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Psychological compatibility
¶
Psychological compatibility
is a somewhat vague term that
intuitively makes sense but has not been extensively researched. By
psychological compatibility people usually mean the degree to which
people inherently “fit” or “match” each other in interaction over a long
period of time. Implied in the term is the idea that certain personal
qualities influence the character of one’s relationships, that these
qualities differ from person to person, and that they are permanent.
Most people would probably agree that such qualities must exist, but
that they are very hard to put your finger on. In addition, most people
would agree that there are a host of situational factors that influence
relationship quality as well.
Part of the nature of psychological compatibility is that it is easier
to recognize
in
compatibility than compatibility, since negative
emotions are easier to recognize than the absence thereof. In addition,
there are different varieties of incompatibility. In one situation you
might feel repulsed by a person, in another you might feel strained and
self-conscious, and in another you might have a sense of competition.
Psychological compatibility probably applies almost equally to both
same-sex and inter-sex relationships
In the absence of physical attraction, you would probably avoid building
relationships with people you are incompatible with. Physical attraction
can “override” and quelch feelings of incompatibility. This suggests
that in humans the biological program of reproduction is more powerful
than the psychological program of productivity, happiness, and
self-realization. Perhaps, then, satisfaction of one’s more basic needs
leads to an increased focus on pursuing psychologically compatible
relationships, in accordance with
Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs
.
Socionics and psychological compatibility
¶
Socionics deals primarily with unchanging qualities of people - for
example, the prevalence of one mode of thinking and behavior over
another. Changes in people’s attitudes and behavior can also be
described in socionics terms, but they do not change a person’s
socionic type
and, hence, their pattern of
intertype relations
with other types.
Socionics qualifies as a theory of psychological compatibility, though
much work remains to be done to elaborate different varieties of
relationships within a certain
intertype relation
and the causes of this variation.
Research on psychological compatibility
¶
Assortive Mating and Marital Quality in Newlyweds: A Couple-Centered
Approach