Personality and Temperament Correlates of Marital Satisfaction

Participants (166 married couples, ages 20–85) were administered marital satisfaction and Pleasantness-Arousability-Dominance temperament scales. Participants with more pleasant and more dominant temperaments, and those who had mates with more pleasant temperaments, were happier in their marriages. Temperament accounted for substantially more variance (30%–34% in marital satisfaction than effect sizes reported in the personality/marital satisfaction literature. Because Pleasantness is a general index of psychological adjustment, findings implied that better adjusted persons, and those with better adjusted mates, were more satisfied in marriage. Unpleasant and submissive (i.e., depressed) wives were highly dissatisfied in marriage. Although intermate temperament similarity on Pleasantness and Dominance (but not on Arousability) correlated positively with marital satisfaction, similarity was a weaker and somewhat misleading predictor of satisfaction in comparison to findings when individual temperament scores were treated as separate variables. Also, weak results showed individuals selected mates with temperaments similar to their own.     

Effects of Poll Reports on Voter Preferences

Relative strengths of the bandwagon (or rally-around-the-winner) affect and its converse, the underdog effect, were tested. Study 1 was conducted with registered Republicans during 4 days immediately prior to the first major Republican primary of 1996. Bogus poll data showing Dole leading Forbes (or Dole trailing Forbes) were presented to voters who then voted their preference for Dole, Forbes, or neither. Findings showed a significantly greater tendency to vote for Dole over Forbes when the bogus poll showed Dole leading Forbes than when it showed Dole trailing. Thus, results supported the bandwagon effect and, furthermore, showed it as explaining 6% of the variance in voter preferences. In Study 2, participants were given bogus poll data on 2 personally relevant issues and were then asked to vote their preferences on the issues. Participants had extremely strong consensus preferences on one issue and were not influenced by bogus poll data. On the second issue that involved moderately strong consensus preferences, bogus polls significantly affected votes, supporting the bandwagon effect. Bandwagon effects were stronger for women compared with men, and for 2 of 3 PAD (Pleasantness, Arousability, Dominance) basic temperament factors; that is, for individuals with more arousable and less dominant temperaments. Implications for other personality variables were noted.     

Characteristic individual reactions to preferred and unpreferred environments1

Intercorrelations among measures of various reactions to a large number of situations were factor analyzed and yielded five factors and corresponding measures. Three of the factors are positively intercorrelated and constitute various aspects of approach-avoidance to a situation: approach to the setting itself; approach to tasks in the setting, or desire to work; and approach to persons in the setting, or desire to affiliate. The positive correlation of a fourth, desire to drink alcohol factor with the approach factors suggests that, at least for our sample of average (nonalcoholic) subjects, drinking is more likely to occur in more preferred places. In the context of earlier findings on alcohol use, these results show the decision to drink and the specific choice of a place to drink to be similarly motivated: the consumption of moderate doses of alcohol yields a more preferred emotional state, as does the choice of a preferred setting in which to drink. Additional results relating to characteristic individual reactions showed that Stimulus Screening is useful for assessing differences in individual reactions to unpreferred situations (nonscreeners approach, work, and affiliate less than screeners in such settings). Further, a new questionnaire measure of Arousal Seeking Tendency reported in this study is useful for assessing differences in individual reactions to preferred situations (high-arousal seekers approach, work, and affiliate more than low-arousal seekers in preferred settings).     

Characteristics attributed to individuals on the basis of their first names

Characteristics connoted by first names were explored in 7 studies. Four factors were identified: Ethical Caring, Popular Fun, Successful, and Masculine-Feminine (Study 1, N = 165). Men's names connoted more masculine characteristics, less ethical caring, and more successful characteristics than did women's names (Study 2, N = 274). Nicknames connoted less successful characteristics, more popular fun, and less ethical caring characteristics than did given names (Study 3, N = 289). Androgynous names connoted more popular fun and less masculine characteristics for men and more popular fun, less ethical caring, and more masculine characteristics for women than did gender-specific names (Study 4, N = 378). Less conventionally spelled names connoted uniformly less attractive characteristics (Study 5, N = 145). For men only, longer names connoted more ethical caring, less popular fun, more successful, and less masculine characteristics (Study 6, N = 620). More anxiety and neuroticism were attributed to those with less common names and more exuberance was attributed to those with more attractive names (Study 7, N = 137).     

Evidence bearing on the affiliative tendency (MAFF) and sensitivity to rejection (MSR) scales

Affiliative Tendency (MAFF) is defined by generalized positive social expectations and behaviors. Relationships of the MAFF with various measures are given in parentheses following each item listed: liking of others (+), social anhedonia (−), social avoidance and distress (−), judged similarity and compatibility with others (+), favorable impressions of strangers (+), adjustments to high social density (+), concern about attractive appearance (+), self-disclosure and confidence (+), conversation and positiveness with others (+). Sensitivity to Rejection (MSR) essentially measures submissiveness and has the following relationships: assertiveness (−), leadership (−), competition performance (−), confidence (−), ability to deal with threat and hostility (−), submissive social behaviors (+). Dependency, loneliness, and popularity are derivative (mathematical) functions of the MAFF and MSR.     

Evidence for a three-factor theory of emotions

Two studies provided evidence that three independent and bipolar dimensions, pleasure-displeasure, degree of arousal, and dominance-submissiveness, are both necessary and sufficient to adequately define emotional states. In one study with 200 subjects, 42 verbal-report emotion scales were explored in regression analyses as functions of the three dimensions plus a measure of acquiescence bias. Multiple correlation coefficients showed that almost all of the reliable variance in the 42 scales had been accounted for. The specific definitions provided by these equations were replicated in a second study that employed 300 subjects' ratings of 151 emotion-denoting terms on semantic differential-type scales.     

Anticipated compatibility as a function of attitude or status similarity1

Two experiments explored the effects of self-other discrepancies in attitude or status on judgments of another's desirability as a companion It was found that increasing discrepancy in status or attitudes led to lower judgments of compatibility and liking In one experiment, similarity of attitudes of another was found to correlate with liking him, desire to befriend him, do favors for him, and possibly conform to him. The contribution of some personality measures to the relationship between similarity and anticipated compatibility was a major focus of the study The inhibitory effect of a target's status discrepancy was more pronounced for subjects who were more sensitive to rejection Also, between targets of equally discrepant status, there was a general preference to affiliate with the one whose status was higher than the one whose status was lower–an effect which was even more pronounced for subjects who were sensitive to rejection More anxious subjects judged themselves as generally less acceptable to others, particularly to others of higher status. When predicting attitudes on the basis of limited information, females showed a greater tendency than males to see others as similar to themselves Finally, persons holding different attitudes from one's own were judged as more harmful socially, a bias which was more pronounced in females than in males.