Personality and Relationship Dynamics Project
| If you are interested in participating, please send me an e-mail. |
Thank you for your interest in our research. Below is a brief description of the two key aspects of the project: types of personality assessment and how personality affects marriage.
Overview
Types of Personality Assessment
How Impression of Spousal Personality
Affects Marriage
Preliminary Instructions
Phase 1
Phase 2
A goal of many psychologists is to determine how to best assess personality and see how different traits relate to specific behavior patterns. One area of behavior that is of particular interest to psychologists is relationships. Several members of the Psychology Department at Furman are investigating how individual differences play-out in and affect close relationships. Specifically, we are interested in how different types of personality assessment or measurement predict how spouses interact with each other and feel about their relationship.
The two key components of this research are:
1. Different types of personality assessment.
• "Paper-and-pencil" tools: There are many methods that are used to gain understanding about personality. The more traditional methods used are surveys or questionnaires. For example, you may respond to a set of questions that assess a certain quality like extraversion. • "Online" or computer assessment: With the many technological advances occurring in society, there is a trend for people to complete these types of measures "online." That is, if you search the Internet, you will find many websites that offer some type of personality analyses. • Face-to-face or interview methods: In addition to written and computer type surveys, psychologists often prefer to understand a person by meeting with them face-to-face and talking with them. In fact, there are structured interview techniques that are used to assess personality. Some believe this is another effective means of gaining knowledge about someone. • New method - Spouse assessment: One other way to assess personality that we are currently studying is how people close to someone (e.g., a spouse) may provide insight into that individual's personality. Perhaps, having a friend or spouse describe you to psychologist may provide yet another useful tool to understand individual differences. |
To recap, personality is often assessed through written surveys, online (computer) surveys, or face-to-face interactions. Also, we are interested in seeing how spouses can also provide insight into their partner's personality. Therefore, one purpose of this study is to compare the outcomes of these different types of assessments to see if they provide similar conclusions about people's unique characteristics and interpersonal styles, and if they offer insight into relationship dynamics.
2. How personality and people's impression of their spouses' personality affect their marriage.
• Personality characteristics influence how people approach their close relationships. How people see themselves and see their spouses will influence how they interact as a couple, and how they respond to issues that face most couples (e.g., stress, job, family, etc.). • Therefore, another purpose of this study is to investigate how people see themselves and see their partner relates to various relationship and life issues. |
This research involves 2 phases of participation.
In this phase of the research, each member of the couple will receive a packet of questionnaires to complete at home. You will receive your packets separately and complete them without sharing any information with your partner. This will ensure that we obtain the most accurate and unbiased responses from participants as possible. We recommend that you complete the surveys in one sitting. The surveys should require about an hour of your time to complete.
The survey has several components:
• One component will assess some aspects of your personality. We do this as a preliminary written assessment of some characteristics. • Another component will ask you about your relationship and your spouse. As we indicated, we are interested in seeing how personality influences aspects of a relationship. Therefore, we will ask you questions about how you view the relationship (e.g., its strength, your commitment, etc.), and how you and your partner interact with one another. • Finally, you will answer a few items about your partner so that we get a preliminary measure of your view of your partner on different characteristics. |
After you complete the packet, please mail it back to us in the envelope we provided. Please make sure you answered all of the items. When we receive your packet, we will then call you back to schedule a time for you and your spouse to come the lab for Phase 2.
The lab part
of the study will involve you and your partner completing different types
of personality assessments. As we mentioned, one purpose of this investigation
is to see how different methods of assessing people's characteristics
compare. To investigate how these methods compare, some spouses and couples
will experience varying types of assessments.
The types of assessments you and your spouse may complete include:
| •
a computer assessment to mimic new "online" personality
surveys. • traditional paper and pencil measures • face-to-face assessment with a psychologist from Furman University (either Dr. Paul Rasmussen or Dr. Elaine Nocks). • spouse assessment with a psychologist (i.e., share information about one's spouse to either Dr. Rasmussen or Dr. Nocks) |
Therefore, participants in our study will be randomly assigned to what personality assessment tools they experience in the lab session. You and your partner may be assigned to different conditions. In some cases, as you complete an assessment (e.g., on the computer) you will get feedback from the personality test.