Spousal Agreement on Partner Personality Ratings is Moderated by Relationship Satisfaction

Abstract

Although adult personality is usually assessed via self-report, knowledgeable informants provide useful information on others’ traits. While self-informant agreement on personality is highest among spouses, agreement varies across couples, potentially moderated by relationship satisfaction. It remains unclear whether relationship satisfaction impacts trait agreement generally or for specific traits. Further, moderation of agreement by satisfaction may differ depending on the informant’s role (i.e., husband/wife). We examined whether informant relationship satisfaction moderated informant-self agreement on normative and non-adaptive personality traits in 376 heterosexual couples. Spouses showed low actual personality similarity but higher assumed similarity. Self-informant agreement was significant, albeit modest, for many traits. Agreement for specific traits was moderated by relationship satisfaction, varying by informant’s role. Implications for personality assessment are discussed.