Abstract
Successful relationship with loving partners is one of the most important factors in life. In psychology, there have been some previous researches studying the factors influencing romantic relationships. However, most of these researches were performed based on statistical analysis; thus they have limitations in analyzing complex non-linear relationships or rules based reasoning. This research analyzes commitment and persistence in heterosexual involvement according to styles of loving using a datamining technique as well as statistical methods. In this research, we consider six different styles of loving - 'eros', 'ludus', 'stroge', 'pragma', 'mania' and 'agape' which influence romantic relationships between lovers, besides the factors suggested by the previous researches. These six types of love are defined by Lee (1977) as follows: 'eros' is romantic, passionate love; 'ludus' is a game-playing or uncommitted love; 'storge' is a slow developing, friendship-based love; 'pragma' is a pragmatic, practical, mutually beneficial relationship; 'mania' is an obsessive or possessive love and, lastly, 'agape' is a gentle, caring, giving type of love, brotherly love, not concerned with the self. In order to do this research, data from 105 heterosexual couples were collected. Using the data, a linear regression method was first performed to find out the important factors associated with a commitment to partners. The result shows that 'satisfaction', 'eros' and 'agape' are significant factors associated with the commitment level for both male and female. Interestingly, in male cases, 'agape' has a greater effect on commitment than 'eros'. On the other hand, in female cases, 'eros' is a more significant factor than 'agape' to commitment. In addition to that, 'investment' of the male is also crucial factor for male commitment. Next, decision tree analysis was performed to find out the characteristics of high commitment couples and low commitment couples. In order to build decision tree models in this experiment, 'decision tree' operator in the datamining tool, Rapid Miner was used. The experimental result shows that males having a high satisfaction level in relationship show a high commitment level. However, even though a male may not have a high satisfaction level, if he has made a lot of financial or mental investment in relationship, and his partner shows him a certain amount of 'agape', then he also shows a high commitment level to the female. In the case of female, a women having a high 'eros' and 'satisfaction' level shows a high commitment level. Otherwise, even though a female may not have a high satisfaction level, if her partner shows a certain amount of 'mania' then the female also shows a high commitment level. Finally, this research built a prediction model to establish whether the relationship will persist or break up using a decision tree. The result shows that the most important factor influencing to the break up is a 'narcissistic tendency' of the male. In addition to that, 'satisfaction', 'investment' and 'mania' of both male and female also affect a break up. Interestingly, while the 'mania' level of a male works positively to maintain the relationship, that of a female has a negative influence. The contribution of this research is adopting a new technique of analysis using a datamining method for psychology. In addition, the results of this research can provide useful advice to couples for building a harmonious relationship with each other. This research has several limitations. First, the experimental data was sampled based on oversampling technique to balance the size of each classes. Thus, it has a limitation of evaluating performances of the predictive models objectively. Second, the result data, whether the relationship persists of not, was collected relatively in short periods - 6 months after the initial data collection. Lastly, most of the respondents of the survey is in their 20's. In order to get more general results, we would like to extend this research to general populations.
연인과의 성공적인 관계형성은 인생의 만족감을 결정짓는 핵심적인 요소 중 하나이다. 기존에 심리학 분야에서는 성공적인 연인관계에 영향을 미치는 요인들에 대한 다양한 연구가 수행되어 왔으나, 주로 통계적인 분석기법에 기반하고 있기 때문에 복잡한 비선형의 관계를 분석하고, 특징을 추출하는 데에는 한계가 있었다. 이에, 본 연구는, 기존의 통계적인 분석 기법과 더불어, 데이터마이닝의 의사결정나무 분석기법을 활용하여 사랑의 형태에 따른 연인관계의 몰입(commitment) 수준과 관계지속 여부를 분석하였다. 특히, 기존 연구에서 도출된 주요 변인들 이외에 사랑의 여섯 가지 형태인 에로스(eros), 루두스(ludus), 스트로게(storge), 매니아(mania), 프래그마(pragma) 그리고 아가페(agape)를 추가적으로 고려하여, 이들이 연인관계에서 서로에 대한 몰입수준 및 연인관계 지속여부에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 분석하고, 예측하는 모형을 수립하였다. 본 연구에는 실제 남녀커플 105쌍, 총 210명에 대한 데이터가 활용되었다. 본 연구결과 연인관계 몰입수준 및 관계 지속여부의 영향요인으로, 기존에 심리학 분야에서 제시된 변수들 이외에, 에로스, 아가페, 프래그마 등이 유의한 영향을 미친다는 것을 확인하였다. 특히, 남성은 아가페적 사랑의 형태가 몰입에 중요한 영향을 미치는 반면, 여성은 에로스적 사랑의 형태가 더욱 중요한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 연인관계 지속여부에는 남성의 나르시시즘, 만족, 투자 및 매니아적 성향이 영향을 주고 있는 것으로 나타난 반면, 여성의 경우, 여성이 남성을 매니아적으로 사랑하는 정도만이 영향을 주고 있어, 남성이 관계의 지속 또는 결별에 더욱 결정적인 영향을 미치고 있는 것을 알 수 있었다. 이러한 연구는 데이터마이닝의 적용분야를 심리학 영역으로 확장한 융합연구로, 연인관계에 대한 새로운 분석을 시도하였다는 점에서 의의가 있으며, 조화로운 연인관계를 형성하는데 실질적인 시사점을 제공할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.