OPPOSITES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 October 1940, Page 8

OPPOSITES

ARE NOT IDEAL PARTNERS. There’s a popular myth that men usually marry girls with opposite temperaments and characteristics. Moreover, many people think these make the happiest couples. Statistics, however, show that men more often marry women with the same physical characteristics and the same tastes, and are happier when they do. For his book, “English Men of Science,” Sir Francis Galton inquired about temperament, colour of hair, stoutness, slimness, height and weight, etc., in the parents of the men he wrote about. He found that the parents of most of them had similar characteristics. Parents with similar temperaments (which he divided into four classes — nervous, sanguine, bilious and lymphatic) outnumbered those with contrasting temperaments by five to one. Modern psychology classifies normal individuals as introverts, extroverts or ambiverts. f An introvert is conscientious, dignified, happy working alone, attracted to fine delicate work, ill at ease in society, a poor public speaker, interested in books, fond of argument, slow to laugh, easily worried, unattracted to the opposite sex, sensitive, made to blush easily, outspokenly frank, slow at making friends, deliberate, easily influenced by praise, suspicious of others, a poor loser, a day dreamer, inclined to moodiness and a radical in politics and religion. On the other hand the extrovert blushes rarely, laughs readily, enjoys being in public, has few cares and usually prefers work in which details do not matter. He is careful not to hurt the feelings of others, fluent in speech, a good public speaker, quick of motion, somewhat careless of personal belongings, attracted to the opposite sex, conservative in matters of religion and politics, little concerned by what others say of him and not readily affected by praise. In general the thinkers and daydreamers are introverts, the doers are extroverts. The great mass of people have an admixture of the traits of both introvert and extrovert. These are ambiverts. Dr D. A. Laird, an American professor of psychology, sent a questionnaire to many married men and women listed in “Who’s Who in America” about marital harmony. He found that, as a rule, when an introvert is married to an introvert, an extrovert to an extrovert, and an ambivert to an ambivert, compatibility is greatest. Moreover, he found that when “like married like” in religious attitude, age, education or social status, the chances were distinctly in favour of a happy compatible marriage.