Equity theory

• KEY STUDY: Stafford and Canary procedure

  • 200 married couples
  • Completed a questionnaire about equity in relationships and satisfaction
  • Each spouse also asked about maintenance strategies
• KEY STUDY: Stafford and Canary findings

  • people were happiest if their relationships were seen to be equitable
  • next happiest were those who were over benefitting
  • least happiest were those who were under benefitting
• what does the Stafford and canary study tell us?

  • relationships are more likely to be successful if they are equitable
  • empirical evidence for equity theory
• Evaluation… (practical application)

  • supporting research has high ecological validity
  • Stafford and canary = real life married couples
  • high ecological validity = representative and generalisable = develop practical applications such as marriage counselling
  • berg and mcquinn found equity didn’t increase over time = empirical evidence to challenge equity theory = reduces credibility and usefulness of practical application
• Evaluation (method)

  • Self report technique suffers from social desirability bias
  • May answer to make their marriage appear more equitable
  • Lacks internal validity = can’t establish cause and effect = practical applications not useful
• Evaluation… (cultures)

  • equity theory not apply to all cultures
  • aumer-Ryan et al found cultural differences (individualistic = favour equity) (collectivist = over benefitting )
  • not universal therefore equity varies between cultures
  • reduces credibility = can’t generalised to collectivist cultures must account for cultural differences for a full understanding