Real and Perceived Similarities in Personality between Spouses: Test of “Likeness” versus “Completeness” Theories

Abstract

Cattell and Nesselroade (1967) examined the hypothesis that the personality structures of spouses enjoying a stable marriage were more similar to each other than the personalities involved in an unstable marriage. An alternate hypothesis would be that personalities tend to complement each other in stable marriages but not so in unstable marriages. Results were in favor of the former “likeness” hypothesis as more positive correlations between personality variables were found in a stably married group than in an unstably married group. This present study attempted to test the above hypotheses on a new group of Ss and, in addition, examined the relationships among personality variables in terms of perceived similarities between spouses. Results supported the “likeness” theory of spouse-spouse personality comparisons.