Every married couple experiences some sort of personality clash over the course of their marriage. Studies have shown that 68 percent of all conflict in marriage is due to personality differences. Thankfully, with the right marriage advice, couples can learn how to navigate personality differences in marriage and save their marriages from unnecessary conflict.

Know your Personality

To understand why you and your spouse clash, you need to have a good understanding of your own personality and interpersonal tendencies. This way you’ll know exactly what you need from your spouse.

Are you the kind of person who prefers to process things on your own before talking to your spouse or the kind of person who needs to talk to your spouse in order to process things? Do you give quick responses but then change your mind just as fast? Or, is it difficult for you to change your mind once it’s made up no matter how much someone tries to convince you?

Know your Spouse’s Personality

In addition to knowing your own personality, you need to understand your partner’s personality and temperament needs.

There are generally three levels to “knowing someone.” You need to know their personality traits especially in relation to openness, self discipline, extroversion, empathy and stress management. You also need to know their goals, values and motivation, as well as who they believe they are as a person.

Communicate Your Needs

The whole point of knowing your personality is so that you can explain your needs and thought process to your spouse. This enables them to understand you and your personality better, and lets them know the areas where they need to make adjustments.

Most people are willing to compromise for the sake of being happily married. All they need is some marriage advice to make this process less frustrating.