Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Satisfaction In Similarity: The Association Between Perceived Communication Styles And Relational Satisfaction, Rachal Marquez, Lily Zhao, Kathrine Kuhlmann, Kyrstin Riley

Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research

In our research, we hypothesized that partners in romantic relationships who reported higher levels of similarity in communication would also express higher levels of relational satisfaction. We used Martin Buber’s theory of dialogic communication to establish the idea that people are attracted to others who are similar to them and are therefore attracted to those who share similar communication styles. To test this theory, we surveyed perceived similarity in communication using the following aspects: humor, introversion, conflict management, and criticalness, followed by a measurement of relational satisfaction, in a sample of people in dating relationships at Pepperdine University to examine …