Irrationality and marital adjustment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find if a relationship exists between rationality and marital adjustment. Specific relationships tested were between spouses' rationality scores, spouses' marital adjustment scores, spouses' combined rationality scores and spouses' combined marital adjustment scores, individual rationality scores and individual marital adjustment scores of men or women, and one spouse's rationality score and the other' s marital adjustment score. The difference between male and female rationality was also tested.

A convenience sample of seventy- four couples completed the Common Belief Survey III (CBSIII) (Bessai, 1977), a rationality scale, and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) (Spanier, 1976), a marital adjustment scale. Data were analyzed with the Pearson r and t-test.

Results indicated that the rationality of individuals did not correlate with their marital adjustment. Couples' combined rationality score did not correlate with couples' combined marital adjustment score. Males and females were found to be equally rational. Interspousal rationality scores were unrelated; however, interspousal marital adjustment total and subscale scores were directly related. Neither males' nor females' rationality scores correlated with his or her spouse’s marital