The Role of Personality and Intelligence in Assortative Mating

• Sergio Escorial Martín ^[1] ; Carmen Martín-Buro ^[2]
  1. [1] Universidad Complutense de Madrid

     Universidad Complutense de Madrid

     Madrid, España

     
  2. [2] Centro de Enseñanza Superior Cardenal Cisneros
• Localización: The Spanish Journal of Psychology, ISSN 1138-7416, Vol. 15, Nº. 2, 2012, págs. 680-687
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.5209/rev_sjop.2012.v15.n2.38879
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    El emparejamiento selectivo es la tendencia de los individuos a emparejarse con aquellos que son semejantes a ellos en ciertas variables, más de lo que cabría esperar por azar. El presente estudio pretende aportar evidencia empírica acerca del emparejamiento selectivo con muestras españolas a través del modelo Big Five de la personalidad y de dos medidas de inteligencia. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 244 parejas españolas, y fue dividida por el tiempo de relación en dos grupos. Se controló el efecto de la edad, el nivel académico y el nivel socioeconómico. Los resultados mostraron un fuerte emparejamiento selectivo en inteligencia y más moderado para la personalidad. Los rasgos de personalidad con mayores correlaciones fueron Apertura, Cordialidad y Responsabilidad.

  • English

    Assortative mating is the individuals’ tendency to mate with those who are similar to them in some variables, at a higher rate than would be expected from random. This study aims to provide empirical evidence of assortative mating through the Big Five model of personality and two measures of intelligence using Spanish samples. The sample consisted of 244 Spanish couples. It was divided into two groups according to relationship time. The effect of age, educational level and socioeconomic status was controlled. The results showed strong assortative mating for intelligence and moderate for personality.

