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The Big Five and enduring marriagesq
M. Brent Donnellan,a,* Rand D. Conger,a
and Chalandra M. Bryantb
a University of California, Davis, USAb Iowa State University, USA
Available online 25 March 2004
Abstract
The present investigation tested the relations between the Big Five dimensions of person-
ality and the marital relationships of over 400 couples using both observational and question-
naire data. Four major findings emerged from these analyses. First, self-reports of neuroticism
were positively correlated with negative interactions and negatively correlated with global
evaluations of the marriage. Second, self-reports of agreeableness were negatively correlatedwith negative interactions and generally positively correlated with global evaluations of the
marriage. Third, self-reports of openness were negatively correlated with observer reports of
negative interactions. Fourth, self-reports of openness by wives were positively correlated with
global reports of sexual satisfaction. These findings suggest that agreeableness and openness
deserve increased attention as significant correlates of close relationships. Discussion empha-
sizes the importance of intrapersonal factors for understanding marital relationships.
2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Big five; Personality; Marriage; Marital interaction; Close relationships
q
This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (GrantsMH00567, MH19734, MH43270, MH48165, and MH51361), the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(Grant DS05347), the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health (Grant MCJ-109572), the MacArthur
Foundation Research Network on Successful Adolescent Development Among Youth in High-Risk
Settings, and the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station (Project No. 3320). Kali H.
Trzesniewski and Dannelle Larsen-Rife provided helpful comments on an earlier draft. Xiaojia Ge and
Richard W. Robins provided valuable background insight. Janet N. Melby graciously provided
interobserver reliabilities.* Corresponding author. Present address: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI 48823, USA. Fax: 1-517-432-2476.
E-mail address: [email protected] (M.B. Donnellan).
0092-6566/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2004.01.001
Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504
www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp
JOURNAL OFRESEARCH INPERSONALITY
5/28/2018 The Big Five and Enduring Marriages
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1. Introduction
The present investigation explores whether or not personality characteristics influ-
ence observable marital interactions and global evaluations of the marriage. Our
broad objective is to help integrate the intrapersonal perspective with the interper-
sonal perspective in the study of marital relationships. The intrapersonal perspective
views personality dispositions as a major influence on marital functioning, whereas
the interpersonal perspective views interactions between spouses as a major influence
on marital functioning. Several scholars have noted that these perspectives are com-
plementary and have advanced hypotheses linking personality traits to interpersonal
interactions (e.g., Bradbury & Fincham, 1988; Caughlin, Huston, & Houts, 2000;
Huston & Houts, 1998; Karney & Bradbury, 1995; Kelly & Conley, 1987).The common thread among these hypotheses is the proposition that personality
traits influence how well couples interact with one another. For example, Karney
and Bradbury (1995) propose that personality dispositions such as emotional insta-
bility or neuroticism create enduring vulnerabilities that affect how couples adapt
to stressful experiences. This adaptation impacts overall relationship satisfaction.
Similarly, Bradbury and Fincham (1988) argue that personality helps define aspects
of the distal context that affect actual day-to-day marital interactions. Huston and
Houts (1998) suggest that personality contributes to the psychological infrastruc-
ture of enduring relationships and are therefore key predictors of relationship suc-
cess and/or dysfunction. These propositions all predict that marital interaction
patterns are influenced by the personalities of the individuals in the relationship.
Based on this theoretical perspective, we explicitly test the hypothesis that the
links between the Big Five dimensions of personality (extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) and global marital eval-
uations are mediated by negative marital interactions marked by high hostility and
low warmth. Empirical support of this hypothesis will advance our understanding of
the factors that foster dissatisfying marriages and help further integrate the study of
marital interactions with one of the major organizing frameworks in personality psy-
chology, the Big Five (e.g., Funder, 2001; John & Srivastava, 1999; but see Block,
1995, 2001). To our knowledge, few studies have attempted this sort of integration
with multiple informant data.
2. A review of earlier research
2.1. Personality and relationship satisfaction
In classic research, Terman and his colleagues (1938) used descriptors of neurot-
icism such as moody and irritable to describe unhappily married wives and hus-
bands. A significant body of research linking neuroticism or negative emotionality
to relationship satisfaction supports this insight (e.g., Bouchard, Lussier, & Sabou-
rin, 1999; Botwin, Buss, & Shackelford, 1997; Caughlin et al., 2000; Eysenck &
Wakefield, 1981; Karney & Bradbury, 1995, 1997; Kelly & Conley, 1987; Robins,
482 M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504
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Caspi, & Moffitt, 2000, 2002; Watson, Hubbard, & Wiese, 2000). For instance, ac-
quaintance-rated neuroticism was linked to marital satisfaction in a longitudinal
study that spanned 50 years (Kelly & Conley, 1987) and Karney and Bradbury
(1995) estimated that the impact of neuroticism on marital satisfaction using Pear-
sons r was ).19 for wives and ).13 for husbands in their meta-analysis. All told,
the relation between neuroticism and relationship satisfaction has replicated across
studies, methods, nations, and eras.
Relatively less is known about how the other four factors relate to dimensions of
marital relationships. This is because only a handful of studies have used all five fac-
tors to examine the relation between personality and measures of marital quality
(e.g., Botwin et al., 1997; Bouchard et al., 1999; Watson et al., 2000). For example,
Watson et al. (2000) found that agreeableness and conscientiousness were positivelyrelated to relationship satisfaction in dating couples while extraversion was posi-
tively related to satisfaction in married couples. In another study, spouse reports
of general marital satisfaction were positively associated with partner reports of
agreeableness and openness (Botwin et al., 1997). These same researchers demon-
strated that wife reports of general marital satisfaction were associated with husband
reports of conscientiousness.
In summary, neuroticism has been linked to the quality of marital relationships in
several studies and there are suggestions in the literature that many of the other Big
Five factors are linked to close relationships. One goal of the present study is to ex-
amine the associations between all five personality factors and marital variables in a
sample of enduring marriages using data from multiple informants. This design
feature allows us to focus on cross-method associations (e.g., correlations between
self-reports of personality and spouse reports of marital evaluations) to address
the criticism that the associations between personality traits and martial variables
are largely an artifact of shared method variance (e.g., Gottman, 1998).
2.2. Personality and marital interaction
Over the last three decades, behavioral interaction research has accumulated an
impressive body of evidence linking observed negative interactions between wives
and husbands to marital dissatisfaction and divorce (for reviews see Gottman,
1994, 1998). This research suggests that unchecked and escalating hostile exchanges
lacking in warmth are key predictors of marital dissatisfaction and dissolution.
Therefore, one plausible way that personality dispositions influence global marital
outcomes is by increasing or decreasing the frequency and/or intensity of these de-structive interactions.
