Self and Partner Personality in Relationship Satisfaction

Personal attributes influence the way partners perceive each other, interact with each other, and determine how marital events are appraised and explained. This study attempts to examine whether similarity in self rating of personality among couples will correlate with relationship satisfaction. Also, whether discrepancy in perceived partner's rating and female self rated personality will correlate with relationship satisfaction. It was hypothesized that similarity in self rating of personality among couples will be positively correlated with relationship satisfaction. Difference score between perceived partners' rating and females self rating will be negatively correlated with relationship satisfaction. The sample for the current study comprised 50 married couples (50 males, 50 females). Participants belonging to the age group of 25-40 years were taken for the study. The scales used for this study were NEO Personality Questionnaire, a short version called TIPI (Gosling et al., 2003), and Relationship Assessment Scale by Hendrick (1988). The data obtained were statistically analyzed using Pears on product moment correlation. Results show that actual similarity on personality dimensions of conscientiousness and agreeableness was positively correlated, whereas neuroticism was correlated negatively with relationship satisfaction. Further, discrepancy between perceived partners' rating and self-rating of personality on openness, and conscientiousness was significantly negatively correlated with relationship satisfaction among couples.