Personality and Life Outcomes - Summary

Personality and Life Outcomes

Personality psychology aims to understand why and how individuals differ and to predict differences and similarities between individuals across a wide range of settings

Relationships and Marriage

Are romantic partners similar in personality?

• The question is whether "like marries like" or "opposites attract."

• McCrae et al. (date not provided) conducted a study on personality trait similarity between spouses in four cultures.

• The study involved 1,986 pairs with ages ranging from 19-84.

• Results:

  • Positive but very small correlations between husband's and wife's personality trait levels.

  • The table shows correlations between the scores of the NEO-FFI Domain Scale for husbands and wives.

  • NEO-FFI Domain Scale:

    • N: Neuroticism

    • E: Extraversion

    • O: Openness

    • A: Agreeableness

    • C: Conscientiousness

Relationship satisfaction

• Factors influencing relationship satisfaction:

  • Personality of one's partner.

  • One's own personality.

  • Similarity/difference between oneself and one's partner.

• Malouff et al (2010) conducted a meta-analysis:

  • Included 19 samples and 3848 individuals in intimate heterosexual relationships

  • Measured self-reported relationship satisfaction and spouses’ self-reported personality trait levels

  • Results:

    • Higher marital satisfaction was associated with having a partner who was:

      • Higher in Emotional Stability (lower Neuroticism)

      • Higher in Agreeableness

      • Higher in Conscientiousness

    • Similar results for men and women

• Dyrenforth et al. (2010) examined large samples of married couples from the UK and Australia:

  • Results:

    • Participant’s levels of Agreeableness, Emotional stability, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion were (weakly) related to one’s own marital satisfaction (correlations of 0.20 or lower).

    • Neither similarity nor dissimilarity between partners was associated with higher levels of satisfaction.

    • Whether two people are different or similar, chances of having a happy marriage are about the same.

Friendships and other peer relationships

Are friends similar in personality?

• Lee, Ashton et al. (2009) studied similarity and assumed similarity between well-acquainted students for the HEXACO factors.

• Study 1 showed strong cross-source agreement for all 6 HEXACO personality factors (r \approx .55).

• Modest levels of similarity (\approx .25) between dyad members' self-reports on Honesty-Humility and Openness to Experience dimensions.

• For Honesty-Humility and Openness, dyad members' self-reports were correlated with their observer reports of the other dyad member (\approx .40), indicating moderately high assumed similarity.

• Study 2 found Honesty-Humility and Openness to Experience were the 2 personality factors most strongly associated with the 2 major dimensions of personal values, which also showed substantial assumed similarity.

• Study 3 showed assumed similarity was considerably stronger for close friends than for nonfriend acquaintances.

• Three relations between self- and observer reports of personality within a dyad:

  • Self-Observer Agreement

  • Similarity

    • Assumed Similarity

Results of Lee et al. (2009):

• High self-observer agreement for all 6 personality factors.

• For four of the six personality traits (EXAC): no strong tendency to be similar or different.

• For Honesty-Humility and Openness: friends tend to be similar.

• No “perceived” (dis)similarity for EXAC dimensions.

• For Honesty-Humility and Openness: friends tend to perceive their friends as similar and perceive even more similarity than actually exists.

• H and O are related to people’s values about how to live and relate to other people.

Personality and peer relationships

• Personality and social status

• Anderson, John, Keltner, and Kring (2001) studied:

  • Big Five from young adult college students in a fraternity, sorority, and mixed-sex dormitory

  • Peer ratings of each student’s prominence, influence, and respect

Results of Anderson et al. (2003)

• Extraversion was positively related to social status both for men and women.

• Emotional stability was positively related to social status among men (or neuroticism was negatively related).

• Other the three big five characteristics were unrelated to social status.

• Generalizability across settings?

What have we learned?

• Personality characteristics play a role in social life

  • Intimate relationships and relationship satisfaction

  • Friendships

  • Popularity and status