Investment Theory Flashcards
What is investment theory
Rusbult extended the social exchange theory by proposing the investment model, Rusbult saw COMMITMENT as key factor in sustaining a relationship. Commitment depends on satisfaction, comparison with alternatives and investment.
Satisfaction, investment and comparison with alternatives
SATISFACTION is determined by available ALTERNATIVES, better alternatives equals less satisfaction.
Investment acts as a deterrent to leaving a relationship. Intrinsic investment are resources put directly into the relationship (emotion, effort etc) by both partners while extrinsic investment are the resources that arise from the relationship (children, possessions bought together etc).
Strength of investment theory
- ) Research supports the investment model, as studies focusing on students from both Taiwan and the Netherlands has found evidence that shows that high commitment levels in a relationship were related to high satisfaction, low quality of alternatives and high investment size.
- ) the model is useful because it can explain infidelity, this could occur if the satisfaction in a relationship is low and they have a high quality alternative. Both of these lessen the commitment of a relationship possibly leading to it ending. It also explains why people stay in abusive relationship as there might be no alternatives and the investment is to high ie they have children.
+) it has the strength of being applied to explain the factor of commitment in many different relationships. Rusbult administered an investment model scale questionnaire to participants in homosexual relationships. They found that all factors of the investment model are important when looking at commitment
Weaknesses of investment theory
- ) The investment model has been criticised as it is hard to measure commitment, satisfaction, investment and quality of alternatives. Rusbult responded to this by making an investment model scale that could measure the key variables in a reliable and valid way. However the scale uses self reports which can effect the validity of the scale.
- ) The investment model does not take into account gender differences that might exist when looking at relationships. Lin found that females tend to report higher satisfaction, poorer quality of alternatives,greater investment and stringer commitment in relationships when compared to males.
