Psychology
Rusbult's Investment Model
Rusbult's Investment Model is a psychological theory that explains the factors influencing commitment and satisfaction in romantic relationships. It suggests that commitment is influenced by three main factors: satisfaction, quality of alternatives, and investment size. According to the model, individuals are more likely to stay in a relationship when they are satisfied, have few appealing alternatives, and have made significant investments.
Written by Perlego with AI-assistance
Related key terms
1 of 5
5 Key excerpts on "Rusbult's Investment Model"
- Phil Gorman(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Chapter 8Spec checkTheories of romantic relationships 3: Rusbult’s investment model
Theories of romantic relationships: Rusbult’s investment model of commitment, satisfaction, comparison with alternatives and investmentAO1 (Knowledge and understanding): Theories of romantic relationships
The role of investment in relationships
Theinvestment modelis not so much a theory of how people get together in a relationship but of how people stay together. The issue of investment, like most of the other theories looked at so far, is borrowed from business studies to look at how investing in something creates a level ofcommitmentthat is hard to break. The theory is developed from the kind ofinterdependenceput forward by Thibaut and Kelley in the later version of their theory but this theory is more to do withdependenceand how we become dependent on a relationship (see Chapter 6 ). Commitment is a very important part of the theory, as it allows us to understand how people become tied to a relationship due to the level of commitment that they have put in. If you have invested a lot into a relationship, it will become quite difficult to leave. According to Rusbult et al. (2011), commitment is the most important factor in relationships and is influenced by three factors that help to explain how people become so committed to their relationship:satisfaction,comparison with alternativesandinvestment size.The influence of satisfaction, comparison with alternatives and investment size
Satisfaction
As we have already seen, satisfaction is important in understanding people’s relationships and it is of particular importance in this model. Satisfaction relates to the kind ofcosts and benefits
eBook - PDF- Paul A M Van Lange, Arie W Kruglanski, E Tory Higgins, Paul A M Van Lange, Arie W Kruglanski, E Tory Higgins, Author(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
HANDBOOK OF THEORIES OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 220 INITIAL TESTS OF THE INVESTMENT MODEL With important personal and scholarly influ-ences as a backdrop, Rusbult completed her dissertation in 1978, in which she developed the investment model. Initial tests of the investment model were published in the early 1980s (Rusbult, 1980, 1983). These early papers included: (1) an experiment in which participants read one vignette of a hypotheti-cal couple varying, in a between-subject design, the costs, alternatives, and investment size to assess the effect of these variables on satisfaction and commitment (Rusbult, 1980, Study 1); (2) a cross-sectional study in which participants completed a survey with respect to their own relationship, assessing the asso-ciation of costs, rewards, quality of alterna-tives, and investments with satisfaction and commitment (Rusbult, 1980, Study 2); and (3) a multiwave longitudinal study (12 meas-urement occasions) in which participants completed a survey about their own relation-ship, assessing whether changes in satisfaction (costs and rewards), alternatives, and invest-ments predicted subsequent commitment and relationship longevity (Rusbult, 1983). Together these studies provided strong empirical evidence of several claims that were novel at the time and that launched a shift in relationship research from focusing exclusively on satisfaction to studying commitment proc-esses more generally. The major claim was that satisfaction and commitment are not interchangeable, nor are they equally impor-tant in predicting relationship outcomes. Commitment was more strongly related to whether relationships endured than level of satisfaction (Rusbult, 1983). Understanding why some relationships persisted and others ended required understanding commitment, which increased with more rewards or higher satisfaction, with weakening alternatives, and with increasing investments.
- Laura V. Machia, Christopher R. Agnew, Ximena B. Arriaga(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 16, 172–186. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(80)90007-4 Rusbult, C. E., Agnew, C. R., & Arriaga, X. B. (2012). The investment model of commitment processes. In P. A. M. van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology (pp. 218–231). London: Sage. doi:10.4135/9781446249222.n37 Rusbult, C. E., Martz, J. M., & Agnew, C. R. (1998). The investment model scale: Measuring commitment level, satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size. Personal Relationships, 5, 357–387. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.1998. tb00177.x Rusbult, C. E. & van Lange, P. A. M. (2003). Interdependence, interaction, and relationships. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 351–375. doi:10.1146/annurev. psych.54.101601.145059 Rusbult, C. E., Verette, J., Whitney, G. A., Slovik, L. F., & Lipkus, I. (1991). Accom- modation processes in close relationships: Theory and preliminary empirical evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 53–78. Saucier, G., Bel-Bahar, T., & Fernandez, C. (2007). What modifies the expression of personality tendencies? Defining basic domains of situation variables. Journal of Personality, 75, 479–504. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00446.x Schoebi, D. & Randall, A. K. (2015). Emotional dynamics in intimate relationships. Emotion Review, 7, 342–348. doi:10.1177/1754073915590620 Shallcross, S. L. & Simpson, J. A. (2012). Trust and responsiveness in strain-test situations: A dyadic perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(5), 1031–1044. doi:10.1037/a0026829 Simpson, J. A., Campbell, L., & Weisberg, Y. J. (2006). Daily perceptions of conflict and support in romantic relationships: The ups and downs of anxiously attached individuals. In M. Mikulincer, & G. S. Goodman (Eds.), Dynamics of Romantic Love: Attachment, Caregiving, and Sex (pp. 216–239). New York: Guilford. Simpson, J. A., Farrell, A. K., Oriña, M.
