Uniwersyteckie Czasopisma NaukoweThe role of personality and love style in marital satisfaction: Does similarity matter?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5114/cipp.2020.91436Słowa kluczowe:
HEXACO personality traits, love styles, marital satisfactionAbstrakt
Background
Scientific study of marital satisfaction attracted widespread attention decades ago. Since then, hundreds of studies have been conducted on determinants of marital satisfaction. The present study attempted to extend previous research on marital life by discussing two important correlates of marital satisfaction: personality traits and love styles. By emphasizing the similarity of personality traits and attitudes toward love in dyads, the study seeks the possible influential constituents for marital outcomes.
Participants and procedure
Eighty-seven (N = 174) married heterosexual couples recruited through a convenience sampling procedure participated in the study. They completed the following questionnaires: the HEXACO Personality Inventory, Love Attitudes Scale, and Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS).
Results
Husbands’ honesty/humility level was positively correlated with their own and wives’ marital satisfaction. Spouses were similar in some love styles. The discrepancy in their attitudes toward love may have negative as well as positive outcomes, depending on whether we consider husbands’ or wives’ marital satisfaction. Personality traits and love styles discrepancy scores predicted participants’ marital satisfaction.
Conclusions
Personality traits and love styles play a significant role in marital satisfaction for both women and men. Marital satisfaction has somewhat different correlates in the case of wives and husbands. Having a different personality or love styles also has different associations with the marital satisfaction of spouses.
Downloads
Bibliografia
Alder, E. S. (2010). Age, education level, and length of courtship in relation to marital satisfaction (Master’s thesis). Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR, United States. Retrieved from https://commons. pacificu.edu/spp/145.
Altmann, T., Sierau, S., & Roth, M. (2013). I guess you’re just not my type: Personality types and similarity between types as predictors of satisfaction in intimate couples. Journal of Individual Differences, 34, 105–117. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000105.
Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., Perugini, M., Szarota, P., de Vries, R. E., Di Blas, L., Boies, K., & De Raad, B. (2004). A six-factor structure of personality-descriptive adjectives: Solutions from psycholexical studies in seven languages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 356–366. https://doi. org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.2.356.
Ashton, M., & Lee, K. (2009). The HEXACO-60: a short measure of the major dimensions of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 340–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890902935878.
Barelds, D. P. H. (2005). Self and partner personality in intimate relationships. European Journal of Personality, 19, 501–518. https://doi.org/10.1002/ per.549.
Barranti, M., Carlson, E. N., & Côté, S. (2017). How to test questions about similarity in personality and social psychology research: Description and empirical demonstration of response surface analysis. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8, 465–475. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617698204.
Bianchi, S. M., & Casper, L. M. (2000). American families. Population Bulletin, 55, 1–46. Bourdage, J. S., Lee, K., Ashton, M. C., & Perry, A. (2007). Big Five and HEXACO model personality correlates of sexuality. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1506–1516. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.04.008.
Bramlett, M. D., & Mosher, W. D. (2002). Cohabitation, marriage, divorce and re-marriage in the United States. Vital Health Statistics, Series Report 23, No. 2, 1–93. Brauer, K., & Proyer, R. T. (2018). To love and laugh: Testing actor-, partner-, and similarity effects of dispositions towards ridicule and being laughed at on relationship satisfaction. Journal of Research in Personality, 76, 165–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jrp.2018.08.008.
Busby, D. M., Christensen, C., Crane, D. R., & Larson, J. H. (1995). A revision of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale for use with distressed and nondistressed couples: Construct hierarchy and multidimensional scales. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 21, 289–308. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1995.tb00163.x.
Buss, D. (1985). Human mate selection: Opposites are sometimes said to attract, but in fact we are likely to marry someone who is similar to us in almost every variable. American Scientist, 73, 47–51.
Byrne, D. (1971). The attraction paradigm. New York, NY: Academic Press. Claxton, A., O’Rourke, N., Smith, J. Z., & DeLongis, A. (2012). Personality traits and marital satisfaction within enduring relationships: an intra-couple discrepancy approach. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 29, 375–396. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0265407511431183.
Cohen, S., Schulz, M. S., Weiss, E., & Waldinger, R. J. (2012). Eye of the beholder: The individual and dyadic contributions of empathic accuracy and perceived empathic effort to relationship satisfaction. Journal of Family Psychology, 26, 236–245. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027488.
Contreras, R., Hendrick, S. S., & Hendrick, C. (1996). Perspectives on marital love and satisfaction in Mexican American and Anglo-American couples. Journal of Counseling & Development, 74, 408–415. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1996.tb01887.x.
