How Large Are Actor and Partner Effects of Personality on Relationship Satisfaction? the Importance of Controlling for Shared Method Variance

Previous research suggests that the personality of a relationship partner predicts not only the individual's own satisfaction with the relationship but also the partner's satisfaction. based on the actor-partner interdependence model,the present research tested whether actor and partner effects of personality are biased when the same method (e.g.,self-report) is used for the assessment of personality and relationship satisfaction and,consequently,shared method variance is not controlled for. data came from 186 couples,of whom both partners provided self- and partner reports on the big five personality traits. depending on the research design,actor effects were larger than partner effects (when using only self-reports),smaller than partner effects (when using only partner reports),or of about the same size as partner effects (when using self- and partner reports). the findings attest to the importance of controlling for shared method variance in dyadic data analysis. © 2013 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.