Maintenance of Relationships
- Created by: Megan Billyeald
- Created on: 28-12-12 12:22
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- Maintenance of Relationships
- Social Exchange theory
- Individuals attempt to maximise their rewards and minimise their costs.
- Comparison level
- A standard against which all our relationships are judged.
- Product of our experiences in other relationships and our expectations from general exchanges
- If relationship exceeds comparison level then the relationship is worthwhile and vice versa.
- Comparison level for alternatives
- Weighs up a potential increase in rewards from a different partner minus the costs with leaving the current relationship
- May explain why some women stay in abusive relationships
- Rusbult and Martz - when investments are high and alternatives are low, it is still seen as profitable
- This is why a woman may decide to stay in an abusive relationship
- Rusbult and Martz - when investments are high and alternatives are low, it is still seen as profitable
- Equity Theory
- Extension of social exchange theory
- People strive to achieve fairness in the relationship
- People who give a great deal into the relationship but receive little out of it would perceive inequity
- Equity does not mean equality
- Partners can receive and give different amounts and the relationship can still be equitable
- Equitable relationship should be one where partner's benefits minus their costs equals their partners benefits less theirs costs.
- The equity theory is an is an insufficient theory
- Ragsdale and Brandau-Brown reject the claim that equity is a a key determinant of relationship satisfaction. They argue that it represents an incomplete rendering of the way that married couples behave in respect to one another.
- This would therefore suggest that the equity theory is an insufficient theory to explaining marital maintenance.
- Ragsdale and Brandau-Brown reject the claim that equity is a a key determinant of relationship satisfaction. They argue that it represents an incomplete rendering of the way that married couples behave in respect to one another.
- Social Exchange theory
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