The Investment Model of Relationships

• Satisfaction level in relationships is influenced by the extent to which the other person fulfils the individual’s most important needs.
• Quality of alternatives in relationships is the extent to which an individual’s most important needs might be fulfilled outside the current relationship.
• Commitment level in relationships is the likelihood that an involvement will persist.
• The investment model of relationships suggests that satisfaction level, quality of alternatives and investment size are highly correlated with relationship commitment.
• The correlation between satisfaction level and commitment in relationships is significantly stronger than either quality of alternatives and investment size on commitment.
• The investment model of relationships suggests that attractive alternatives may not be other people- having no relationship is better than staying in a current relationship.
• Commitment is high in romantic partners who have high satisfaction and investment quality of alternatives are low- become dependent on that.
• Commitment is low when satisfaction levels and investment are low and quality of alternatives are high .
• Le and Agnew analysed data from nearly 38000 participants in 137 studies over a 33yr period to discover the key variables that predicted staying or leaving behaviour in non-marital romantic relationships.
• The investment model highlights features of the relationship that would explain why victims of partner abuse often stay in abusive relationships.
• Goodfriend and Agnew argue that the notion of investment should include things that have already been invested but any plans that partners have made regarding the relationship.
• In ending a relationship an individual would not only lose investment made to date but the possibility of achieving any future plans they had made with that partner.
• The investment model of relationships has been shown to be relevant across different cultures in a variety of different participant populations.
• Li used the social media platform WeChat to investigate the relationship between the three investment model predictors and commitment level.
• Investment was more predictive of commitment level than the other two variables.