Personality and Mate Preferences: Five Factors In Mate Selection and Marital Satisfaction
- 1 March 1997
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Personality
- Vol. 65 (1), 107-136
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1997.tb00531.x
Abstract
Although personality characteristics figure prominently in what people want in a mate, little is known about precisely which personality characteristics are most important, whether men and women differ in their personality preferences, whether individual women or men differ in what they want, and whether individuals actually get what they want. To explore these issues, two parallel studies were conducted, one using a sample of dating couples (N= 118) and one using a sample of married couples (N= 216). The five‐factor model, operationalized in adjectival form, was used to assess personality characteristics via three data sources—self‐report, partner report, and independent interviewer reports. Participants evaluated on a parallel 40‐item instrument their preferences for the ideal personality characteristics of their mates. Results were consistent across both studies. Women expressed a greater preference than men for a wide array of socially desirable personality traits. Individuals differed in which characteristics they desired, preferring mates who were similar to themselves and actually obtaining mates who embodied what they desired. Finally, the personality characteristics of one's partner significantly predicted marital and sexual dissatisfaction, most notably when the partner was lower on Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect‐Openness than desired.This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
- Gender differences in personality: A meta-analysis.Psychological Bulletin, 1994
- Structure of act-report data: Is the five-factor model of personality recaptured?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1989
- Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987
- Preferences in human mate selection.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986
- Preferences in human mate selection.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986
- Updating Norman's "adequacy taxonomy": Intelligence and personality dimensions in natural language and in questionnaires.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1985
- Toward a psychology of person-environment (PE) correlation: The role of spouse selection.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1984
- Spouse similarity in American and Swedish couplesBehavior Genetics, 1980
- Campus Values in Mate Selection: A Repeat StudySocial Forces, 1958
- Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of testsPsychometrika, 1951