We examine whether homogamy (similarity) in sociodemographic variables and personality traits in late adulthood is greater among couples characterized by high life satisfaction than among those characterized by low life satisfaction. The research sample included 256 participants (128 husbands and 128 wives) in Israel. The findings on homogamy in sociodemographic variables reveal no differences between participants in the ‘high’ and ‘low’ satisfaction groups. However, with regard to personality traits (self-esteem and anxiety), there are differences between participants in ‘high’ and ‘low’ satisfaction groups. In the high satisfaction group, the husbands (and the wives to some extent) have more similar personality traits than their counterparts in the low satisfaction group. In general, the findings reveal greater similarity in sociodemographic variables than in personality traits among the spouses. The findings also indicate that in late adulthood wives are less satisfied with life, have higher anxiety, and lower self-esteem than their husbands.
Alliger, G.M. and Williams, K.J. (1991) ‘Affective Congruence and the Employment Interview’ , Advances in Information Processing in Organizations4: 31–43 .
2.
Arrindell, W.A. and Luteijn, F. (2000) ‘Similarity between Intimate Partners for Personality Traits as Related to Individual Levels of Satisfaction with Life’ , Personality and Individual Differences28: 629–637 .
3.
Baron, R.A. and Byrne, D. (2000) Social Psychology. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon .
4.
Blackwell, D.C. and Lichter, D.T. (2000) ‘Mate Selection among Married and Cohabiting Couples’ , Journal of Family Issues21: 275–302 .
5.
Blair, S.L. (1993) ‘Employment, Family and Perceptions of Marital Equality among Husbands and Wives’ , Journal of Family Issues14: 189–212 .
6.
Bosse, R. , Aldwin, G.M. , Levenson, M.R. , Workman-Daniels, K. and Ekerdt, D.J. (1990) ‘Differences in Social Support among Retirees and Workers: Findings from the Normative Ageing Study’ , Psychology of Ageing5: 41–42 .
7.
Byrne, D. (1974) An Introduction to Personality: Research, Theory, and Application. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall .
8.
Caspi, A. and Elder, G.H. (1986) ‘Life Satisfaction in Old Age: Linking Social Psychology and History’ , Journal of Psychology and Aging1: 18–26 .
9.
Chinitz, J.G. and Brown, R.A. (2001) ‘Religious Homogamy, Marital Conflict, and Stability in Same-Faith and Interfaith Jewish Marriage’ , Journal of Scientific Study of Religion20: 723–733 .
10.
Demo, D.H. (1985) ‘Self-esteem and Family Cohesion: The Child's Perspective and Adjustment’ , Journal of Marriage and the Family45: 153–159 .
11.
Demo, D.H. , Small, S.A. and Savin-Williams, R.C. (1987) ‘Family Relations and the Selfesteem of Adolescents and their Parents’ , Journal of Marriage and the Family49: 705–715 .
12.
Edwards, J.R. (1994) ‘The Study of Congruence in Organizational Behavior Research: Critique and a Proposed Alternative’ , Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes58: 51–100 .
13.
Fogiel-Bijaoui, S. (1999) ‘Mishpachot beYisrael: Bein mishpachtiyut lepost moderniut’ [Families in Israel: Between Familism and Post-modernism], in D.N. Izraeli , A. Friedman , H. Dahan-Kalev , S. Fogiel-Bijaoui , H. Herzog , N. Hasan and H. Naveh (eds) Sex, Gender, Politics: Women in Israel, pp. 107–166. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad (in Hebrew) .
14.
Griffel, A. (1985) ‘Work and Retirement in Modern Society’, in S. Bergman and I. Margules (eds) Ageing in Israel: Selected Topics in Gerontology, pp. 98–113. Tel Aviv: Am Oved (in Hebrew) .
15.
Hambrick, J.P. , Turk, C.L. , Heimberg, R.G. , Schneier, F.R. and Leibowitz, M.R. (2003) ‘The Experience of Disability and Quality of Life in Social Anxiety Disorder’ , Depression and Anxiety18: 46–50 .
16.
Harlow, R.L. and Cantor, N. (1996) ‘Still Participating after All those Years? A Study of Life Task Participation in Later Life’ , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology17(6): 1235–1249 .
17.
Harris, S.J. (2000) ‘Religiosity and Psychological Well-being among Older Adults: A Meta-analysis’ , Dissertation Abstracts International63(6-B): 3008-3008 .
18.
Hecht, L. , McMillin, J.D. and Silverman, P. (2001) ‘Modeling Life Satisfaction among the Aged: A Comparison of Chinese and American Couples’ , Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology14: 95–108 .
19.
Heider, F. (1958) The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley .
20.
Hummert, M.L. , Crockett, W.H. and Kemper, S. (1990) ‘Processing Mechanisms Underlying Use of the Balance Scheme’ , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology57: 5–12 .
21.
Izraeli, D.N. (1988) ‘Burning Out in Medicine: A Comparison of Husbands and Wives in Dual Career Couples’ , Journal of Social Behavior and Personality3: 329–347 .
22.