Despite this conceptual understanding, few studies have examined this process di-
rectly with observational data. Caughlin et al. (2000) explored the relations between
neuroticism and observed spousal negativity in a 13-year longitudinal investigation.
Consistent with the above hypothesis, they concluded that much of the relation be-
tween neuroticism and marital satisfaction was attributable to negative communica-
tion patterns. Spouses higher in neuroticism were more likely to communicate their
negative affect toward their partner, which in turn, had a deleterious impact on
M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504 483
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relationship satisfaction. Few other studies have empirically linked Big Five traits
other than neuroticism to observed marital interactions.
Nonetheless, agreeableness may be an important personality predictor of marital
functioning because there is evidence that this personality dimension is an important
influence on interpersonal interactions (e.g., Graziano & Eisenberg, 1997; Graziano,
Jensen-Campbell, & Hair, 1996; Tobin, Graziano, Vanman, & Tassinary, 2000). This
literature suggests that more agreeable individuals are better able to regulate emo-
tions during interpersonal interactions, which facilitates smoother interpersonal en-
counters. By extension, agreeable spouses may be better equipped to handle the
conflicts that arise in marriages and this disposition may reduce the frequency
and/or intensity of negative interactions. However, few studies have linked agree-
ableness to observable marital interactions or even to global evaluations of mar-riages. For example, Karney and Bradbury (1995) included only three studies
linking agreeableness to marital satisfaction in their meta-analysis (the effect size us-
ing Pearsons rwas .05 for wives and .03 for husbands).
There may be links between the other Big Five traits and marital interactions, par-
ticularly conscientiousness and openness. Robins et al. (2000) speculated that indi-
viduals high in constraint (akin to conscientiousness) have the self-control to
constructively manage the conflicts that inevitably arise in relationships. Individuals
low in conscientiousness may inadvertently escalate negativity by responding impul-
sively or rashly to their partners. Moreover, conscientious spouses may simply evoke
less spousal criticism, which in turn, may reduce the amount and/or intensity of neg-
ative marital interactions. Spouses high in openness may adopt a more intellectual
approach to problem solving, may have a more flexible attitude towards change,
and may be more willing to analyze their relationship. These behaviors and attitudes
would likely facilitate the constructive management of conflict. It should be noted,
however, that these links are speculative and need empirical support.
3. The present investigation
Drawing on the research and the theoretical ideas just reviewed, the present re-
search addresses three major questions: (a) How well do the Big Five predict obser-
vable negative marital interaction patterns? (b) How well do the Big Five predict
marital quality and sexual satisfaction using cross-informant data (i.e., how well
do self-reports of personality predict spousal evaluations of the relationship)? (c)
Do marital interactions mediate the relation between personality and global evalua-tions of the marriage?
This investigation extends previous research in several ways. First, we test the re-
lations between the Big Five traits and marital variables with a conservative ap-
proach using multiple informant data. This approach is superior to investigations
that exclusively use self-reports because it rules out the possibility that shared meth-
od variance is responsible for the associations between personality and relationship
variables. Moreover, relatively few studies have linked personality traits to observed
interactions in close relationships (Cooper & Sheldon, 2002). Second, our initial
484 M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504
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sample of 418 couples provides increased statistical power to detect relations be-
tween constructs. Third, we use four waves of prospective, longitudinal data so we
can test for possible linkages between a broad set of intrapersonal individual differ-
ences and changes in marital outcomes over time.
3.1. Method
3.1.1. Sample
The couples in this investigation were participants in a larger project designed to
study the impact of economic stress on rural families and children (IYFP: Iowa
Youth and Families Project). The study began in 1989 with a sample of 451 Euro-
pean American, lower-middle and middle class families living in north central Iowaand has been described in detail elsewhere (e.g., Conger, Rueter, & Elder, 1999).
Analyses reported here are based on an initial sample of 418 wives and husbands
with complete personality scores and marital outcomes from the 1990 wave of data
collection (in which 424 total families participated or approximately 94% of the ini-
tial sample).
We analyzed relationship information collected from the 418 participants during
the 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1994 waves of data collection. Slight attrition occurred at
subsequent waves (e.g., 96% of the families from 1990 participated in 1991) which
caused missing data at one or more waves. Moreover, 25 of the 418 couples experi-
enced divorce and/or separation by 1994 and therefore had missing data at one or
more waves of assessment. Couples that divorced or separated did not differ from
the other couples in terms of their personality (all ts
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participate. A personal visit was made to families without telephones. About 78% of
the eligible families agreed to take part in the study. Participating family members
were paid approximately $10/h of participation.
In each year of the study, families were visited twice in their homes. During the
first visit, each family member completed a series of questionnaires that included
the marital evaluations. In 1990, participants completed the self-report measure of
the Big Five personality traits. The second visit occurred within a fortnight of the
first visit and consisted of a series of four video-taped interactions. The first two in-
teractions involved the whole family and the third task involved the siblings. For the
present study, we used the fourth task, a 25 min marital interaction observation,
when spouses discussed several topics including the history of their relationship,
the current status of their relationship, areas of agreement and disagreement in theirrelationship, and their future plans together. In 1990, a total of 414 couples in our
sample participated in the observational research task.
The video-taped marital interactions were rated by trained observers who used the
Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales (Melby & Conger, 2001) to measure aspects
of couple interaction that were of theoretical importance and interest for the broad
goals of the IYFP. All observers received 200 h of training (20 h peer week for 10
weeks) and passed extensive reliability tests before coding taped interactions. Once
coders were reliable, they attended at least two maintenance training sessions each
week to ensure continued reliability. To assess interobserver reliability, approxi-
mately 25% of all video-tapes were independently rated by a second observer at each
wave. These independent ratings were used to generate intraclass correlations (Suen
& Ary, 1989). A complete description of all rating and task procedures along with
scale definitions is available from the second author.
3.1.3. Measures
Personality. The NEO-FFI (Costa & McCrae, 1989) was used to measure person-
ality in 1990. The NEO-FFI is 60-item self-report questionnaire that assess each of
the five factors of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neu-
roticism, and openness to experience) with 12 items. Wives and husbands rated each
statement using a 5-point scale (1, Strongly agree and 5, Strongly Disagree) and the
scales were coded such that higher scores reflected greater extraversion, agreeable-
ness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Table 1 displays
descriptive statistics and scale inter-correlations for the NEO-FFI.