Davis, K. E., & Latty-Mann, H. (1987). Love styles and relationship quality: a contribution to validation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 4, 409– 428. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407587044002.
Decuyper, M., De Bolle, M., & De Fruyt, F. (2012). Personality similarity, perceptual accuracy, and relationship satisfaction in dating and married couples. Personal Relationships, 19, 128–145. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6811.2010.01344.x.
Dinani, P. T., Zarbakhsh, M., Samkhaniyan, E., Hamidi, M., & Arkiyan, F. (2014). Study on the relationship between love attitudes and marital satisfaction among married women. European Online Journal of Natural and Social Sciences, 3, 468–474.
Dion, K. K., & Dion, K. L. (1991). Psychological individualism and romantic love. Journal of Social Behavior & Personality, 6, 17–33. Donnellan, M. B., Conger, R. D., & Bryant, C. M. (2004). The Big Five and enduring marriages. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 481–504. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2004.01.001.
Dyrenforth, P. S., Kashy, D. A., Donnellan, M. B., & Lucas, R. E. (2010). Predicting relationship and life satisfaction from personality in nationally representative samples from three countries: The relative importance of actor, partner, and similarity effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 690–702. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020385.
Farah, L. K., & Shahram, V. (2011). The effect of sexual skills training on marital satisfaction. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 2581–2585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.505.
Farrell, J. E., Hook, J. N., Ramos, M., Davis, D. E., Van Tongeren, D. R., & Ruiz, J. M. (2015). Humility and relationship outcomes in couples: The mediating role of commitment. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 4, 14–26. https://doi. org/10.1037/cfp0000033.
Figueredo, A. J., Vásquez, G., Brumbach, B. H., Schneider, S. M. R., Sefcek, J. A., Tal, I. R., Hill, D., Wenner, C. J., & Jacobs, W. J. (2006). Consilience and life history theory: From genes to brain to reproductive strategy. Developmental Review, 26, 243–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2006.02.002.
Finn, C., Mitte, K., & Neyer, F. J. (2013). The relationship-specific interpretation bias mediates the link between neuroticism and satisfaction in couples: The relationship-specific interpretation bias. European Journal of Personality, 27, 200–212. https://doi. org/10.1002/per.1862.
Furler, K., Gomez, V., & Grob, A. (2013). Personality similarity and life satisfaction in couples. Journal of Research in Personality, 47, 369–375. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.03.002.
Gana, K., Saada, Y., & Untas, A. (2013). Effects of love styles on marital satisfaction in heterosexual couples: a dyadic approach. Marriage & Family Review, 49, 754–772. https://doi.org/10.1080/01494929.2013. 834025.
Golijashvili, N. (2016). Psychometric properties of the Georgian version of HEXACO Personality Inventory (Unpublished master’s thesis). Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Gonzaga, G. C., Campos, B., & Bradbury, T. (2007). Similarity, convergence, and relationship satisfaction in dating and married couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 34–48. https:// doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.1.34.
Gray, J. S., & Coons, J. V. (2017). Trait and goal similarity and discrepancy in romantic couples. Personality and Individual Differences, 107, 1–5. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.11.024.
Hahn, J., & Blass, T. (1997). Dating partner preferences: a function of similarity of love styles. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 12, 595–610. Hammock, G., & Richardson, D. S. (2011). Love attitudes and relationship experience. The Journal of Social Psychology, 151, 608–624. https://doi.org/10. 1080/00224545.2010.522618.
Hendrick, C., & Hendrick, S. (1986). A theory and method of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 392–402. https://doi.org/10.1037/ 0022-3514.50.2.392.
Hendrick, S. S., Hendrick, C., & Adler, N. L. (1988). Romantic relationships: Love, satisfaction, and staying together. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 980–988. https://doi.org/10.1037/ 0022-3514.54.6.980.
Hosseini, S. S., Mazaheri, M. A., & Ahadi, H. (2015). Logistic analysis for predicting marital infidelity based on love styles. International Journal of Review in Life Sciences, 5, 1029–1034. Javanmard, G. H., & Garegozlo, R. M. (2013). The study of relationship between marital satisfaction and personality characteristics in Iranian families. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 84, 396– 399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.573.
Karney, B. R., & Bradbury, T. N. (1995). The longitudinal course of marital quality and stability: a review of theory, methods, and research. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 3–34. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.118.1.3.
Kenny, D. A., Kashy, D. A., & Cook, W. L. (2006). Dyadic data analysis. New York: Guilford Press. Kristof-Brown, A. L., & Jansen, K. J. (2007). Issues of person-organization fit. In C. Ostroff & T. A. Judge (Eds.), Perspectives on organizational fit (pp. 123– 153). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lampis, J., Cataudella, S., Busonera, A., & Carta, S. (2018). Personality similarity and romantic relationship adjustment during the couple life cycle. The Family Journal, 26, 31–39. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1066480717741689.
