised at what psychologists say about your real motives
By Norman Carlisle
WHY did you marry your wife? If you're not married, why will you marry? Chances are that whichever of these questions fits your marital state, the answers you give will be wrong. Psychologists probing the reasons why people pick the mates they do emerge with the conclusion that men really don't know why, for better or worse, they abandon bachelorhood.
Love and sexual attraction—the reasons usually given—are not, to psychologists anyway, reason enough. What are the real subconscious drives that propel one person into the arms of another?
Dr. R. F. Winch, of Northwestern University, has worked out the theory that you really marry on the basis of psychological need.
"In mate selection," he claims, "each individual seeks within his or her field of eligibles for that person who gives the greatest promise of providing him or her with maximum need gratification."