We found a few statistically significant associations between the personalities of
husbands and wives (p< :05). Specifically, spousal reports of neuroticism and open-ness were positively correlated (r :16 for neuroticism and r :17 for openness).There were no other statistically significant correlations between the two spouses
on the same personality traits. An examination of the cross-trait associations re-
vealed that husband reports of agreeableness and conscientiousness were both neg-
atively correlated with wife reports of neuroticism (r :11 for husband reports ofagreeableness and r 12 for husband reports of conscientiousness). Husband re-
ports of neuroticism were also negatively related to wife reports of openness
(r :12).
486 M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504
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3.1.4. Negative marital interactions (high hostile/low warmth interactions)
Observer reports. Trained observers rated wives and husbands on high hostile/low
warmth behaviors expressed to one another during the marital observation task at
each wave using a 9-point scale (1, the behavior is not at all characteristic of the in-
dividual and 9, the behavior is very characteristic of the individual). Seven rating
scales were aggregated at each wave to form the observer rating of negative interac-
tions: angry coercion, antisocial behavior, hostility, communication quality (reverse
scored), listener responsiveness (reverse scored), prosocial behavior (reverse scored),
andwarmth(reverse scored). The average of the intraclass correlations at each wave
is reported in parentheses (wife to husband/husband to wife). Angry coercion mea-
sured control attempts that included threats or coercion (.64/.59). Antisocial behavior
measured the amount of defiant, resistant, and insensitive behavior (.64/.63). Hostility
measured the amount of hostile and critical behavior (.78/.76). Communication quality
measured the ability of the target spouse to clearly and appropriately express her/his
feelings and points of view to her/his partner (.54/.51). Listener responsiveness mea-
sured the target spouses verbal and non-verbal behaviors that indicated attentiveness
to her/his partner (.54/.61). Prosocial behavior measured helpfulness and sensitivity
(.44/.50). Warmthmeasured expressions of care, concern, and support (.59/.67).
The observer ratings of negative marital interactions had adequate internal con-sistency for both wives and husbands at each wave (a range for wife as tar-
get .79.84; a range for husband as target .77.79). Negative interactions
exhibited a large degree of rank-order consistency across time (for wives: e.g., rbe-
tween 1990 and 1991 .55, rbetween 1991 and 1992 .55, and rbetween 1992 and
1994 .54; for husbands: the same coefficients were .48, .57, and .56, respectively).
These correlations suggest that stability in negative interactions was an objective
property of the relationship, evident to outside observers. Descriptive statistics for
all marital variables are reported in Table 2.
Table 1
Descriptive information for the NEO-FFI for wives and husbands
Mean SD a Scale inter-correlations
E A C N O
Wife self-report
Extraversion (E) 3.35 .45 .79
Agreeableness (A) 3.81 .32 .69 .29
Conscientiousness (C) 3.74 .44 .83 .34 .23
Neuroticism (N) 2.68 .56 .87 ).43 ).40 ).38
Openness (O) 3.08 .43 .72 .28 .09 .10 ).20
Husband self-report
Extraversion (E) 3.21 .40 .75 Agreeableness (A) 3.57 .33 .69 .27
Conscientiousness (C) 3.64 .41 .82 .35 .27
Neuroticism (N) 2.48 .51 .87 ).38 ).33 ).48
Openness (O) 2.95 .35 .60 .19 .02 .09 ).18
*p
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Questionnaire reports. At each wave, wives and husbands were asked how often
their spouses engaged in eight behaviors during the last month using a 7-point scale
(1, Always and 7, Never). Sample items include, Shout or yell at you because she
(he) was mad at you and Act loving and affectionate toward him (her). These be-
haviors reflected the occurrence of interactions that were either high in hostility (e.g.,
getting angry) or low in warmth (e.g., infrequently acting loving and affectionate).
This measure was coded so that higher scores reflected a greater frequency of highhostile/low warmth interactions. Partner reports by both wives and husbands had
good internal consistency at each wave (arange for wife reports of husband behav-
ior .89.92; a range for husband reports of wife behavior .91.92). Partner re-
ports were correlated with observer reports (e.g., r :33 for wife target behaviorin 1991 and r :41 for wife target behavior in 1992; r :35 for husband target be-havior in 1991 and r :40 for husband target behavior in 1992).
Wives and husbands answered the same set of questions regarding their own be-
haviors using the same 7-point scale. This measure was coded so that higher scores
Table 2
Descriptive statistics for relationship variables
Wife Husband Correlation between wife
and husband measures
Observer reports: negative interactions
1990 4.21 (1.11) 4.17 (.96) .58
1991 4.62 (1.24) 4.60 (1.16) .62
1992 4.25 (1.32) 4.26 (1.12) .55
1994 4.73 (1.26) 4.61 (1.25) .63
Questionnaire reports: negative interactions
Self-reports
1990 2.77 (.84) 2.81 (.74) .50
1991 2.81 (.91) 2.78 (.78) .481992 2.76 (.86) 2.77 (.74) .47
1994 2.51 (.72) 2.52 (.67) .47
Partner reports
1990 2.70 (.96) 2.55 (.97) .51
1991 2.70 (.98) 2.60 (1.10) .54
1992 2.70 (.99) 2.60 (1.02) .52
1994 2.66 (.88) 2.54 (.87) .48
Global evaluations: sexual satisfaction
1990 3.64 (.75) 3.61 (.66) .62
1991 3.56 (.76) 3.52 (.70) .60
1992 3.55 (.76) 3.54 (.68) .59
1994 3.36 (.72) 3.36 (.66) .60
Global evaluations: marital quality1990 .00 (.96) .00 (.95) .50
1991 .00 (.95) .00 (.91) .52
1992 .00 (.92) .00 (.89) .43
1994 .00 (.94) .00 (.89) .48
Note. All correlations are significant atp< :05.
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reflected a greater frequency of high hostile/low warmth behaviors. Both wife and
husband self-reports had good internal consistency at each wave (a range for wife
reports .88.90; a range for husband reports .85.88). Self-reports and partner
reports of the same target behaviors were significantly related indicating strong in-
ter-reporter agreement (e.g., r :56 for wife target behavior in 1991 and r :54for wife target behavior in 1992; r :52 for husband target behavior for both1991 and 1992). Self-reports were also related to observer reports (e.g., r :36 forwife target behavior in 1991 and r :45 for wife target behavior in 1992; r :38for husband target behavior for both 1991 and 1992).
Questionnaire responses of negative interactions demonstrated a substantial
amount of rank-order stability (for wife self-reports: e.g., r between 1990 and
1991 .77, rbetween 1991 and 1992 .82, and rbetween 1992 and 1994 .77; forhusbands self-reports: the same coefficients were .78, .80, and .78, respectively). Part-
ner reports exhibited a similar level of rank-order stability as self-reports (for wife
reports of husband behavior: e.g., r between 1990 and 1991 .78, rbetween 1991
and 1992 .80, and rbetween 1992 and 1994 .74; for husband reports of wife be-
haviors: the same coefficients were .78, .83, and .79, respectively). Considering these
retest correlations in conjunction with the retest correlations for observer reports
suggests that the interaction patterns we measured were a relatively stable aspect
of the marital relationships of our sample.