Larson, J. H., & Holman, T. B. (1994). Premarital predictors of marital quality and stability. Family Relations, 43, 228–237. https://doi.org/10.2307/585327.
Lee, J. A. (1973). Colours of love: an exploration of the ways of loving. Toronto: New Press. Lin, L. W., & Huddleston-Casas, C. A. (2005). Agape love in couple relationships. Marriage & Family Review, 37, 29–48. https://doi.org/10.1300/J002v37n04_03.
Luo, S. (2009). Partner selection and relationship satisfaction in early dating couples: The role of couple similarity. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 133–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.02.012.
Luo, S. (2017). Assortative mating and couple similarity: Patterns, mechanisms, and consequences. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11, e12337. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12337.
Luo, S., & Klohnen, E. C. (2005). Assortative mating and marital quality in newlyweds: a couple-centered approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 304–326. https://doi.org/10.1037/ 0022-3514.88.2.304.
Malouff, J. M., Thorsteinsson, E. B., Schutte, N. S., Bhullar, N., & Rooke, S. E. (2010). The Five-Factor Model of personality and relationship satisfaction of intimate partners: a meta-analysis. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 124–127. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.09.004.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2012). Mplus. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén and Muthén.
Neto, F. (2015). Revisiting correlates of sociosexuality for men and women: The role of love relationships and psychological maladjustment. Personality and Individual Differences, 83, 106–110. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.03.033.
Odilavadze, M. (2016). The dark side of love: Relationship between aversive personality traits and marital satisfaction (Unpublished master’s thesis). Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Proyer, R. T., Brauer, K., Wolf, A., & Chick, G. (2019). Adult playfulness and relationship satisfaction: an APIM analysis of romantic couples. Journal of Research in Personality, 79, 40–48. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jrp.2019.02.001.
Rohmann, E., Führer, A., & Bierhoff, H. W. (2016). Relationship satisfaction across European cultures: The role of love styles. Cross-Cultural Research, 50, 178– 211. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397116630950.
Schönbrodt, F. D., Humberg, S., & Nestler, S. (2018). Testing similarity effects with dyadic response surface analysis: Dyadic response surface analysis. European Journal of Personality, 32, 627–641. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2169.
Shahmoradi, G., Maleki, E., Maleki, T., Shahmoradi, Z., & Entesar Foumany, G. H. (2014). Relationship between marital satisfaction and personality characteristics on the basis of Myers-Briggs Inventory and Big Five Questionnaire. Journal of Education and Management Studies, 4, 787–790.
Shiota, M. N., & Levenson, R. W. (2007). Birds of a feather don’t always fly farthest: Similarity in Big Five personality predicts more negative marital satisfaction trajectories in long-term marriages. Psychology and Aging, 22, 666–675. https://doi. org/10.1037/0882-7974.22.4.666.
Sohrabi, Z., & Narimani, M. (2018). The roles of HEXACO personality dimensions and affects control in prediction of marital satisfaction. Journal of Fundamentals of Mental Health, 20, 219–227.
Udzlauri, N. (2014). Emotional intelligence as a predictor of marital satisfaction (Unpublished master’s thesis). Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Van Tongeren, D. R., Hook, J. N., Ramos, M. J., Edwards, M., Worthington, E. L., Davis, D. E., … OsaeLarbi, J. A. (2019). The complementarity of humility hypothesis: Individual, relational, and physiological effects of mutually humble partners. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 14, 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2017.1388433.
Vedes, A., Hilpert, P., Nussbeck, F. W., Randall, A. K., Bodenmann, G., & Lind, W. R. (2016). Love styles, coping, and relationship satisfaction: a dyadic approach. Personal Relationships, 23, 84–97. https:// doi.org/10.1111/pere.12112.
Weidmann, R., Ledermann, T., & Grob, A. (2016). The interdependence of personality and satisfaction in couples: a review. European Psychologist, 21, 284– 295. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000261.
Weidmann, R., Ledermann, T., & Grob, A. (2017). Big Five traits and relationship satisfaction: The mediating role of self-esteem. Journal of Research in Personality, 69, 102–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jrp.2016.06.001.
Winch, R. F., Ktsanes, T., & Ktsanes, V. (1954). The theory of complementary needs in mate-selection: an analytic and descriptive study. American Sociological Review, 19, 241–249. https://doi.org/10.2307/2087753.
