The Investment Model Of Relationships

Question 1

What is the investment model?

Answer 1

• an explanation of relationship stability that emphasises the importance of three factors (satisfaction, investment size and quality of alternatives), in determining relationship commitment, which in turn predicts stability.

Question 2

What does satisfaction level refer to?

Answer 2

• the positive versus negative emotions experienced within a relationship and is influenced by the extent to which the other person fulfils the individuals most important needs.

Question 3

What does quality of alternatives refer to?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What happens if the individual perceives the alternative to be better at providing more superior outcomes?

Answer 4

• the individual may be lead toward that alternative and away from their current relationship.

Question 5

What happens if alternatives are not present?

Answer 5

• an individual may persist with their current relationship due to a lack of alternatives.

Question 6

How may an attractive alternative not be a person?

Answer 6

• having no relationship may be more attractive than staying in the current relationship.

Question 7

What does investment size contribute to?

Answer 7

• the stability of a relationship

Question 8

What is investment size?

Answer 8

• 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 9

What are some examples of investments?

Answer 9

• time and energy, sharing friends, take on shared possessions

Question 10

What do investments create?

Answer 10

• a powerful psychological inducement to persist with a relationship.

Question 11

What does the term commitment mean?

Answer 11

• it describes the likelihood that an involvement will persist.

Question 12

When is commitment high?

Answer 12

• in romantic partners who are happy with their relationships and anticipate very little gain and high levels of loss if they were to leave the relationship.

Question 13

When is commitment likely to be low?

Answer 13

• when satisfaction levels and investment in the relationship are both low and the quality of alternatives is high.

Question 14

Evaluation - Research Support For The Investment Model

Answer 14

• Support for commitment as a an indicator of relationship stability
• Meta-analysis by Le et al: analysed data from nearly 37,000 participants in 137 studies over a 33-year period to discover the key variables that predicted ‘staying or leaving’ behaviour in non-marital romantic relationships.
• Commitment was a particularly strong factor of whether or not a relationship would break up.
• Satisfaction, quality of alternatives and investments were modest predictors of the likelihood of staying in a relationship or breaking up.

Question 15

Evaluation - Problems In Measuring The Variables Of The Investment Model

Answer 15

• Problem = difficult to measure commitment and other variables that lead to commitment in the relationship.
• Rusbult et al: developed the ‘Investment Model Scale’ to overcome this problem. This scale is both high in reliability and validity and has been shown to be suitable for a wide variety of different populations.
• Problem = scale relies on self-report measures which may lead to social desirability bias.

Question 16

Evaluation - Real-World Application

Answer 16

• Strength = able to explain why individuals may persist in a relationship with an abusive partner.
• Victims of partner abuse experience low satisfaction which would lead us to predict that they would leave the abusive partner but the investment model highlights features of the relationship that would explain why a victim of abuse might remain in the relationship.
• They may lack alternatives or have too much invested with the partner.
• Rusbult and Martz: revealed that alternatives were a strong indication of whether or not bartered women at a shelter remained committed to and returned to their partner.

Question 17

Evaluation - The Wide Application Of The Investment Model

Answer 17

• Strength = its main claims have been shown to be true across many populations and in many types of relationship.
• Research has supported the relevance of the investment model across different cultures (US, Netherlands, Taiwan), in a variety of different populations (marital/non-marital relationships, homosexual relationships, friendships and abusive relationships)