by R.P. Trelfa
When people ask me what I do, I tell them: I am researching my Ph.D. After a short pause to take in the fact that someone who is blind has made it to the status of a postgraduate, they ask me what my area of research is. My answer depends on who is asking the question. If it is another academic then I give a relatively technical answer; if it is someone who might be described as “mixed company,” for example, a vicar, my granny, etc., I say “relationships.” However, I offer up my favorite answer only when I think I can get away with it: reminded of a character in the Woody Allen film “Sleeper,” if I think I can surprise without shocking too much, I answer “sex.”
It’s a true description too, to an extent. Not sex meaning “count the number of legs and divide by two,” but the subtler aspects. I want to know what attracts one person to another.
No, I don’t want to know for personal reasons, honest. It is purely for academic reasons.
I am conducting my research from a perspective called evolutionary psychology, which has become very popular within psychological circles. Basically evolutionary psychologists believe that we have not only inherited our height, hair color and so on from our evolutionary ancestors, but our behaviors have also evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. If your great, great, great, etc. grandparents behaved in particular ways that increased their survival ability and allowed them to leave more descendants, it is likely that you still behave in similar ways. One of the areas that many people, including me, are investigating is mate selection. In particular, I wonder what makes someone attractive to someone else.
What is it that makes you stop and think about a particular person, “I want to spend the rest of my life with him/her,” or what makes such a person stand out for you in a crowd? There are many theories about what makes someone more physically attractive or more desirable than someone else. Some say that physical attractiveness is to do with the symmetry of one’s facial features, others that it is the ratio of one’s waist measurement to hip measurement. Some investigations have shown there are gender differences in what people identify as preferred characteristics in a “perfect partner.” It is said that women look for wealthy men who are willing and able to provide for the family, men look for women who are young, beautiful (whatever that means) and fertile (please do not complain to me, I am only reporting what others have found!).
I am interested in what happens when you meet a person that causes you to make up your mind to pursue that person as a potential partner. What is it about that person that makes you want to be more than a friend? There is a point when your attitude toward a potential partner changes — from friendship or interest to wanting to go beyond friendship. And I thought it might be interesting to look at the differences between visually impaired and sighted people.
So I first started by repeating a large-scale study with some visually impaired students and some sighted undergraduates, to see if there were any differences either between the two groups or between the groups and the previous results. I have now also interviewed older visually impaired people about their experiences in finding partners. The results from the first stage of my research have been collected and are being analyzed, and the interviews are still going on. Now I have come to the next part of my thesis. I have a short questionnaire which will hopefully help me to understand the changes that happen at the beginning and during a relationship. Now I need people to answer the questions on my survey. It won’t take long to fill in and is completely anonymous. So please volunteer and contact me at the addresses below. The only criteria for your participation are that you should be older than 18, have been severely visually impaired for some time and were visually impaired before you met your partner. If you have access to e-mail you can contact me at r.p.trelfa@durham.ac.uk and I will send you a copy of the questionnaire as soon as I can by return e-mail. If you prefer to use the postal system, send me a letter telling me your return address and preferred format (Braille, tape or electronic version) to: R.P. Trelfa, c/o Department of Psychology, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, United Kingdom.
I will then send you a copy of the questionnaire in your preferred format. When I have analyzed all the data, I will report on them here. Readers of “The Braille Forum” will be the “second persons” to know about my findings — after my supervisor!
Thanks to the ACB and “The Braille Forum” in advance.