Couple similarity on stimulus characteristics and marital satisfaction

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Couple similarity Marital satisfaction Stimulus–value–role theory Difference score Structural equation modeling Murstein's (1970) " stimulus–value–role " theory suggests that mate selection consists of three stages. At each stage people seek different types of information. This study extends previous research on couple similarity by focusing on the " stimulus " stage where people attend to stimulus information—the most salient personal information. This stage has received less attention than the " value " and " role " stages. A sample of 641 married couples from Central Alberta, Canada provided information on a wide range of stimulus characteristics including background, physical and perceptual variables, as well as spirituality and growth orientation for comparison. Correlation results showed evidence for strong and consistent couple similarity on stimulus characteristics, suggesting that those characteristics are important domains to partner selection. Structural equation modeling results indicated that couple similarity (measured by absolute and directional difference score) overall was not a strong predictor of marital satisfaction; however, discrepancies in age, spirituality, and growth orientation were significant predictors of dissatisfaction. 1. Introduction " Birds of a feather flock together " and " opposites attract " are two contrasting statements dating from the 16th century. Over the past half century, many researchers have examined the scientific validity of these two folk beliefs (see Epstein & Guttman, 1984; Watson et al., 2004). Research along these lines addresses two fundamental questions about intimate relationships: (1) Is there evidence for systematic couple similarity? (2) Regardless of overall evidence for couple similarity, is variation in couple similarity associated with relationship satisfaction? To answer these questions, previous research has examined a wide range of domains, which largely fall into three categories: demographic For the first question, " birds of a feather flock together " is the clear winner as there has been overwhelmingly consistent evidence for similarity , whereas evidence for " opposites attract " has been minimal (for a review see Epstein & Guttman, 1984). Couple similarity tends to be strong on demographic variables, substantial in attitudinal domains, but much weaker in personality dimensions (e.g., Watson et al., 2004). For the second question, when couple similarity is used to predict relationship outcomes, most research has focused on similarity in attitudi-nal and personality domains. Personality similarity tends to predict satisfaction better than attitudinal similarity (e.g., Luo & Klohnen, 2005). Overall, actual couple similarity is …