Dating scripts
Dating scripts are the cognitive models that guide individuals’ dating interactions. In dating and flirting one person has to take the initiative to approach another without really knowing if the respondent would be favorable. The respondent is aware that a socially sanctioned approach is being made and a mechanism exists for the respondent to politely either consent to proceed or opt out. A number of actions associated with initiative by the male can be perceived as sexual harassment or a stalking script.[1] Dating scripts allow for the participants to know what to expect and help a couple to move further along into getting to know one another without causing a sequence of misinterpretations, accidental or intentional manipulations and miscommunication that results in unnecessary feelings and awkward situations. Once two people get to know and allow each other in one's intimate space, they then understand each other's intents and actions with a different perspective than making presumptions as acquaintances, avoiding much of the problems of first contact.
Some dating scripts are healthier than others. In one study [citation needed], the dating script was designed in away so that the first dates were highly scripted along gender lines. The males followed a proactive dating script, the females a reactive one. The male’s script involved initiating the date, controlling the public domain, and initiating sexual interaction. The females’ script focused on the private domain, participating in the structure of the date established by the male, and responding to his sexual advances. These gender differences give males more power in the initial stage of a dating relationship.
In another study [citation needed], male and female adolescents brought different motivations to the dating experience. The 15-year-old girls were more likely to describe romance in terms of interpersonal qualities, the boys in terms of physical attraction. The young adolescents frequently mentioned the affiliating qualities of companionship, intimacy, and support as positive aspects of romantic relationships, but not love and security. Also, the young adolescents described physical attraction more in terms of cute, pretty, or handsome than in sexual terms. Possibly the failure to discuss sexual interest was due to the adolescents’ discomfort in talking about such personal feelings with an unfamiliar adult.
Alternate use of the term as in Computer Scripts
Websites that offer dating and matching service rely on software and algorithms that execute on web servers. The software is written in a computer language that does not require conversion to a low level machine language, and can be written and maintained in human understandable computer files called scripts. Examples of such languages are PHP, perl, python, etc. These scripts are executed by server side interpreters and produce content that the web server in turn delivers to a user's web browser. There are different scripts for different aspects of content presentation. In this context, Dating scripts refers to those scripts involved in coming up with suggestions or matches over which is built the business of dating websites.