Dating Involvement and Patterns of Idealization: A Test of Wailer's Hypothesis.

Primary respondents, representing three degrees of emotional involvement with their dating partners, and their best friends evaluated the frequency with which each primary respondent's dating partner exhibited 17 characteristics. Data were used to test the hypothesis, derived from Willard Waller's analysis of idealization, that individuals tend to be differentially idealistic about their dating partners in the order of casual involvement < moderate involvement < serious involvement. Support for the hypothesis was not found among either male or female involvement groups. Male involvement groups exhibited significant differences in total idealization scores indicating decreasing idealization with increasing involvement. Significant differences were not found among female involvement groups, although Kruskal-Wallis sums of ranks data indicated a trend similar to that for males. An explanation was offered to account for findings, and suggestions concerning lines of further research were made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]