Hi,

I'm in the final stages of a psychology degree and in need of participants for my research project. I'm looking at whether women who make different naming decisions on marriage are perceived differently. This has ethics approval from my university, participation is through a quick anonymous survey, and data is only used to prepare my research report.

If you're feeling helpful and have about 5 minutes to spare, more information here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8CCV9JN

If even just one person helps out, that would be great.

Thanks!

dear jh7s..page twO OF YOUR SURVEY READS CONFUSING

<<..Perceptions of marital naming decisions>>

this seems confusing[because later you
seem to ask how we think others think..

re..<<..Women who take their husband's name>>

[i think name changing is insane[its even more insane when a girl goes to hospital as a smith to give birth to a jones]

all children should have their mothers last name

we have mens last names to show their our master
war kills the men them makes the woman change the nname to eliminate all memory of the last husband/master

slaves take their masters last name'even illigitimate kids

regardless

<<..Women make different surname decisions upon marriage. Some women may take their husband’s name (e.g. Karen Taylor married Mark Wilson and chose to be known as Karen Wilson). We are interested in how society views this group of women.>>

they dont even think about why
mum did it/so we did it..[but you don care why we did it[your asking what others think about me doing it]

<<>.The perceptions other people in society hold..>>\
<<...may or may not reflect*..*your personal beliefs about a given group.>>

its a condition;of course they may or may not 'reflect';..my beliefs[lol]

<<. Please give your answers based-on..what you*
consider to be the beliefs people..in general have about women>>

IN GENERAL PEOPLE THINK;;I DONT KNOW
I ONLY KNOW HOW I THINK

BASING RESEARCH ON WHAT WE THINK OTHERS ARE THINKING =A SOCIAL CONDITIONING

WHAT/do i thing people think..<<about..people>. who take their husband's name, whether or not you personally believe these ideas to be true.>>

i think people think it normal[or even a law;or cusstom?]

<<.When responding, please think about..*how members
of this group of>>namne changed-<<..women are viewed by people such as your family, friends and acquaintances.>>

we call em mrs..jones[or whatever]
unthinkingly/by rote;its invader tradition
kill the dads rape the kids change names;sop ar games.

<<..On a 7-point scale from “not at all” to “extremely”, rate
how women..who take their husband's name..are viewed on the following topics.>>

NOT AT ALL?
OK I TRY

I'm so glad I don't live in Under One God's complicated universe.

ConservativeHippie,
If you are a psychologist you would recognize UOG condition. He has been around for a while and regular posters understand him.

Since women are far more likely to initiate divorce proceedings it is more efficient that they keep their maiden name, although they might spit to have it called that and they took their name from their father anyhow.

Absolutely incredible that the most concerning decision pre-marriage of some women is whether or not they keep their maiden name or hyphenate. Somewhat understandable where the women is a professional who has carved out recognition and a career, but alas, by far the greatest number are young women who presumably do it to make some obscure feminist point.

Perhaps there should be research to find the link between maintaining the maiden name, ie not following convention and adopting the husband's name, and later separation and divorce. That could very well be revealing for those ever-romantic men who are not as practical in seeking marriage and in divorce, as women are.

Mothers, maybe you should be taking those romantic and usually very naive sons to one side to give them some helpful advice, and that should be from their early years, to sort the wheat from the chaff, and to put in place those financial protections that will enable them to hopefully be part of a happy family that they can still afford, that is after they have fallen off the matrimonial bike the first time.

Isn't hyphenation and keeping the maiden name last century though? 1980s feminist dinosaur stuff and out of style by the mid-nineties, when young men walked the talk of feminists and decided not to take a ticket in the partnership lottery that had such poor outcomes (literally so) for them? Aren't men supposed to be demonstrating 'lack of commitment' these days? LOL

Yes women should keep their own name, it being more practical, & them marrying mostly for practical reasons.

Lets face it, most men are in love, or at least lust, when they become involved with a woman. From what I see, most women are settling for the best offer they have received, about the time they become clucky.

Most men would be horrified if they realised they were actually a father figure, more than a lover. If they realised it was their seed & financial support she wanted, a lot less men would walked down the aisle, like a bullock to the slaughter house.

So let her keep her name, she can use it with the next sucker, & the next &...

As for hyphenated names, they just scream arrogant, opinionated twit to me, & those so tagged are discounted as useless. To see my point, just think of Stott Despoja & Hanson Young, & you should get it.

Thanks for the feedback, I realise the wording is a bit weird but because I'm using a specific theory I have to use their wording too. Think of it as being about meta-stereotypes, if that helps.

Interesting idea about divorce, but I think it would be difficult to link the two as anything more than a correlation. In the English-speaking world, "non-traditional" name choices are currently more common amongst the uppity older/professional/educated types, so if they're more likely to divorce, maybe it's down to those other factors. And in places where being contrary like that is relatively more common (in my native Finland almost 40% of women now make these "non-traditional" choices and it's not distinguished so clearly by education, age and career-orientation), it doesn't follow that divorce is more common.

Cursed be the situation where we need family-names in the first place: it just shows that there are too many of us on this planet.

Being of a mainly Celtic background I suggested to my wife before we got married that she might like to keep her family name in the tradition of my people; she thought that that was a good idea.
The only slight drawback is that people who know her but haven't met me before tend to call me Mr ..... !