Theories of personal/communication compatibility?

Gerenuk

What theories do exist that predict compatibility between two people?
Sometimes I talk to people and I think there is just no connection. Or they are just too boring.

I recently read something about transaction analysis. It's not quite communication theory, but it seemed to sort of grasp why with some people one doesn't get the response that one likes.

Any other theories that might predict compatibility between two people in their personalities and communication styles? Roughly speaking the Big Five model and studies about compatible traits do the job. I once heard something about socionics.

Anything else?

Anticitizen

You might find this interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-B...Type_Indicator

My interest in this peaked around ten years ago... at that time I was able to reliably guess what MBTI people around me were before having them to submit them to the testing, so there's at least something repeatable about the testing, whether the results are meaningful or not.

CloudStrife

Do not waste your time with these human compatibility theories as I did once. They are pseudoscientific, without empircial support whatsover. Their adherents accept them as a priori true. They are self contained and perfect, impenetrable to criticism. That is, there is nothing wrong with the theories themselves. Anything that appears to contradict them is brushed aside as external forces lying outside of them.

And if you have the chutzpah to object, you will find yourself on the receiving end of a viscious verbal assault from their followers, which is all the more indicative of a pseudoscience at work.

That last thing you mentioned in your post is guilty of all that I mentioned above.

changeseeker

Evolutionary psychology and social psychology have very interesting theories about this related to dating/mating. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the theories. In social psychology, for example, you will want to date the most beautiful woman, but she wants to date the most beautiful man. So there is a hierarchy based on beauty. If you are number 31, you are likely to date number 31 on the female side. But if for some reason number 2 dies, you will leave number 31 for number 30. Evolutionary psychology explains it in terms of genes. There is also ritual chain theory by Collins, who says people form bonds based on emotional levels in interaction. There was a social psychologist who showed that people who claimed to be friends were very different based on surveys and actually formed friendships more out of propinquity (closeness in space) than anything else. There's much more out there. This is what I can recall.