3.1.5. Global assessments of the marital relationship
Marital quality. Marital quality was measured using 2 items that tapped the
spouses overall feelings of happiness and satisfaction with the marriage. Spouses
were asked to respond to how happy they were with their marital relationship using
a 6-point scale (0, extremely unhappy and 5, extremely happy) and to respond to
how dissatisfied they were with their relationship using a 5-point scale (1, completely
satisfied and 5, not at all satisfied). The question concerning dissatisfaction was re-
verse coded so that higher scores reflected greater satisfaction. Both questions were
standardized and then averaged together to provide an index of each spouse s overall
assessment of marital quality. This was defendable because the two items were
strongly correlated at each wave (rs for wives ranged from .68 to .84;rs for husbands
ranged from .57 to .78). Marital quality demonstrated rank-order consistency across
time (for wives: e.g., rbetween 1990 and 1991 .68, rbetween 1991 and 1992 .65,
andrbetween 1992 and 1994 .61; for husbands: the same coefficients were .70, .66,
and .54, respectively). These retest correlations were consistent with previous re-
search indicating stability in marital outcomes (e.g., Johnson, Amoloza, & Booth,1992; Johnson & Booth, 1988).
Marital sexual satisfaction. Sexual satisfaction was measured using an 8-item scale
specifically developed for the IYFP. Spouses were asked how much they agreed or
disagreed with a given statement about the quality of the sexual aspects of their mar-
riage using a 5-point scale (1, strongly agree and 5, strongly disagree). This measure
was scored so that higher scores reflected greater sexual satisfaction. Sample items
include, The sexual part of my marriage is just right for me and My husband
(or wife) and I have a wonderful sex life. This measure had good internal consis-
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tency for wives and husbands at each wave (arange for wife report .80.89;arange
for husband report .72.87). Similar to the other relationship measures for this
sample, wife and husband reports of marital sexual satisfaction were relatively stable
across time (for wives: e.g., r between 1990 and 1991 .79, r between 1991 and
1992 .80, and rbetween 1992 and 1994 .77; for husbands: the same coefficients
were .76, .81, and .74, respectively).
3.2. Results
3.2.1. Overview
We first conducted our correlational and mediational analyses on the 1990 assess-
ment to test our hypotheses about the associations between personality traits andmarital variables. These results are reported and discussed below. We repeated these
same analyses with the average of each construct across the four-waves of data (see
Huston & Houts, 1998 for a similar analytic strategy) and the results were quite sim-
ilar to those reported and discussed in this paper. In subsequent sections we report
our attempts at longitudinal analyses using personality to predict changes in marital
variables over time.
Relationship measures for wives and husbands were correlated as seen in Table 2.
For example, correlations between wife and husband reports of marital quality
ranged from .43 to .52. These represent moderate to strong effect sizes and are quite
reasonable because both partners are reporting about their evaluations of the same
marriage. Accordingly, these variables should be treated cautiously in data analyses
given their strong associations (e.g., Kashy & Snyder, 1995; Kenny, 1998). Given this
interdependence between wife and husband reports of the marital variables, we also
conducted analyses on the couple average of the marital variables (following Ken-
nys, 1998 simple solution to the interdependence problem). We computed a couple
average for questionnaire reports of negative interactions by taking the average of all
four measures (see Tables 3 and 4).
3.2.2. Cross-sectional analyses
3.2.2.1. Does personality predict negative marital interactions and relationship
evaluations?. Wife and husband reports of the Big Five in 1990 were correlated
with relationship variables in 1990 as shown in Tables 3 and 4. We emphasize cross-
informant associations (e.g., wife reports of personality and husband reports of his
and her behavior) that were statistically significant (p< :05) because these associa-tions are not as subject to concerns over shared method variance. We followed
Cohens (1988) often cited rule of thumb for interpreting correlations: an rof .1 was
considered small, an rof .3 was considered moderate, and an rof .5 or larger was
considered large (see McCartney & Rosenthal, 2000).
Negative interactions. Observed negative interactions by wives were associated
with wife reports of agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness (r :13, r :17,and r :18, respectively) and husband reports of neuroticism (r :11). Observednegative interactions by husbands were associated with wife reports of openness
490 M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504
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(r :12) and husband reports of agreeableness and openness (r :26 andr :13). Similarly, wife and husband reports of agreeableness, neuroticism, andopenness were related to observed negative interactions at the couple level.
Although these correlations were relatively small in magnitude, observational
data provides a very rigorous test of the impact of broad personality traits on rela-
tionships. Moreover, self-reports of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroti-
cism were related to cross-informant questionnaire assessments of negative marital
interactions (e.g., wife reports of conscientiousness predicted husband reports of
his own negative interactions). Thus, it appears that agreeableness, conscientious-
ness, neuroticism, and openness are linked with behaviors related to the marriage
and that shared method variance is not a viable alternative explanation for these
relations.Global assessments of the relationship. Wife reports of agreeableness, neuroticism,
and openness were associated with husband reports of sexual satisfaction (r :10,r :17, and r :17, respectively), whereas wife reports of agreeableness and neu-roticism were correlated with husband reports of marital quality (r :13 andr :20). Husband reports of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticismwere correlated with wife reports of sexual satisfaction (r :10, r :15, andr :15, respectively) whereas husband reports of conscientiousness and neuroti-cism were correlated with wife reports of marital quality (r :14 and r :13).
Table 3
Cross-sectional correlations between wife reports of personality and relationship variables
Wife report of personality
E A C N O
Observer reports: negative interactions
Wife target .01 ).13 ).03 .17 ).18
Husband target .07 ).06 ).08 .09 ).12
Couple average .04 ).11 ).06 .15 ).17
Questionnaire reports: negative interactions
Wife self-reports ).22 ).31 ).24 .37 ).20
Report on wife by husband ).09 ).17 ).04 .22 ).12
Husband self-reports )
.04 )
.14
)
.11
.21
)
.12
Report on husband by wife ).10 ).16 ).23 .29 ).15
Couple average ).14 ).23 ).19 .33 ).18
Global evaluations: sexual satisfaction
Wife self-reports .15 .17 .16 ).24 .21
Husband self-reports .03 .10 .02 .17 ).17
Couple average .11 .15 .10 ).23 .22
Global evaluations: marital quality
Wife self-reports .11 .11 .15 ).23 .01
Husband self-reports .07 .13 .07 ).20 .04
Couple average .10 .14 .13 ).25 .03
Note. E, extraversion; A, agreeableness; C, conscientiousness; N, neuroticism; O, openness to expe-
rience. Coefficients in bold are significant cross-informant relations.*p< :05.