Izraeli, D.N. (1992) ‘Culture, Policy and Women in Dual-earner Families in Israel’, in S. Lewis , D.N. Izraeli and H. Hootsmans (eds) Dual Earner Families: International Perspectives, pp. 19–46. Newbury Park, CA: Sage .
23.
Izraeli, D.N. (1994) ‘Money Matters: Spousal Incomes and Family Work Relations among Physician Couples in Israel’ , Sociological Quarterly35: 69–85 .
24.
Jin, B. (2001) ‘Social Psychological Determinants of Life Satisfaction in Older Adults’ , Dissertation Abstracts International12(2-A): 769-769 .
25.
Kalmijn, M. (1998) ‘Intermarriage and Homogamy: Causes, Patterns, Trends’ , Annual Review of Sociology24: 395–421 .
26.
Kandel, D.B. (1978) ‘Similarity in Real-life Adolescent Friendship Pairs’ , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology65: 282–292 .
27.
Kang, S.M. , Shaver, P.R. , Sue, S. , Min, K.H. and Jing, H. (2003) ‘Culture Specific Patterns in the Prediction of Life Satisfaction: Roles of Emotion, Relationship Quality, and Self-esteem’ , Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin19(12): 1596–1608 .
28.
Kerckhoff, A.C. and Davis, K.L. (1962) ‘Value Consensus and Need Complementarity in Mate Selection’ , American Sociological Review27: 295–303 .
29.
Kimmel, D.C. (1990) Adulthood and Aging: An Interdisciplinary Developmental View. London: Wiley .
30.
Kulik, L. (2002) ‘Marital Equality and Quality of Long-term Marriage in Later Life’ , Ageing in Society22: 459–481 .
31.
LaPrelle, J. , Hoyle, R.H. , Insko, C.A. and Bernthal, P. (1990) ‘Interpersonal Attraction and Descriptions of the Traits of Others: Ideal Similarity, Self-similarity and Liking’ , Journal of Research in Personality24: 216–240 .
32.
Lavee, Y. and Katz, R. (2003) ‘The Family in Israel: Between Tradition and Modernity’ , Marriage and Family Review35: 193–217 .
33.
Lee, G.R. and Shehan, C.L. (1989) ‘Retirement and Marital Satisfaction’ , Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences44: 226–230 .
34.
Levinger, G. , Senn, D.J. and Jorkensen, B.M. (1970) ‘Progress toward Permanence in Courtship: A Test of the Kerckhoff-Davis Hypothesis’ , Sociometry33: 427–443 .
35.
Marsiglio, W. (1993) ‘Contemporary Scholarship on Fatherhood: Culture, Identity and Conduct’ , Journal of Family Issues14: 484–509 .
36.
Myers, D.G. and Diener, E. (1997) ‘Who is Happy?’ , Psychological Science6: 10–12 .
37.
Neale, B. and Smart, C. (1997) ‘Experiments with “Parent-hood”’ , Sociology31: 201–219 .
38.
Neikrug, S.M. (2003) ‘Worrying about a Frightening Old Age’ , Aging and Mental Health7: 326–333 .
Orbuch, T.L. and Eyster, S. (1997) ‘Division of Household Labor among Black Couples and White Couples’ , Social Forces76: 301–332 .
41.
Putnam, R.D. (1994) ‘Bowling Alone: Democracy in America at the End of the 20th Century’ , paper presented at the Nobel Symposium of Democracy, Victory and Crisis, Uppsala, Sweden, 27–30 August.
42.
Robert, P. and Bukodi, E. (2002) ‘Dual Career Pathways: The Occupational Attainment of Married Couples in Hungary’ , European Sociological Review18: 217–232 .
43.
Rosenberg, M. (1965) Society and the Adolescent's Self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
44.
Rosenberg, M. (1979) Conceiving the Self. New York: Basic Books .
45.
Schuster, E. and Elderton, E.M. (1906) ‘The Inheritance of Psychical Characters’ , Biometrika5: 460–464 .
46.
Segal, H.G. , Vizueta, N. , Biukians, A. and Pollack, K.B. (2001–2) ‘The Impact of Early Experience on the Creative Process: Findings from a New Story Completion Task’ , Imagination, Cognition and Personality21(2): 91–109 .
47.
Smith, E.R. , Byrne, D. , Becker, M.A. and Przybyla, D.P.J. (1993) ‘Sexual Attitudes of Males and Females as Predictors of Interpersonal Attraction and Marital Compatibility’ , Journal of Applied Social Psychology23: 1011–1034 .
48.
Spielberger, C.D. (1972) ‘Anxiety as an Emotional State’, in C.D. Spielberger (ed.) Anxiety: Current Trends in Theory and Research, Vol. 1, pp. 24–49. New York: Academic Press .
Svirsky, S. , Connor, E. , Svirsky, B. and Yehezkel, Y. (2000) Nashim beshuk ha'avoda shel medinat harevaha beyisrael[Women in the Labor Market of the Israeli Welfare State]. Tel Aviv: Adva (in Hebrew) .
51.
Watson, D. , Klohnen, E.C. , Casillas, A. , Simms, E.N. , Haig, J. and Berry, D. (2004) ‘Match Makers and Deal Breakers: Analyses of Assortative Mating in Newlywed Couples’ , Journal of Personality72: 1029–1068 .