eBook - PDFRelationship Maintenance
Theory, Process, and Context
- Brian G. Ogolsky, J. Kale Monk(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
The equilibrium model of relationship maintenance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108 (1), 93–113. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000004 Rusbult, C. E., & Buunk, B. P. (1993). Commitment processes in close relationships: An interdependence analysis. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10(2), 175–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/026540759301000202 Rusbult, C. E., Martz, J. M., & Agnew, C. R. (1998). The Investment Model Scale: Measuring commitment level, satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size. Personal Relationships, 5, 357–391. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10 .1111/j.1475-6811.1998.tb00177.x Rusbult, C. E., & Van Lange, P. A. M. (2003). Interdependence, interaction, and relationships. Annual Review of Psychology, 54(1), 351–375. https://doi.org/10.1146 /annurev.psych.54.101601.145059 Rusbult, C. E., Verette, J., Whitney, G., Slovik, L. F., & Lipkus, I. (1991). Accommodation processes in close relationships: Theory and preliminary Interdependence Perspectives 27 empirical evidence. Journal of Personality, 60(1), 53–78. http://psycnet.apa.org/jour nals/psp/60/1/53/ Tan, K., & Agnew, C. R. (2016). Ease of retrieval effects on relationship commitment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(2), 161–171. https://doi.org/10.1177 /0146167215617201 Thibaut, J. W., & Kelley, H. H. (1959). The social psychology of groups. New York, NY: Wiley. Van Lange, P. A. M., Balliet, D. P., Parks, C. D., & Van Vugt, M. (2014). Social dilemmas: Understanding human cooperation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Van Lange, P. A. M., Ouwerkerk, J. W., & Tazelaar, M. J. A. (2002). How to overcome the detrimental effects of noise in social interaction: The benefits of generosity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(5), 768–780. https://doi.org/10.1037 /0022–3514.82.5.768 Van Lange, P. A. M., Rusbult, C. E., Drigotas, S. M., Arriaga, X. B., Witcher, B. S., & Cox, C. L. (1997). Willingness to sacrifice in close relationships.
- Noel A. Card, James P. Selig, Todd Little, Noel A. Card, James P. Selig, Todd Little(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
investment model (Rusbult, 1983) and applies it to the family. It will then highlight how the hypotheses that can be derived from the investment model translate into SRM. Subsequently, it will describe the SRM and its methodological requirements in more detail and illuminate the possibilities that SRM offers for family researchers. To illustrate some applications of the SRM, the chapter will present three applications of the SRM to findings on the investment model in families. Specifically, the chapter will first examine how the SRM allows us to disentangle and quantify the influence of the three different levels of relational phenomena in the investment model in families. Then, it will show how the SRM can be used to examine specific hypotheses and longitudinal relations in the investment model. Finally, the chapter will present one example of how the SRM can be used to examine individual outcomes by considering all levels of influence in a family over time. To this end, we will present our findings on how relational phenomena predict adolescent depression over time. The chapter will conclude by portraying some of the theoretical and practical implications of the use of SRM for theories and future research.A Theoretical Framework: The Investment Model
According to the investment model (e.g., Rusbult, 1983), individuals are committed to their relationship to the extent that they are satisfied with the relationship. They are also more committed to the relationship if they have made investments in the relationship that may be lost if the relationship ends, and they are more committed to the relationship if they have poor alterna tives to the relationship. Thus, relationship satisfaction and investments are positively related to relationship commitment , whereas quality of alternatives
Index pages curate the most relevant extracts from our library of academic textbooks. They’ve been created using an in-house natural language model (NLM), each adding context and meaning to key research topics.