M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504 491
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These cross-method results indicate that self-reports of personality predict spousal
evaluations of the relationship. Similar results were evident when global evaluations
of the relationship at the couple level were considered.
3.2.2.2. Do negative interactions mediate the relation between personality and global
assessments of the marriage?. We correlated observed negative interactions in 1990
with relationship variables in 1990 to determine whether or not there was evidence
for a link between our proposed mediator and relationship outcomes. It makes little
sense to proceed with tests of mediation if there is no evidence for this link. Observer
reports of the couple average of negative interactions were negatively correlated with
the couple average of sexual satisfaction (r :32) and negatively correlated withthe couple average of marital quality (r :39). Although we considered the couplelevel associations, the cross-partner associations were also statistically significant and
were of a similar magnitude (e.g., the correlation between observer reports of wife
negative interactions and husband reports of marital quality was ).29). These results
indicate that observed negative interactions were associated with negative global
evaluations of the relationship. Based on this evidence, we tested the hypothesis that
the impact of broad personality traits on global evaluations of the relationship was
mediated by observed negative interactions.
Table 4
Cross-sectional correlations between husband reports of personality and relationship variables
Husband report of personality
E A C N O
Observer reports: negative interactions
Wife Target .03 ).09 ).08 .11 ).08
Husband Target ).07 ).26 ).03 .08 ).13
Couple Average ).02 ).19 ).06 .11 ).11
Questionnaire reports: negative interactions
Wife self-reports ).02 ).10 ).12 .11 ).09
Report on wife by husband ).09 ).23 ).19 .18 ).01
Husband self-reports )
.19
.29
)
.27
.29
)
.09Report on husband by wife ).03 ).14 ).08 .12 ).04
Couple average ).09 ).22 ).19 .21 ).07
Global evaluations: sexual satisfaction
Wife self-reports .04 .10 .15 ).15 .01
Husband self-reports .10 .18 .21 ).20 .06
Couple average .07 .16 .20 ).19 .03
Global evaluations: marital quality
Wife self-reports .05 .10 .14 ).13 .01
Husband self-reports .18 .23 .19 ).23 .02
Couple average .14 .19 .19 ).21 .02
Note. E, extraversion; A, agreeableness; C, conscientiousness; N, neuroticism; O, openness to expe-
rience. Coefficients in bold are significant cross-informant relations.*p
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Overview of our approach to mediation. To address our research questions we fol-
lowed the causal steps procedure identified by Baron and Kenny (1986: see also
Holmbeck, 1997; MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, & Sheets, 2002; Shrout
& Bolger, 2002). We used the couple average of the marital variables to obviate con-
cerns over the lack of independence between husband and wife reports. In the first
step, a marital outcome was regressed on a given personality trait which provided
an estimate of the direct effect of personality on global marital outcomes. The second
step involved regressing negative interactions on personality, which provided evi-
dence for a link between personality traits and the proposed mediator. At the third
step, the marital outcome in question was regressed on personality traits and nega-
tive interactions. This step provided evidence linking negative interactions to marital
outcomes and provided information concerning how controlling for negative inter-actions affected the relation between a given personality trait and a given marital
outcome.
We were interested in drawing one of two commonly drawn conclusions from
these analyses, either that our data were consistent with complete mediation or par-
tial mediation. Based on current conventions, a conclusion of complete mediation is
typically drawn if there is no evidence that the coefficient for personality in Step 3 is
different from zero (e.g., the confidence interval for the coefficient includes zero or
the significance test is not statistically significant). A conclusion of partial mediation
is typically drawn if there is simply evidence that the coefficient for personality in
Step 3 is reduced from its value in Step 1. We did not expect to find consistent evi-
dence for complete mediation because this situation is a rather atypical in psycholog-
ical research (e.g., Baron & Kenny, 1986; Holmbeck, 1997; Shrout & Bolger, 2002).
We expected to find evidence for partial mediation because we explicitly recog-
nized that the true causal process linking broad personality traits to global eval-
uations of the relationship is likely to be complicated. It may also involve
mechanisms not explicitly tested in this paper. Shrout and Bolger (2002) provide
an extended explanation (pp. 432434) of the various reasons why researchers often
find evidence for partial mediation in their analyses. Indeed, we readily acknowledge
that our process model linking personality traits to marital outcomes via observed
martial interactions is literally false (e.g., MacCallum, 2003). At best, our model is
a useful approximation of a complicated process. Given this situation, it would be
unreasonable to expect to find widespread evidence of complete mediation.
It is important to emphasize that the procedures and logic of mediational analyses
are still evolving (e.g., Collins, Graham, & Flaherty, 1998; MacKinnon et al., 2002;
Shrout & Bolger, 2002) and our results should be interpreted in light of a couple ofthese issues. First, MacKinnon et al. (2002) reviewed the various approaches to me-
diation and concluded that the Baron and Kenny (1986) approach has low Type I
error rates but consequently it has relatively low statistical power. The technique
we employed is thus very conservative. Although we acknowledged the increased risk
of Type II errors with this method, we believed that taking such a conservative ap-
proach was important in light of the critical stance adopted by some researchers con-
cerning the importance of personality traits for understanding marital functioning.
However, the observed pattern of correlations was consistent with our underlying
M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504 493
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process model: personality traits were linked to observed marital interactions and
observed marital interactions were linked with marital outcomes.
A second issue concerning our approach to mediation is also worth noting. Spe-
cifically, there is discussion concerning the importance of Step 1 for mediation (e.g.,
Collins et al., 1998; Shrout & Bolger, 2002). Holmbeck (1997, p. 602) pointed out
that an indirect effect between personality and marital outcomes is still possible even
if there is no evidence linking particular personality traits directly to marital out-
comes. Shrout and Bolger (2002) recommend that Step 1 is retained [only] in spe-
cific cases in which theory suggests that the associations are large or medium in size
(p. 430). We expected that effect sizes concerning the impact of broad personality
traits on marriages would tend to be small to medium, both in terms of theory
(e.g., the notion that personality helps form the distal context of the relationship:Bradbury & Fincham, 1988) and on previous results (e.g., Karney & Bradbury,
1995). Therefore, it was unclear that satisfying Step 1 was crucial or even reasonable
for conducting our mediational analyses.
