Measuring similarity in couples.

The relationship between partner similarity and marital quality variables was explored by the use of a new method for the analysis of data from marital pairs. Forty-two married couples were given the Personal Assessment of Intimate Relationships inventory (M. T. Schaefer & D. H. Olson, 1981), and a method was devised for the removal of stereotype effects, that is, the tendency for partners to be similar to one another because they respond in a...