Rusbult's Investment Model

• Commitment - a romantic partners intention or desire to continue a relationship
• Satisfaction - the extent to which romantic partners feel the rewards of a relationship exceed the costs
• Comparison with alternatives - a judgement that partners make concerning whether a relationship with a different partner would bring more rewards and future costs
• Investment - the resources associated with a romantic relationship which partners would lose if their relationship were to end
• According to Rusbult et al (2011), commitment depends on three factors
• Is a development of social exchange theory
• Factors of Rusbult's Investment model:

  1. Satisfaction
  2. Comparison with alternatives
  3. Investment
• A satisfying relationship is judged by comparing rewards and costs, and the relationship is considered good if the costs are less than the rewards

  • getting more than what they expect based on previous experience and social norms
• Comparison with alternatives - romantic partners asking themselves whether their needs could be better met in a different relationship
• Investment - Rusbult realised that CL and CLalt from SET are not enough to explain commitment as if they were then many more relationships would end soon - therefore there must be a crucial 3rd factor that influences commitment
• An investment is anything we stand to lose if the relationship was to end
• Types of investment:

  1. Intrinsic Investments - put directly into the relationship (e.g. money or emotion)
  2. Extrinsic investment - resources that previously did not feature but are now closely associated with it ( e.g. children or memories)
• Rusbult et al (2011) - commitment is the main psychological factor that causes people to stay in a relationship and satisfaction is a contributory factor

  • dissatisfied partners may choose to stay in a relationship because they are committed due to investments made
• PEEL 1:

  Strengths - the model is an explanation of relationships that involve intimate partner violence - people were dissatisfied with their relationship but still committed - model shows that satisfaction on its own can't explain why people stay in relationships
• PEEL 2:

  Limitation - views investment in a simplistic - Goodfriend and Agnew suggest that in early stages, partners may have few actual investments but extended the original model to future plans

  • failes to recognise the true complexity of investment
• PEEL 3:

  Limitation - Self -report techniques that the models supporting research is based on can have bias
• Le and Agnew (2003) - a meta-analysis of 52 studies comprising a total of 11,000 participants from 5 countries which concluded that satisfaction, CLalt and investment size all predicted commitment
• PEEL 4:

  Strength - supporting research - Le and Agnew used a large sample and quantitative data which means that the findings are robust and able to withstand statistical analysis which in turn increases their reliability