Nevertheless, in the interest of taking a conservative approach, we followed Baron
and Kennys (1986) original formulation and restricted our analyses to those cases
where the correlational analysis provided evidence for a link between a particular
personality trait and the couple average of the marital evaluations (e.g., wife reports
of neuroticism and the couple average of marital quality). This decision also had the
practical benefit of reducing the total number of mediational analyses we conducted.
Accordingly, the criticism that our results capitalized on chance is less likely to be
valid.
We took a final step to ensure a very strict test of our mediational hypothesis. We
used observer reports of martial interactions to obviate concerns surrounding in-
flated associations due to shared method variance. Considering these steps as a
whole, we employed a relatively strict test of our mediational hypothesis. Our view
was that if our hypothesis survives this rigorous of a test, then we would be in a bet-
ter position to endorse the somewhat controversial notion that knowing something
about each partners broad personality traits is useful for understanding their behav-
ior in romantic relationships (see Gottman, 1998 and Robins et al., 2000 for a further
discussion of this issue).
Results of tests of mediation. Table 5 displays the results for wife reports of per-
sonality. Table 5 displays results from Step 3 of the regression analyses given that
the results for Steps 1 and 2 are redundant with information already presented in Ta-
ble 3 (i.e., links between personality and global evaluations and links between per-
sonality and negative interactions). We found support for the hypothesis thatnegative martial interactions partially mediate the association between the personal-
ity traits of wives and global evaluations of the marriage. All indirect effects were sta-
tistically significant at p< :05 based on Sobel tests (all values were greater than2.03). Following Shrout and Bolger (2002) we computed the ratio of the indirect ef-
fect over the total effect for each mediational analysis. These ratios are displayed in
Table 5 and ranged from .17 to .29.
Table 6 displays the results for husband reports of personality. We found support
for the hypothesis that the negative martial interactions partially mediate the associ-
494 M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504
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ation between the personality of husbands and global evaluations of the marriage.
The indirect effects were all statistically significant atp< :05 (Sobel test values great-er than 2.16) and the ratios of the indirect effects to the total effects ranged from .16
to .38.
Ancillary analyses. We repeated our analyses using different endogenous variables
to address concerns with shared method variance. For example, we used wife reports
of personality to predict observer reports of her negative interactions and husband
Table 5
Tests of mediation for wife reports of personality
Wife report of personality Agreeableness Neuroticism Openness
Couple average of the
marital evaluation
Sexual
satisfaction
Marital
quality
Sexual
satisfaction
Marital
quality
Sexual
satisfaction
Step 3: predict DV from personality controlling for couple average of negative interactions
b for personality trait .13 .11 ).19 ).20 .17
b for observed negative
Interactions
).31 ).38 ).29 ).36 ).29
R2 .12 .17 .14 .19 .13
Assessment of the strength of mediation
Indirect effect .03 .04 )
.04 )
.05 .05Total effect .15 .14 ).23 ).25 .22
Ratio of the indirect effect
to the total effect
.20 .29 .17 .20 .23
Conclusion Partial
mediation
Partial
mediation
Partial
mediation
Partial
mediation
Partial
mediation
Note. All coefficients statistically significant atp< :05 unless otherwise noted.
Table 6
Tests of mediation for husband reports of personality
Husband report of Personality Agreeableness Neuroticism
Couple average of the marital evaluation Sexual
satisfaction
Marital
quality
Sexual
satisfaction
Marital
quality
Step 3: predict DV from personality controlling for couple average of negative interactions
b for personality trait .10 .13 ).16 ).17
b for observed negative interactions ).30 ).37 ).30 ).37
R2 .11 .17 .13 .18
Assessment of the strength of mediation
Indirect effect .06 .07 ).03 ).04
Total effect .16 .19 ).19 ).21
Ratio of the indirect effect to the total
effect
.38 .37 .16 .19
Conclusion Partial
mediation
Partial
mediation
Partial
mediation
Partial
mediation
Note. All coefficients statistically significant atp< :05 unless otherwise noted.
M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504 495
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reports of marital outcomes. The results for wife reports of personality were similar
to those reported in Table 5 except that we found evidence for complete mediation in
one instance. It appeared that the effect of wife reports of agreeableness on husband
reports of sexual satisfaction was completely mediated by observer reports of her
negative interactions (bfor agreeableness controlling for negative interactions .08,
p ns). We also used the same strategy for husband reports of personality and only
needed to conduct the analysis for husband reports of agreeableness and wife reports
of sexual satisfaction given the correlational findings. It appeared that this effect was
fully mediated by observer reports of his negative interactions (b for agreeableness
controlling for negative interactions .05, p ns).
3.2.3. Longitudinal analysesOverview. We explored the possibility that personality was related to changes in
marital interactions and marital evaluations using two approaches. First, we con-
ducted a set of growth models in the structural equation modeling (SEM) framework
(Duncan, Duncan, Strycker, Li, & Alpert, 1999; Singer & Willett, 2003; Willet &
Sayer, 1994). Growth modeling is one of the most highly recommended procedures
for studying change (e.g., Rogosa, Brandt, & Zimowski, 1982; Singer & Willett,
2003; Willett, Singer, & Martin, 1998). Second, we conducted a more traditional re-
gression-based approach to longitudinal data by regressing each of the 1994 marital
variables on the respective 1990 marital variables and reports of personality.
Growth curve modeling approach. We followed a two-step procedure for these
analyses drawing on recommendations found in Singer and Willet (2003; see also
Muthen & Curran, 1997 for similar advice). In Step 1, we estimated basic growth
models for each of the marital variables. We introduced personality as a predictor
of the growth curve parameters in Step 2 (e.g., the intercept and slope parameters
in a linear change model) provided that the model in Step 1 met three criteria. First,
the model in Step 1 had to produce sensible parameter estimates. Models that pro-
duced Heywood cases were naturally discarded. Lorenz, Wickrama, and Conger
(2004) suggest that Heywood cases may indicate an absence of systematic change
over time. Second, there needed to be statistically significant estimates of variances
associated with change parameters (e.g., the slope parameter in a linear model).
This condition is reasonable given that it makes little sense to try to examine predic-
tors of change when there is little variability to predict. Given that we already dem-
onstrated how personality was related to initial status in martial variables (i.e., the
1990 assessment) in Tables 3 and 4, we knew it would be redundant to focus on per-
sonality as a predictor of variability around the intercept. Finally, the growth modelsin Step 1 had to adequately fit the data (e.g., the covariances and means reproduced
by the statistical model had to be reasonably close to their values in the original
data set). To be sure, we relied on very liberal estimates of overall model fit such
as RMSEA values around .10 and/or v2/degree of freedom ratios of 3.0 or less
(see Byrne, 2001).
We specified the growth models so that the intercept represented values of the
marital variables in 1990. In all analyses, we began with a linear model of change
based on previous research (e.g., Karney & Bradbury, 1997; Kurdek, 1998).
