L8 - Investment Model Flashcards
What 3 factors affect what?
Satisfaction levels, investment, alternatives affect commitment
Describe investment
Measure of extent of resources that create a strong foundation for the future are attached to a relationship
Describe intrinsic investments
Direct investments like money and energy
Describe extrinsic investments
Investments that weren’t present at the start but develop over time of relationship like memories and children
Describe alternatives
Think about whether needs can be better fulfilled by quality alternatives outside the relationship
An alternative can be
Being single
Describe satisfaction levels
Positive and negative emotional experiences a person feels in a relationship
Satisfaction can be determined by
How well a partner fulfils their partner’s individualneeds
Describe commitment
How happy people are in the relationship and how much they want to persist with it
+ to explanations
Explains abusive relationships, e.g. high investment and low quality of alternatives
- to measurement
Things like commitment, satisfaction are subjective
Difficult to measure
Unscientific and reduces validity
- related to gender differences
Females report higher satisfaction and investment and lower quality of alternatives than men
Need to take into account gender differences and not generalise
Research procedure
Meta-analysis
11,000 people
5 countries: UK, USA, Taiwan, Israel, Netherlands
Findings
Satisfaction commitment correlate +0.68
Investment +0.46
Alternatives -0.48
Low committed likely to leave
+ of research related to culture
Cultural support
Range of cultures
3 factors correlate in many cultures
