Abstract
A longitudinal study of 231 dating couples investigated differences between partners' perceptions of their relationship. Sources of differing perceptions and the impact of perceptual differences on relationship continuation were explored. Although considerable perceptual disagreement was found, most of it did not appear to be linked to gender. Few systematic differences were found between men's and women's reports, and these could be interpreted in terms of self-partner attributional biases rather than sex differences. The extent of couple disagreement was not correlated with measures of sex role attitudes or background dissimilarity. But disagreement on subjective judgments of intimacy was greater among couples in which there was low self-disclosure. Disagreement on subjective intimacy judgments was also predictive of relationship termination two years later. Results underscore the importance of distinguishing between “directional” and “nondirectional” measures of couple disagreement. Findings also indicate that discrepancies in couple member's reports cannot be dismissed solely as measurement error, since they have substantive implications as well.
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