Self-reports and spouse ratings of neuroticism: perspectives on emotional adjustment in couples.

Abstract

Evidence of reciprocal associations between individual emotional adjustment and the quality of intimate relationships has led to the growing use of interventions that combine a focus on couple issues with a focus on individual emotional functioning. In these approaches, spouse ratings of emotional functioning can provide an important second method of assessment, beyond the much more commonly used self-reports. Although an extensive literature demonstrates substantial convergent correlations between self-reported and spouse-rated emotional adjustment, levels of adjustment evident across these 2 assessment methods are much less commonly compared, especially among couples reporting higher levels of marital distress. Well-documented limitations of both self-reports and spouse ratings suggest that differences--which would not necessarily be evident in correlations between methods--might be common and substantial, perhaps raising complications in couple assessments and intervention. The present study compared self-reports and spouse ratings of neuroticism and its specific components using the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised in a sample of 301 middle-aged and older couples. For overall neuroticism and the specific facets of anxiety, angry hostility, and vulnerability, self-reported levels of negative emotionality were consistently lower than the parallel ratings by spouses, most notably among couples reporting low levels of marital adjustment. Hence, substantial underestimates of negative emotionality obtained through self-reports as compared to ratings by spouses (or overestimates as obtained through spouse ratings) may be common and could complicate couple assessment and intervention.