Step #5: Compatibility Filter
Are you compatible?? This is so important! Do his/her temperament, attitude, and values coincide with yours? Can your needs and habit systems match his harmoniously? Can your role in the relationship perfectly compliment his? Since partners’ roles must be complementary and reciprocal in any companionate relationship, this filter is vital.
Step #6: Trial Filter
How you choose to employ this filter is up to you; cohabitation or engagement are most common. Though cohabitation does not statistically improve your chances of marital success, giving the relationship one, last “trial run” before marriage comes highly prescribed by Murstein.
Step #7: Marriage If your prospective life partner has successfully passed through all of these filters, there is only one step left: marriage! Enjoy the rest of your life with your partner! You’ve gone through all of these filters looking for “the one,” and now you have found him or her.