Our hypothesis, based on the practice of couple-psychotherapy and on the study of literature, was that couples, consulting a psychotherapist because of relationship-problems (so called patient-couples) differ from non-patient-couples in their pattern of personality-factors. This was tested by three questionnaires completed by 73 patient-couples as well as by a control group of 64 couples recruited by advertisement. The questionnaires concerned both partners and each filled it in about themselves as well as about each other. A. discrepancy-analysis was done on three personality-factors: (1) charactertraits ; (2) complaint behaviour (neurotic instability) ; (3) reaction to quarrels.
The result is that all three factors show a significant discrepancy between patient-couples and non-patient-couples. This means that patient-couples are more complementary in the perception of each other's character traits, complaint- behavior and reaction to quarrels and that non-patient-couples are more similar in regard to these three factors. These findings are in accordance with the hypothesis.