Interpersonal compatibility is a concept that describes the long-term interaction
between two or more individuals in terms of the ease and comfort of
communication. Individuals from similar backgrounds and similar goals in life
do extremely well in relationships, while people with different aims,
attitudes, thought processes find it more difficult to adjust and hence tend to
fail carrying the interpersonal relationship to the next level.
Existing concepts
Although various concepts
of interpersonal compatibility have existed from ancient times (for example, Plato's
Lysis), no general theory of interpersonal compatibility has been
proposed in psychology. Existing concepts are contradictory in many details,
beginning with the central point—whether compatibility is caused by matching
psychological parameters or by their complementarity. At the same time, the
idea of interpersonal compatibility is analyzed in non-scientific fields, as,
for example Astrological compatibility.
Among existing
psychological tools for studying and/or measuring interpersonal compatibility,
the following are noteworthy:
- A test of interpersonal compatibility proposed
by Timothy Leary.
- Three-factor hypothesis (inclusion, control,
and affection/openness) by William Schutz (further developed into FIRO-B
questionnaire).
- Hans Jurgen Eysenck's hypothesis on
compatibility between temperaments.
- Social psychological research on similarity of
interests and attitudes.
- Compatibility test pamphlets of the 1930s and
early computer dating of the 1950s, developed by George W. Crane.
- Hypothesis of compatibility between personality
attitudes by Russell Ackoff and Frederick Edmund Emery.
- DMO tool by Lyudmila Sobchik (DMO stands for Interpersonal
relations diagnostics, Russian: диагностика межличностных
отношений).
Socionics has proposed a
theory of intertype relationships between psychological types based on a
modified version of C.G. Jung's theory of psychological types. Communication
between types is described using the concept of information metabolism proposed
by Antoni Kępiński. However, socionic theory is somewhat controversial because
of a lack of experimental data.
Alternative hypotheses of
intertype relationships were later proposed by adherents of MBTI (D. Keirsey's
hypothesis of compatibility between Keirsey temperaments, an intertype
relationships chart by Joe Butt and Marina Margaret Heiss, LoveTypes by Alexander
Avila and some other theories). Neither of these hypotheses are commonly
accepted in the Myers–Briggs type theory.
Controversy
The following problems may
be reasons for the absence of a theory of psychological compatibility:
- Lack of generally accepted criteria for
measuring compatibility ("degrees of compatibility").
- The terms compatibility and matching,
although not identical, are often confused in common speech (the first
rather comprises complementarity and the second similarity of partners).
- The field's unclear status in social science
(the problem may belong to social psychology, sociology, personality
psychology etc.)
- Different psychological theories propose
different parameters of personality, but only few of them are generally
accepted among psychologists (e.g. cognitive styles); still, even
generally accepted criteria may be irrelevant to interpersonal
compatibility.
- Some, if not all personality parameters (even
genetically determined ones), may change over time and/or due to
interpersonal interaction.
- The non-traditional view of psychological dependency, which is not considered drug dependency, but rather a need (unilateral or mutual) for somebody else's psychological support that one cannot or can hardly provide by him/herself.
Astrological compatibility
Astrological compatibility
(synastry) is the branch of astrology that studies relationships by comparing
natal horoscopes. A natal horoscope is a chart, map, or imaginary snapshot of
the planets in the Solar System and their positions in the zodiac at the exact
time of a person's birth. The signs of the Zodiac represent 12 different types
of spiritual energy and purpose. The planets in the Solar System are associated
with at least one, but most often two signs of the zodiac.
Relationships between
planets, signs (types of energy), and houses (sectors of the chart) are
described in words and /or often rated in numbers to show to what degree, how,
and in what ways one person is compatible or incompatible with another. The
assessment is based on the patterns and distributions of energy in the
respective and combined charts.
Compatibility between
Zodiac signs is always approached within a particular branch of astrological
tradition: Chinese astrology, Western astrology or Vedic astrology.
Astrology is generally considered a pseudoscience by the scientific community
and what little statistical evidence that does exist has failed to find a
correlation between astrological compatibility and real world consequences.
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