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Couple Similarity and Marital Satisfaction: Are Similar Spouses Happier?
Author(s) -
Gaunt Ruth
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00414.x
Subject(s) - similarity (geometry) , psychology , personality , affect (linguistics) , religiosity , social psychology , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , communication , artificial intelligence , computer science , image (mathematics)
This study examined the role of couple similarity in spouses' marital satisfaction and affect. The associations between spousal similarity and relationship measures were examined in a sample of 248 married couples. As hypothesized, greater similarity between partners was associated with higher levels of marital satisfaction and lower levels of negative affect. In particular, similarity on the gendered personality and values domains was more strongly associated with relationship measures, whereas similarity on the attitudes and religiosity domains showed weaker and inconsistent patterns of associations. Finally, profile‐based similarity tended to be a stronger and more consistent correlate of relationship measures than difference score‐based similarity. The implications of these findings for processes underlying intimate relationships are discussed.