Thesis about Relationship Satisfaction

Thesis

"AN EXAMINATION OF MODERATORS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIMILARITY, COMPLEMENTARITY, AND RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION"


This study used an idiographic approach to examine the association between similarity or complementarity on valued characteristics and romantic relationship satisfaction. This study also examined how self-liking of a trait is related to importance of similarity or complementarity of a trait. College students and employees of a local outpatient behavioral health center (N = 96) rated their partners on perceived similarity of personality traits, attitudes, interests, and religion; the importance of similarity of these traits; the importance of complementarity of personality traits; and relationship satisfaction. The results revealed significant Similarity x Importance interactions for religion, attitudes, and neuroticism. This suggests that similarity in religion, attitudes, and neuroticism was related to relationship satisfaction only if the participant valued similarity in that dimension. The results also indicated that higher levels of self-liking of a trait were associated with participants' ratings of importance of similarity of a trait, while lower levels of self-liking were associated with participants' ratings of the importance of complementarity of a trait. The results suggested that an idiographic approach may be more suitable than a nomothetic approach for some dimensions of similarity, but not for others.

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In compatibility matching methods there are 2 steps:
1) to objectively measure personality traits or other human variables.
2) to calculate compatibility between prospective mates.



Three words with different meanings for different persons or companies!

Compatibility Personality Similarity

Sometimes the word compatibility means a high degree of similarity between several variables (religion, education, income, personality, likes and dislikes, etc.) of prospective mates; sometimes compatibility means a mix of similarity and complementarity between variables; sometimes when a dating site says compatibility or even chemistry, nobody really knows exactly what it means!

Some online dating sites offering compatibility matching methods use the word similarity as: "a proprietary Dyadic Adjustment Scale", others mean: "a proprietary multivariate linear regression equation", some say a mix of similarity and complementarity meaning: "a proprietary multivariate logistic regression equation", still others mix similarity and complementarity meaning: "a proprietary equation to calculate compatibility between prospective mates!"

Personality could be assessed by different methods.
No actual online dating site offering compatibility matching methods uses the 16PF5 normative test available in different languages, the 5th version actualized after Census 2000.


You can also read this post about "An exercise of similarity."