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Unlucky in love? take a test: The Asian Age
London, May 05: Opposites do not normally attract for very long and most men regard a womans palate as more important than her libido. These are some of the results of tests conducted with the Institute of Psychiatrys new do-it-yourself Compatibility Indicator. The questionnaire, which can be completed by prospective lovers in less than 10 minutes, is said to predict accurately their chances of finding lasting romance.
London, May 05: Opposites do not normally attract for very long and most men regard a womans palate as more important than her libido. These are some of the results of tests conducted with the Institute of Psychiatrys new do-it-yourself Compatibility Indicator.
The questionnaire, which can be completed by prospective lovers in less than 10 minutes, is said to predict accurately their chances of finding lasting romance.
Glenn Wilson, a reader in personality at the institute in Kings College, London, led the team that devised the test and believes it will be widely used to predict the suitability of potential partnerships.
We hope it will be useful to marriage counsellors, relationship therapists and others, like the clergy, who run premarital support courses, said Wilson. Being a relatively rational measure of long-term prospects it might also be used to sound a note of caution to courting couples gripped by rosy-spectacled infatuation, highlighting domains where conflict is likely to arise after early passion has cooled, his report adds.
The researchers set out to develop a questionnaire that could be used to calculate the compatibility of two people who are either in or planning to be in a relationship.
Given the personal and social importance of stable, happy relationships, we sought to develop a questionnaire for determining compatibility among two or more respondents by assessing overall similarity across certain key traits and attitudes, says a report of the research in the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy published this week.
The background research for the questionnaire shines new light on the things that drive successful relationships. Men and women regard shared attitudes to sexual fidelity as paramount, but when it came down to it men were found to regard a shared taste in foreign foods as more important than libido and previous sexual experience. The researchers focused on 25 key factors including looks, intelligence and sociability that previous studies have shown are likely to give rise to conflict in relationships. A questionnaire was then drawn up and a scoring system calibrated through tests on a random sample of 2,159 adults.
The resulting Compatibility Indicator consists of 25 questions, each with five multiple-choice answers ranging from one extreme to another. Prospective couples fill out the same questionnaire separately. They then compare their answers with each point of difference adding to their score.
For example, if both parties respond to the question What sort of sex drive do you have? with the answer about average, they score nothing. However, if one responds to be honest, Im absolutely insatiable (choice 5) and the other ticks the box marked my sex drive is pretty non-existent (choice 1), four points are scored.
The maximum possible score for all 25 questions is 100. Scores below 23 the average for couples who can live happily together indicate strong compatibility, while scores above 23 suggest you may be heading for the rocks.
In the questionnaire, respondents are asked whether they are tall, short, thin, fat, bright or attractive. They are also asked to describe their political views, favourite television programmes and their attitudes to pets and pornography. Other questions address sexual experience and the importance of money.
The questionnaire has been sent to 700 couples who independently rated the quality of their marriage. From the replies, we looked at the variations in the answers of those claiming to have happy relations and those who were less sure, said Wilson.
We found that the tests could predict those that were happy and those that were less happy. It puts paid to the myth that opposites attract. When it comes to the key things, it is very much better being the same.
We hope it will be useful to marriage counsellors, relationship therapists and others, like the clergy, who run premarital support courses, said Wilson. Being a relatively rational measure of long-term prospects it might also be used to sound a note of caution to courting couples gripped by rosy-spectacled infatuation, highlighting domains where conflict is likely to arise after early passion has cooled, his report adds.
The researchers set out to develop a questionnaire that could be used to calculate the compatibility of two people who are either in or planning to be in a relationship.
Given the personal and social importance of stable, happy relationships, we sought to develop a questionnaire for determining compatibility among two or more respondents by assessing overall similarity across certain key traits and attitudes, says a report of the research in the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy published this week.
The background research for the questionnaire shines new light on the things that drive successful relationships. Men and women regard shared attitudes to sexual fidelity as paramount, but when it came down to it men were found to regard a shared taste in foreign foods as more important than libido and previous sexual experience. The researchers focused on 25 key factors including looks, intelligence and sociability that previous studies have shown are likely to give rise to conflict in relationships. A questionnaire was then drawn up and a scoring system calibrated through tests on a random sample of 2,159 adults.
The resulting Compatibility Indicator consists of 25 questions, each with five multiple-choice answers ranging from one extreme to another. Prospective couples fill out the same questionnaire separately. They then compare their answers with each point of difference adding to their score.
For example, if both parties respond to the question What sort of sex drive do you have? with the answer about average, they score nothing. However, if one responds to be honest, Im absolutely insatiable (choice 5) and the other ticks the box marked my sex drive is pretty non-existent (choice 1), four points are scored.
The maximum possible score for all 25 questions is 100. Scores below 23 the average for couples who can live happily together indicate strong compatibility, while scores above 23 suggest you may be heading for the rocks.
In the questionnaire, respondents are asked whether they are tall, short, thin, fat, bright or attractive. They are also asked to describe their political views, favourite television programmes and their attitudes to pets and pornography. Other questions address sexual experience and the importance of money.
The questionnaire has been sent to 700 couples who independently rated the quality of their marriage. From the replies, we looked at the variations in the answers of those claiming to have happy relations and those who were less sure, said Wilson.
We found that the tests could predict those that were happy and those that were less happy. It puts paid to the myth that opposites attract. When it comes to the key things, it is very much better being the same.