496 M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504
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We elected to modify the linear models if they had an overall poor fit to the data by
correlating adjacent error terms in the basic linear model (Muthen & Curran, 1997)
and/or by modeling a quadratic growth term. It should be noted that we were limited
to relatively simple growth functions because we had only four data points (e.g., cu-
bic models could not be evaluated). Separate analyses were conducted on the hap-
py and satisfaction items of the marital quality measure because standardized
scores are not suitable for growth modeling (Stoolmiller, 1995).
Summary. Unfortunately, this approach produced disappointing results.1 It was
difficult to get a good fitting univariate growth models in the first steps of our analyses
and even when we relaxed our standards we found very inconsistent results. When
personality traits significantly predicted parameters in the growth models, it was gen-
erally to the intercept parameters thereby duplicating the results displayed in Tables 3and 4. There were only two cases where personality predicted the change parameters
in growth models. Husband reports of extraversion predicted the slope and quadratic
term in a growth model for sexual satisfaction that included a quadratic term (bpre-
dicting slope term .16 andb predicting the quadratic term ).18,ps< :05; Overallfit: v2 10:73, df 2, p< :05; v2=df 5:37; CFI 0.99; RMSEA 0.10, p closefit .06). Wife reports of neuroticism predicted the slope in a growth model for the
questionnaire measures of negative interactions (b : 27, p< :05; Overall fit:v2 61:15, df 7, p< :05; v2=df 8:74; CFI 0.97; RMSEA 0.14, p close fit
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changes in observed negative interactions. In addition, wife reports of agreeableness
predicted the couple average in marital quality in 1994 controlling for levels of mar-
ital quality in 1990 (b :09, p< :05). However, the results for agreeableness werenot robust across marital outcomes and were thus interpreted with sufficient caution.
4. Discussion
We conducted a very methodologically conservative test of the associations be-
tween personality and relationships by using multiple informant data. Four major
findings emerged from our data analyses. First, self-reports of neuroticism were pos-
itively correlated with negative interactions and negatively correlated with globalevaluations of the marriage. Second, self-reports of agreeableness were negatively
correlated with negative interactions and generally positively correlated with global
evaluations of the marriage. Third, self-reports of openness were negatively corre-
lated with observer reports of negative interactions. Fourth, self-reports of openness
by wives were positively correlated with global reports of sexual satisfaction for both
wives and husbands. In general, we found evidence linking self-reports of personality
to observed marital interactions suggesting that negative marital interactions are
partially rooted in the individual personalities of wives and husbands. Moreover, ex-
amining significant cross-informant correlations suggests that there is more to the
links between personality and relationships than shared method variance (see also
Watson et al., 2000).
A specific goal of our investigation was to test a hypothesis derived from theoret-
ical propositions (e.g., Bradbury & Fincham, 1988; Huston & Houts, 1998; Karney
& Bradbury, 1995) that negative marital interactions mediate the relations between
individual differences in personality and global evaluations of the marriage. We used
a conservative strategy to conduct these analyses by using observer reports of marital
interactions to help control for shared method variance. Results indicated that neg-
ative interactions partially mediate the relations between wife and husband reports
of agreeableness and global evaluations of the relationship. Similarly, negative inter-
actions partially mediate the relations between wife and husband reports of neurot-
icism and global evaluations of the relationship. We now turn to a few comments
relative to each personality trait.
Extraversion. We found little evidence linking self-reports of extraversion to ob-
server and spousal reports of the relationship. We did, however, find a few significant
associations between self-reports of extraversion and self-reports of marital vari-ables. Unfortunately, these associations could be attributed to shared method vari-
ance. Moreover, the effect sizes we obtained were much smaller than the correlations
reported by Watson et al. (2000). This was somewhat surprising because both inves-
tigations employed the NEO-FFI. Indeed, our results were more similar to Botwin et
al. (1997) who reported rather negligible associations between extraversion and mar-
ital outcomes using a different measure. Tobin et al. (2000) noted that extraversion
captures individual differences relating to social impact and this dimension of per-
sonality may not be such an important trait in shaping the qualities of marriages
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and other intimate relationships. At any rate, given empirical inconsistencies and
null results, future work is needed to generate a clearer picture of the role of extra-
version in close relationships.
Agreeableness. Agreeableness negatively predicts observable negative behavior to
spouses during a marital observation task and these associations replicated across
questionnaire assessments of negative behavior. It appears that agreeableness is an
important intrapersonal influence on martial functioning and these findings contrib-
ute to the growing literature on the role of agreeableness in interpersonal relation-
ships (e.g., Graziano et al., 1996; Tobin et al., 2000) and marriages (Botwin et al.,
1997; Bouchard et al., 1999; Watson et al., 2000). Based on our results and others,
we believe that agreeableness deserves increased attention as a significant predictor
of close relationships. Indeed, agreeableness may be as important as neuroticismfor understanding successful or distressed romantic relationships. Although more re-
search is needed to explicate the processes linking agreeableness to marriages, it ap-
pears that agreeable people are less likely to engage in specific interactional
behaviors that are deleterious for close relationships. We also found that agreeable-
ness predicted relative declines in observed negative interactions from 1990 to 1994.
Conscientiousness. We found that self-reports of conscientiousness were related to
spousal reports of negative interactions and to global assessments of the relationship.
In general, it appeared that husband reports of conscientiousness were a more con-
sistent predictor of spousal global evaluations of the relationship, a finding consis-
tent with evolutionary predictions (e.g., Botwin et al., 1997; Robins et al., 2000).
However, future work is needed to explicitly test the mechanism that links conscien-
tiousness to relationships. It is possible that conscientious individuals create fewer
areas of disagreement because they are generally responsible, dependable, and hard-
working. The link between conscientiousness and marital outcomes may also be
mediated by processes such as a more equitable household division of labor or a re-
duction in problem behavior involvement such as drug/alcohol abuse. Future studies
are needed to test these speculations.
Neuroticism. Our results linking neuroticism and marital evaluations were consis-
tent with previous research, both classic (e.g., Terman, 1938) and more recent (e.g.,
Bouchard et al., 1999; Botwin et al., 1997; Caughlin et al., 2000; Eysenck & Wake-
field, 1981; Karney & Bradbury, 1995, 1997; Kelly & Conley, 1987; Robins et al.,
2000, 2002; Watson et al., 2000). Neurotic wives and husbands are involved in less
positively evaluated relationships and this effect holds for cross-informant correla-
tions (e.g., wife reports of neuroticism and husband reports of martial outcomes).
Importantly, we also found that neuroticism is linked with observer reports of neg-ative interactions in the relationship.
