Rusbult's investment model A03

A03

Research support- Le and Agnew- carried out a meta-analysis on 52 studies from 1970s to 1999. Across all the studies, satifcation level, quality of alternatives and investment size were highly correlated with relationship commitment with individuals showing higher levels of commitment being more likely to stay in a relationship and those with lower levels being more likely to leave. Particularly strong support- account of heterosexual and homosexual relationships, across cultures, includes both genders. Suggests that the claim that these factors are UNIVERSALLY important in relationships is VALID.

Can explain why people remain in abusive relationships. Rusbult and Martz studied women from a shelter who had experienced domestic abuse. The woment who reported to have fewer attractive alternatives and had made a large investment into the relationship were more likelly to return to their abusive partner. The concept of satifaction as important to relaitonship duration cannot explain this tendency but the level of commitment can! The fact that the model recognises and explains why people in abusive relationships do not have to be satifyed to remain in them, is very valuable. This theory explain apparently inexplicable behaviour of staying in an abusive relationship!

Critised for being over-simplifed. Goodfriend and Agnew argue that there is more to investment thatn just the resources you have…