In most cultures throughout the world, there is an expectation that when a person reaches adulthood, marriage should soon follow. In the United States【C1】___, each month upwards of 168 000 couples wed.【C2】to love, honor, and respect their chosen life mates【C3】___ death parts them. The expectation is deep-rooted.

【C4】___, the social functions, purposes, and relevance of marriage are rapidly changing in【C5】society, making them less clear-cut than they have been【C6】history. For instance, in a Pew Research Center random polling of over 2 000【C7】, fewer than half of all of the adults polled indicated that【C8】a man and a woman plan to spend the【C9】of their lives together as a couple, it was important that they【C10】___marry.

Those of us who choose to marry have【C11】___reasons why we decide to marry the person we do. There is a【C12】, however, in our Western, individualistic culture: We tend to marry for reasons that benefit ourselves,【C13】for reasons that benefit the society【C14】, such as found in collectivist cultures. Research in Western cultures has found, for example, that the number-one【C15】people cite for marrying is to signify a lifelong commitment【C16】someone they love. However, this reason is not the only response to why people wed—today, people get married for reasons of commitment, security, and personal belief systems. The Pew Research Center’s recent findings【C17】that the main reasons people get married are for【C18】happiness and commitment, and bearing and raising children. As the data from this【C19】show us, there are racial, age, and religious differences in what people【C20】___to be the main purposes of getting married.

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