    The strongest correlations for Personality were found in Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Andres-Pueyo, A. (1997): Manual de psicología diferencial [Differential Psychology Manual]. Barcelona, Spain: McGraw-Hill.
  • Andres-Pueyo, A., & Colom, R. (1998): Ciencia y politica de la inteligencia en la sociedad moderna [Science and politics of intelligence...
  • Botwin, M. D., Buss, M. D., & Shackelford, T. K. (1997). Personality mate preferences: Five factors in mate selection and marital satisfaction....
  • Bouchard, T. J., & McGue, M. (1981). Familial studies of intelligence: A review. Science, 212, 1055-1059. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.7195071
  • Buss, A. H. (1988). Personality: Evolunionarity heritage and human distinctiveness. Hilsdale, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Buss, D. M. (1984). Marital assortment for personality dispositions: Assessment with three different data sources. Behavior Genetics, 14,...
  • Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155-159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155
  • Colom, R. (1998): Psicología de las diferencias individuales. Teoría y práctica [Psychology of individual differences. Theory and practice]....
  • Colom, R., Aluja-Fabregat, A., & García-López, O. (2002). Tendencias de emparejamiento selectivo en inteligencia, dureza de carácter,...
  • Colom, R., & Andres-Pueyo, A. (1999). El estudio de la inteligencia humana: Recapitulación ante el cambio de milenio [The study of human...
  • Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (2002). Inventario de personalidad EO revisado (EO PI-R): Inventario EO reducido de cinco factores (EO-FFI)...
  • Díaz-Morales, J. F., Quiroga, M. A., Escribano C., & Delgado, P. (2009). Emparejamiento selectivo en temperamento e inteligencia y su...
  • Eaves, L. J., Fulker, D. W., & Heath, A. C. (1989). The effects of social homo-gamy and cultural inheritance on the covariances of twins...
  • Eysenck, H., & Eysenck, M. (1985): Personalidad y diferencias individuales [Personality and individual differences]. Madrid, Spain: Piramide.
  • Feng, D., & Baker, L. (1994). Spouse similarity in attitudes, personality and psychological well-being. Behavior Genetics, 24, 357-364....
  • Figueredo, A. J., Sefcek, J. A., & Jones, D. N. (2006). The ideal romantic partner personality. Personality and Individual Differences,...
  • Flynn, J. (1999). Searching for justice. American Psychologist, 54, 5-20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0003-066X.54.1.5
  • Gruber-Baldini, A. L., Schaie, K. W., & Willis, S. L. (1995). Similarity in married couples: A longitudinal study of mental abilities...
  • Heath, A., Eaves, L., Nance, W., & Corey, L. (1987). Social inequality and assortative mating: Cause or consequence. Behavior Genetics,...
  • Herrnstein, R., & Murray, C. (1994): The bell curve. New York, NY: Academic Press.
  • Jensen, A. R. (1978): Genetic and behavioral effects of nonrandom mating. In J. van Abeelen (Ed.), Human variation: The biopsychology of age,...
  • Jensen, A. R. (1998): The g factor. New York, NY: Prager.
  • Juan-Espinosa, M. (1997): Geografia de la inteligencia humana [Geography of human intelligence]. Madrid, Spain: Piramide.
  • Juan-Espinosa, M., & García, L. F. (2004). Nuestra personalidad. En qué y por qué somos diferentes [Our personality. How and why are we...
  • Luo, S., & Klohnen, E. C. (2005). Assortative mating and marital quality in newlyweds: A couple centered approach. Journal of Personality...
  • Lykken, D. T., & Tellegen, A. (1993). Is human mating adventitious or the result of lawful choice? A twin study of mate selection. Joumal...
  • Malouff, J. M., Thorsteinsson, E. B., Schutte, N. S., Bhullar, N., & Rooke, S. E. (2010): The Five-Factor Model of personality and relationship...
  • Mare, R. (1991). Five decades of educational assortative mating. American Sociological Review, 56, 15-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2095670
  • Mascie-Taylor, C. (1989). Spouse similarity for IQ and personality and convergence. Behavior Genetics, 19, 223-227. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01065906
  • Mascie-Taylor, C., & Vandenberg, S. (1988). Assortative mating for IQ and personality due to propinquity and personal preference. Behavior...
  • McCrae, R. R., Costa Jr., P. T., Martin, T. A., Oryol, V. E., Rukavishnikov, A. A., & Senin, I. G. (2008). Personality trait similarity...
  • Nagoshi, C. T., & Johnson, R. C. (1994). Phenotypic assortment versus social homogamy for personality, education, attitudes, and language...
  • Price, R. A., & Vandenberg, S. G. (1980). Spouse similarity in American and Swedish couples. Behavior Genetics, 10, 59-71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01067319
  • Qian, Z., & Preston, S. (1993). Changes in American marriage, 1972-1987: Availability and forces of attraction by age and education. American...
  • Quiroga, M. A., & Navascués, V. (1995, July). Assessement of Buss' seven temperament dimensions: Spanish scales. Paper presented in...
  • Reynolds, C. A., Baker, L. A., & Pedersen, N. L. (2000). Multivariate models of mixed assortment: Phenotypic assortment and social homogamy...
  • Rushton, J. P., & Bons, T. A. (2005). Mate choice and friendship in twins. Psychological Science, 16, 555-559. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01574.x
  • Tambs, K., Sundet, J. M., & Berg, K. (1993). Correlations between identical twins and their spouses suggest social homogamy for intelligence...
  • Thurstone, L. L., & Thurstone, T. G. (1938). Primary mental abilities. Psychometric monographs 1. Madrid, Spain: TEA.
  • Vandenberg, S. G. (1972). Assortative mating, or who marries whom. Behavior Genetics, 2, 127-157.
  • Watson, D., Klohnen, E. C., Casillas, A., Simms, E. N., Haig, J., & Berry, D. S. (2004). Match makers and deal breakers: Analyses of assortative...
  • Watkins, M., & Meredith, W. (1981). Spouse similarity in newlyweds with respect to specific cognitive abilities, socioeconomic status...