The Relation between Masculinity and Femininity               
                    Correlations  from two different, cross-sectional studies using measures of masculinity and
                femininity and marital satisfaction (MS). Idea: is there a relation between MS and either of
                these personality variables?

    In these cross-sectional studies there does appear to be a relation between femininity and
satisfaction for both husbands and wives. (The "Partner" column refers to using the other
spouse's F or M score. Is Jim's MS predictable from Mary's Femininity; on row one, the
r = .33 indicates this is so.)
 
    The circles illustrate a common problem in this area of research: self-report measures often
overlap with one another. When this is the case (overlap) it is necessary to control statistically
for this overlap. Usually, the control for 3 reduces the correlation between 1 and 2. In the example
the correlation drops slightly from .28 to .22 between husbands' MS and wives' femininity.