A vice is an immature, low character trait characterized by pathological narcissism, that the fathers of sons or mothers of daughters to usually use as a benchmark for what they are trying to avoid to someday in their own character.  Unfortunately, they may be alternatively taken in as the prime way of relating to the world and the self, if they outnumber the character virtues of the parent.

These vices are originally taken on automatically through the imprinting process that in Romantic Dynamics, is called, "identification." Meanwhile, the character vices automatically, unconsciously taken in and automatically sought after in a mate in adult life are also imprinted in our youth, through the process of "attachment."

In the Golden Mean of Aristotle, every virtue has not one but two vices: a vice of deficit of that virtue and a vice of excess of that virtue.

Unfortunately we take in the good with the bad. Vices are also taken in through those two imprinting processes in our youth, but so can virtues in our parents, and there are often at least a few, even in those full of vice.

Vices tend to cross-link and eventually form a basis for instruction and building upon those unfortunate vices in such fundamental parts of psychology such as poor function of the personal boundary, with boundary walls and boundary holes, pathological narcissism behaviors such as aggression, depression, masochism, addiction, criminality, naivete and other pure vices. One may even recognize many of the classic "seven deadly sins" in the vices of ordinary adulthood.  Due to attachment to an opposite sex parent with more vices than virtues to convey, the child may grow up to automatically, unconsciously be drawn to the "familiarity" of mates with many of these same vices (and their attached context) that their opposite sex parent had long ago. Due to identification, they, themselves may grow up with vices that potential mates find themselves automatically attracted to through their own attachments to an opposite sex parent with similar vices.

Virtues are very universally cross-linking the various traits of maturity. They carry with them, working operations of some of the most fundamental parts of psychology skills such as mature personal boundary function, boundary doors, not boundary walls or holes, are relatively free of pathological narcissism, criminality, naivete, aggression, depression, masochism, and addiction for example.  And so a child with mainly virtuous parents will get a start in life with automatically virtuous character traits, and will have virtues installed to look for in a mate in adult life.

In the end, through the Romantic Dynamics concept of "Two-Factor Authentication," we may arrive at a "Golden Virtue" that we look for in a mate's character, solidifying the attachments of childhood in a secure attachment to an adult mate.