theories of romantic realitonships - rusbults investment model Flashcards
rusbults investment model
commitment deoends on three factors
investment model is a development of the soical exhnage theory
factor 1 - statsifaction
based on the conept of the comparison level
satisfying relationship is judged by compairng rewards and costs
seen to be profitbale if it had many rewards and few costs
each partner is geerally satisfied if they are getting more out of the relationshop than they expect based on previosu norms and experinces
factor 2 - compariosn wiht lternaitves
compariosn with alternaitves results in romantic partners asking if their needs could be better met outside of their current relaitobship are alternaitves more rewarding
factor 3 investment
anything we would lose if the relaitonship came to an end
intrinsic investment - any resources we put directly into the relaitonshop
tnagiable things such as money or possessuons or intagiables such as energy emotion and self disclosures
extrinsic investments - resources that previosuly did not feature in the relationshop but are now closely associated wiht it can be tanguable such as car or mutual friends or children
if partners in a relaitonhip expeirnce hugh levles of satisfaction and the laternaitves are less attractive and the sizes of thier investment are increasing then we can conifently predotc thayt partners will be committedd to their relaitonship
satisaction versus commitment
commitment is the main psychological facotr that cuases people to stay in romantic relaitonshops
can help to explain why dissatisied partners may choose to stay in a relaitonshp - its becuase they are committed ot that partner
they have made investments that they do not want to see go to waste
relationship maintenance mechanisims
put their partners interestst first (willingness to sacrifice)
promote the rlaitonshop (accomidatun)
committed partners think about eachother anf potential alernaitves in specific ways
they are unrealistically postive about hteir parnter (positve illusions)
negative about tempting alternaitves and other peopel realtionshops (ridiculign alternatives)
strength
researhc support
meta-analysis by Benjamin le and agnew
reviewed 52 studies from late 1970s to 1999
together included 11000 participants in 5 countries
found that satisfaction comparison with alternatives and investment size all predicted relationship commitment
relationship in which commitment was greatest were the most stable and lasted longest
these outcomes were true for both men and women across all cultures in the analysis and for homosexual as well as heterosexual couples
validity to rusbults claims that these factors are universally importnat features of romantic relationships
strength
explains absuive relationships
expalantions of relationships that involve intimate partner violence
Rusbult and Marty studied domestically abused women at a shelter and fount that those most likely to return to an absuive partner reported having made the greatest investment an having the fewest attractive alternatives
these women were dissatistfed with their relationships but still committed to them
therefor model shows that satisfaction on its own cannot explain why people stay in relationships commitment and investment are also factors
limitation
oversimplifies investment
views investent in a simplistic one-dimensional way
Good friend and Agnew point out that there is more to investment than just the resources you have already put into a realtionship
in the early stages partners will have made very few actual investments
Good friend and Agnew extende drusbults orignical model by including the investment partners make in their future plans
motivated to commit to each other because they want to see their cherished plans for the future work out
means that original model is limited because it fails to recognise the tue complexity of investment
especially ow planning for the future influences commitment