Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicología del Principado de Asturias).
We currently publish four issues per year, which accounts for some 100 articles annually. We admit work from both the basic and applied research fields, and from all areas of Psychology, all manuscripts being anonymously reviewed prior to publication.
Psicothema, 2009. Vol. Vol. 21 (nº 2). 262-267
Juan Francisco Díaz-Morales, M. Ángeles Quiroga Estévez, Cristina Escribano Barreno y Pedro Delgado Prieto
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
El emparejamiento selectivo se refiere a la unión de pares de individuos más semejantes de lo que cabría esperar por azar. En este estudio se han analizado, en parejas adultas, varias hipótesis sobre emparejamiento selectivo: hipótesis de la semejanza (o complementariedad), homogamia social y convergencia. Una vez analizado el tipo de emparejamiento se estudió la relación entre el grado de semejanza y la satisfacción marital. Los participantes fueron 357 parejas adultas (19-69 años) quienes cumplimentaron pruebas de aptitud verbal, razonamiento inductivo y temperamento. Los resultados indicaron que las parejas tienden a ser semejantes en prácticamente todos los rasgos evaluados incluso cuando se controlan los efectos de la edad y nivel de estudios. Aparecieron diferencias en el grado de semejanza de las parejas según el tiempo de relación. Además, sólo la semejanza en inteligencia verbal (para los varones) e impulsividad (para las mujeres) se relacionó con la satisfacción marital en aquellas parejas con mayor tiempo de relación.
Assortative mating in temperament and intelligence, and the role of marital satisfaction. Assortative mating is the mating of pairs that are more similar in some trait than would be expected from random mating. It takes place when sexually reproducing organisms tend to mate with individuals that are like themselves in some respect (positive assortative mating) or dissimilar (negative assortative mating). The present study measures verbal and nonverbal intelligence, along with several temperamental traits, testing the similarity, complementarity, social homogamy, and convergence hypotheses. The role of marital satisfaction was also analyzed. The sample comprised 357 adults (age range 19-69), who completed verbal aptitude, inductive reasoning, and temperament tests. The findings show that couples are similar in almost all the measured traits, even after controlling for age and educational level. Differences were observed in the couples’ degree of similarity depending on the duration of their relationship. Further, only similarity in verbal intelligence for males and in impulsivity for females was associated with marital satisfaction in long-term couples.
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