the investment model of relationships

Question 1

Rusbult’s investment model of relationships

Answer 1

Rusbult’s investment model of relationships builds on the social exchange theory and developed as a way of understanding why people persist in some romantic relationships but not in others.

Question 2

The three factors that emphasise relationship stability

Answer 2

Commitment depends on:
Satisfaction
Quality of alternatives
Investment

Question 3

Satisfaction level

Answer 3

The positive versus negative emotions experienced within a relationship and is influenced by the extent to which the other person fulfils the individual’s most important needs.

Question 4

Quality of alternatives

Answer 4

The extent to which an individual’s most important needs might be better fulfilled outside the current relationship.

Perceiving that an attractive alternative might provide superior outcomes might lead an individual toward that alternative and away from their current relationship.

Question 5

Quality of alternatives (if not present?)

Answer 5

However, if alternatives are not present, an individual may persist with a relationship because of a lack of better options.

Question 6

Investment size

Answer 6

A measure of all the resources that are attached to the relationship, and which would diminish in value or be lost completely if the relationship were to end.

Question 7

Investment size as a contribution to relationship stability

Answer 7

Investments increase in dependence on the relationship because they increase connections with the partner that would be costly to break.

As a result, investments create a powerful psychological inducement to persist with a relationship.

Question 8

Commitment

Answer 8

The likelihood that an individual will persist with their current relationship. It is a product of high satisfaction and investment in the relationship and low quality of alternatives.

Question 9

Evaluation points

Answer 9

Research support for the investment model.

Real word application: Explaining abusive relationships.

Question 10

Research support for the investment model

Answer 10

Le And Agnew’s meta analysis (2010) found that satisfaction, QoA and investment size all predicted relationship commitment. 38,000 participants in 137 studies over 33 years.

Relationships in which commitment was the greatest were the most stable and lasted longer.

The support is particularly strong given that the results were true for men and women in either heterosexual or homosexual relationships.

High internal validity; this suggests that the claim that these factors are universally important in relationships is valid.

Question 11

Real word application: explaining abusive relationships

Answer 11

This model is particularly valid and useful in explaining relationships involving Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).

Rusbult and Martz 1995 revealed that alternatives and investments were a strong indication of whether battered women at a shelter remained committed to and returned to their partner.

This is a strength because it explains the apparently inexplicable behaviour of staying in an abusive relationship.