These findings linking neuroticism to observed marital interactions may help ex-
plain how neuroticism is linked to marital evaluations. Our findings also generally
replicate the results of Caughlin et al. (2000) who linked neuroticism to communica-
tion negativity. It appears that one pathway whereby this broad personality dimen-
sion affects relationships is by its connection with day-to-day negative interactions
involving both words and deeds. We believe that our results are also consistent with
the theoretical orientation advanced by Caughlin et al. (2000) that neuroticism influ-
M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504 499
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ences the enduring dynamics of the marriage. In addition, our results also parallel
the findings of Bolger and Schilling (1991) linking neuroticism to interpersonal con-
flicts and general distress in daily lives. All told, the strategy of linking neuroticism to
interpersonal processes appears to be a promising direction for future research.
Openness to experience. Openness was negatively correlated with observed nega-
tive interactions. Moreover, the association between wife-reported openness and
negative interactions and sexual satisfaction was one of the most interesting and per-
haps unexpected results of our investigation. We should note, however, that Botwin
et al. (1997) reported significant associations between openness and several marital
outcomes. Unfortunately, these relations are a bit tricky to interpret because open-
ness to experience is purported to be the most difficult of the five factors to under-
stand (McCrae & Costa, 1997). We offer two speculations for our findings. First,greater openness may entail a more intellectual and flexible approach to problem
solving which may facilitate a proactive and intellectual approach to the conflicts
and disagreements that arise in relationships. This may explain the negative associ-
ation between openness and negative interactions.
Second, openness may be related to sexual satisfaction by a somewhat different
process. One aspect of openness involves the motivation to acquire new experiences
and the positive correlation between openness and scales measuring experience seek-
ing supports this interpretation (McCrae & Costa, 1997). This motivation may ex-
tend to the exploration of sexuality by wives. Sexual exploration on the part of
wives could translate to greater sexual satisfaction in the marriage. Although these
interpretations are highly speculative and the basic finding requires replication, we
believe that the intriguing relations between openness and close relationships war-
rants further examination. Our speculations also echo the call for more research con-
cerning the influence of openness on family life by McCrae and Costa (1997).
5. Personality and changes in relationships
We found little evidence linking personality to changes in marital outcomes over
time using growth curve methodology. Few other studies using this technique have
found that the personality traits captured by the Big Five predict changes in marital
variables. For example, Karney and Bradbury (1997) used growth curve modeling to
study the impact of neuroticism on marital satisfaction in a sample of newlywed cou-
ples followed over 4 years. They found that neuroticism predicted lower initial levels
of marital satisfaction but did not predict changes in marital satisfaction. Appar-ently, neuroticism exerts a relatively constant effect on relationship satisfaction over
several waves of assessments. Caughlin et al. (2000) reached similar conclusions us-
ing structural equation modeling.
We have tentatively interpreted these findings as consistent with the enduring dy-
namics model of marriages (e.g., Huston & Houts, 1998). Personality traits shape the
psychological infrastructure of the marriage from very early on in the relationship
and this dynamic then persists as a relatively enduring aspect of the relationship. In-
deed, our marital relationship measures demonstrated a high degree of both rank-
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order and absolute stability which is consistent with this model. In fact, most mea-
sures of relationship satisfaction demonstrate relatively high levels of rank-order sta-
bility in continuing relationships (e.g., Johnson et al., 1992; Johnson & Booth, 1988).
Based on these observations, Johnson et al. (1992) suggested that the stability of
marital quality, as assessed by retest correlations, rivals that of personality traits.
The implication is that a sample of enduring marriages may not be ideal for identi-
fying personality correlates of changes in relationships. Perhaps investigations study-
ing the courtship phase of relationships when the initial dynamics are being
established will have better chances for finding robust evidence that personality pre-
dicts changes in relationships.
6. Limitations and conclusions
A few caveats should be noted when considering the findings reported here. First,
our measurement of personality was based on self-reports on one measure taken at
one point in time. The gold standard design in this area would be to obtain per-
sonality data from multiple informants, with multiple instruments, and at multiple
points in time. Because of this limitation, our analyses cannot address the interesting
issue regarding the impact of relationship experiences on personality development
(e.g., Robins et al., 2002). Future research on personality and marriage should strive
for this gold standard. In our favor, we used a well-established and validated instru-
ment to measure personality and we used multiple informants for the other variables
in our analyses. In addition, current evidence indicates that personality is relatively
stable in adulthood (e.g., Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000) so it is unlikely that we would
observe major upheavals in personality from 1990 to 1994.
A second limitation was that our sample was composed of rural European Amer-
icans in predominately first-time, long-term marriages. Unquestionably, our results
should be replicated on diverse samples. However, Karney and Bradbury (1995)
noted the need for studies that specifically focus on more homogenous samples in
marital research to help focus and sharpen the conclusions that can be drawn from
the literature. Consequently, our results demonstrate that personality is related to
observable marital interactions and global evaluations in enduring marriages.
Finally, concerns over the practical importance of the observed effect sizes in this
investigation could be raised. The effect sizes we observed were generally small to
medium in magnitude. This concern over small effect sizes should be tempered in
light of several issues. First, our conservative approach may underestimate the im-pact of personality on marriages. Second, small effect sizes are to be expected in re-
search on marital variables because marital outcomes and marital interactions are
multiply influenced (Ahadi & Diener, 1989). Third, small effect sizes can have a ma-
jor impact on outcomes over time (Abelson, 1985; Rosenthal & Rubin, 1979). Fi-
nally, we concur with Robins et al. (2000) who argue that the explanation of even
a small amount of variance in a major life goal such as having a happy relationship
is an important outcome of psychological inquiry. In that regard, we believe that our
findings may have practical significance. Indeed, Meyer et al. (2001) recommended
M.B. Donnellan et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 481504 501
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rethinking the general interpretations of so-called small effect sizes in light of these
kinds of concerns.
In closing, we believe that the search for how personality influences marital rela-
tionships is both practically important and theoretically interesting. We found evi-
dence that a broad range of intrapersonal factors are related to relationship
interactions and global evaluations of enduring marriages. In particular, agreeable-
ness and openness have significant links with relationship variables and have re-
ceived much less attention in the literature relative to neuroticism. Moreover,
these relations are real to the extent that shared method variance is not a viable
alternative explanation for these associations. Accordingly, more work should focus
on agreeableness and openness as important personality influences on close relation-
ships. Future work is also needed to completely understand how a wide range of per-sonality factors influence marriages. Although it is premature to draw strong
conclusions, we believe that the study of the impact of personality on the day-to-
day lives of couples is a good place to look for answers to questions concerning
how personality impacts close relationships.
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