Explain why similarity of personality traits would be a poor predictor of relationship satisfaction, and give examples drawn from each of the Big Five personality dimensions.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A good answer would include the following key points:
- Although similarity of attitudes predicts interpersonal attraction and relationship satisfaction, similarity of personality does not. Attitudes are fleeting and can be changed, but personality is more stable and resistant to disruption. Examples can make clear why personality similarity is problematic.
- Imagine two people, both high in extraversion, who are in a relationship. Their motivations to be outgoing, the focus of attention, gregarious, and so on, are likely to lead to competition between them as to who is more funny, who has more friends, or who can accumulate more party invitations. These forces are likely to pry the couple apart rather than bring them together.
- Similarity in agreeableness could lead to similarly poor outcomes. When two highly agreeable people only want to smooth conflict or please one another, very little authentic communication is likely to take place and conflict is swept out of sight.
- Two people high in conscientiousness are likely to madden one another with their insistence on order, the right way to do things, or nitpicking over household transgressions.
- Partners who are both high in openness to experience probably want just that: new experiences, in the form of other dating partners, exotic travel, or hobbies that hold no interest for the other person.
- Finally, two people who are high in neuroticism are likely to enter a spiral of sniping and discontent that does neither party any good.
- Similar arguments can be constructed for pairing individuals who are low on each of these dimensions, such as two introverts content to never speak to one another or low conscientiousness dating partners who routinely experience legal trouble for forgetting to pay the bills.