Is Partner And Spousal Selection - 1168 Words

Partner and spousal selection is one of the biggest decisions one can make in his or her life. It is a decision that not only affects daily aspects of life, but also the future trajectory of one’s journey and family of procreation. Several facets contribute to the process of choosing a long-term domestic partner, including socioeconomic status, geographic proximity, religious beliefs, education and family values. However, one of the most important contributors is the personality of each of the individuals making up the couple. Personality traits influence initial attraction of two people, relationship interaction styles and the longevity of commitment. As the field of personality has continued to flourish, a substantial amount of research†¦show more content†¦For example, in the article by Stroud and colleagues (2010), the researchers chose to base their study on the Big Three dimensions of adult-personality. These trait constructs included negative emotionality, posi tive emotionality and constraint. Although this study used three personality traits, the three trait categories generally reflect those of the Big Five. Specifically, negative emotionality is similar to neuroticism, positive emotionality reflects the traits of extraversion and conscientiousness and constraint overlaps with openness to experience and conscientiousness. From their data analysis, the researchers concluded that both negative and positive emotionality were associated with relationship satisfaction, whereas constraint did not demonstrate any significant correlation. Similarly, a study measuring the association between relationship satisfaction and the Big Five personality traits also did not find openness to experience to be a significant trait (Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Schutte, Bhullar Rooke, 2010). However, through completing a meta-analysis of 19 samples consisting of 3,848 heterosexual individuals, the researchers concluded that relationship satisfaction was associate d with lower levels of neuroticism and higher levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion (Malouff et al., 2010). As the Malouff and colleagues (2010) explained, lower measures of neuroticism is important for both partners to