Marital Status and Socio-Psychological Identity: A Discourse Analysis of Unmarried Men and Women's Experiences in Pakistan

Abstract

This qualitative research aims to address a crucial problem of Pakistani society’s behavior towards unmarried men and women. The research aims to investigate un-married men and women’s problems they faced while living in a society. The research problem is that society is hostile towards their acceptance, as a result, unmarried men and women face social identity issues and rejection. Society, including close family members, makes them a source of shame and makes them guilty of not getting married.  The data is collected from more than 200 unmarried men and women ages 25 to 40 on their social identity threats, what type of identity threats they face, and how they cop them. They reported discourse indicates that they must cope with the situation to save their face.  The study also revealed that women suffer more than men. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews and group discussion sessions. The collected data was later classified into sections and themes were allocated by using NVivo software (1.7.2). Tajfel and Turner ‘s (1979) Social Identity Threat Theory (SITT) was employed as a lens to analyze the collected data. The research revealed that social acceptance and reforms may be a reason to reduce stress levels among them. The research is significant as it has added a social value and informed the social policymakers to take necessary actions for social awareness for the acceptance of unmarried men and women.  The study recommended that in the future reasons for staying un-married may be investigated to bring harmony. Marriage arrangements should be made at the national level so that a peaceful society may come into being.

Key words: Social Identity Threat Theory (SITT), Empowerment, Social awareness, Un-married men and women.