Quantifying the association between personality similarity and marital adjustment using profile correlations: A cautionary tale

Profile correlations are sometimes used to quantify personality trait similarity between relationship partners. These coefficients are then used to test whether similar couples are happier couples. The current paper describes several different methods of calculating profile correlations and outlines procedures for testing whether these coefficients are related to marital adjustment in a sample of 1643 couples. There was little evidence that profile correlations were related to marital adjustment after accounting for normativeness (i.e., the degree to which an individual’s profile matched the typical personality profile) and when accounting for each individual’s personality attributes. Results suggest that researchers using profile correlations should be cautious given that the interpretation and psychological meaning of results often depend on how the coefficients are calculated.

► Profile correlations are used to study whether similarity is related to relationship outcomes.
► The interpretation of results often depends on how profile correlations are calculated.
► Personality similarity was often unrelated to marital adjustment.