Relationships-Investment Model Flashcards
Who created the Investment Model?
Rusbult
What are the main 4 things to the investment model?
Commitment-According to Rusbult commitment is glue holding relationship together and held by three main factors:
-Satisfaction;Do positive aspects of relationship outweigh negatives .e.g profits greater than costs
- Alternatives;Is there alternative relationship better than current one? e.g. could find better rewards greater than you currently have
- Investment;How much of my investment in this relationship would I lose if it ended? e.g. family, friends, money, time etc.
What does the model actually show about relationships and why they continue?
Relationships do not just continue because positives outweigh negatives, but also because they are bound to one another through their investment in the relationship
Why was this theory developed as an extension of SET?
SET didn’t tell us about couples staying together even when costs outweighing rewards unlike SET saying there MUST be more profits than costs for a couple to stay together when that is untrue
What is commitment strengthened by?
Strengthened by satisfaction and investment but commitment is also weakened if there are alternatives to relationship
What study supported this theory?
Le and Agnew (2003)
What did Le and Agnew show?
Showed importance of satisfaction, alternative and investment in commitment
What was Le and Agnew’s study?
Meta-analysis of 52 studies found support for investment model across individualist and collectivist cultures e.g. in USA (individualist) and Taiwan (collectivist)- suggests universality of Investment model; making it applicable to wide range of relationships
What are the positives of this theory?
- Good research support e.g. le and agnew has cultural validity, good meta analysis etc.
- Research shows that theory is valid
What are the negatives of this theory?
- Problem is idea of investment as we don’t know when is it ‘high’ enough that leads to us being committed in relationship
- Does not establish cause and effect as evidence is correlational
- All self-report methods may be giving socially desirable answers and then so reduces validity of evidence