In most cultures throughout the world, there is an expectation that when a person reaches adulthood, marriage should soon follow. In the United States __62__, each month upwards of 168 000 couples wed, __63__ to love, honor, and respect their chosen life mates __64__ death parts them. The expectation is deep-rooted. __65__, the social functions, purposes, and relevance of marriage are rapidly changing in __66__ society, making them less clear-cut than they have been __67__ history. For instance, in a Pew Research Center random polling of over 2 000 __68__ , fewer than half of all of the adults polled indicated that __69__ a man and a woman plan to spend the __70__ of their lives together as a couple, it was important that they __71__ marry. Those of us who choose to marry have __72__ reasons why we decide to marry the person we do. There is a __73__, however, in our Western, individualistic culture: We tend to marry for reasons that benefit ourselves, __74__ for reasons that benefit the society __75__, such as found in collectivist cultures. Research in Western cultures has found, for example, that the number-one __76__ people cite for marrying is to signify a lifelong commitment __77__ 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 __78__ that the main reasons people get married are for __79__ happiness and commitment, and bearing and raising children. As the data from this __80__ show us, there are racial, age, and religious differences in what people __81__ to be the main purposes of getting married.

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