Toward a Psychology of Person-Environment (PE) Correlation: The Role of Spouse Selection

Identifying the important ways in which attributes of persons correlate with features of the interpersonal environment is perhaps one of the most intriguing issues facing the development of an interactional psychology. Little empirical progress has yet been made, however, in documenting the domains within which person-environment (PE) correspondence occurs, in identifying the mechanisms by which such correspondence is brought about, and in exploring the consequences of obtained correspondence. One hypothesis of this article is that nonrandom spouse selection (assortative marriage) is one mechanism by which correspondences between persons and their interpersonal environments are created. An empirical study of 93 married couples examined spouse correlations within eight interpersonal categories (e.g., dominance, submissivness, extraversion) by using self and observer reports of the performance frequencies of 800 acts. Substantial spouse correspondence was found, particularly for the domains of extraversion, dominance, quarrelsomeness, and ingenuousness. In addition, changes in degree of spouse correspondence were associated with length of marital relationship. Discussion focuses on different types of PE correspondence, implications for the study of adult personality development, and the emergence of a psychology of PE correlation.