Christopher R Agnew
Biographic Data
| ID | 600864 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher R Agnew |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher R |
| FAMILY NAME | Agnew |
| SIGNATURE | AGNEW C R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Purdue University West Lafayette |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6140-586X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 443 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Relationship Maintenance Knowledge and Self-Efficacy Among Single Young Adults Desiring a Committed Romantic Relationship
Some people are single despite desiring a committed romantic relationship. Past research has revealed relationship maintenance strategies-thoughts and behaviors that couple members enact to fuel overall relationship satisfaction and commitment-associated with relationship stability. From two independent samples totaling 2059 single young adults desiring a committed relationship, we assessed whether individuals know that given maintenance strategi…
Relationship Status and Psychological Well-being: Initial Evidence for the Moderating Effects of Commitment Readiness
Past research has suggested that the association between romantic relationship status (i.e., single vs. coupled) and well-being can be dependent on different aspects of an individual’s personal life. In the current research, we examined whether commitment readiness (i.e., the subjective sense that the current time is “right” to be in a committed romantic relationship) moderates the link between current relationship status and psychological well-b…
When one's partner wants out: Awareness, attachment anxiety and accuracy
Can a person tell whether their romantic partner wants to break up and, if so, how is such accuracy associated with their own attachment anxiety? We examined these questions by proposing and assessing the construct of perceived partner dissolution consideration (PPDC), including its validity. We then assessed the extent to which partners were accurate in their perceptions of each other's dissolution consideration, focusing on the perceiver's atta…
Playing the field or locking down a partner: Perceptions of available romantic partners and commitment readiness
Commitment strength versus commitment bolstering: Uncertainty undermines and promotes relationship success
Little research has examined factors that might weaken or strengthen commitment effects on relationship outcomes. The current research integrates attitude strength and investment model perspectives to identify uncertainty as a new moderator of commitment's predictive ability. Consistent with an attitude strength perspective, having doubt associated with commitment undermines commitment's predictive power. However, uncertainty can motivate uncerta…
What Do I Call Us? The Investment Model of Commitment Processes and Changes in Relationship Categorization
The investment model of commitment has been used to understand relationship maintenance and dissolution across a variety of populations and relationship types. The current study used data from the Project on Partner Dynamics (POPD), a cohort study of young adults involved in nonmarital sexual relationships in the Los Angeles area, to test whether and how the investment model of commitment processes predicts individuals' self-reported categorizati…
It’s About Time: Readiness, Commitment, and Stability in Close Relationships
Timing matters in relationships. People vary in their sense of when they think the time is right to be involved in a committed relationship. We propose and examine the construct of commitment readiness and its role in predicting important relationship outcomes including commitment level, maintenance processes, and stability among involved intimates. Data from five independent samples obtained with various methods revealed, as hypothesized, that r…
Contraceptive Method Choice Among Young Adults: Influence of Individual and Relationship Factors
Because decisions related to contraceptive behavior are often made by young adults in the context of specific relationships, the relational context likely influences use of contraceptives. Data presented here are from in-person structured interviews with 536 Black, Hispanic, and White young adults from East Los Angeles, California. We collected partner-specific relational and contraceptive data on all sexual partnerships for each individual, on f…
Running on empty: Measuring psychological dependence in close relationships lacking satisfaction
Commitment has often been used to examine why individuals unjustifiably persist in relationships that are lacking in or devoid of satisfaction. However, the practicality of using commitment to examine these situations has been questioned because of its substantial association with satisfaction. Across three studies, we created a measure of nonvoluntary dependence and investigated the validity and reliability of the Nonvoluntary Dependence Scale f…
The ebbs and flows of attachment: Within-person variation in attachment undermine secure individuals’ relationship wellbeing across time
Although attachment security is relatively stable over time, individuals do experience significant within-person variation in their attachment security across time. No research to date, however, has assessed the relational consequences of within-person variation (fluctuations) in attachment security toward a specific attachment figure. Study 1 (N = 409) first examined whether attachment security was associated with individuals' expectations that …
Religious commitment: An interdependence approach
In 4 studies using cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental methods, we applied interdependence theory-based concepts to understand individuals’ religious commitment, focusing on 4 distinct targets of commitment: God, denomination, community, and spiritual leader. We specifically examined which individuals were likely to persist in their religious organization membership and belief system, and which individuals were likely to convert. Resu…
It's my partner, deal with it: Rejection sensitivity, normative beliefs, and commitment
Past research has shown that normative beliefs, or perceptions of (dis)approval from social network members regarding one's romance, significantly predict relationship commitment. We investigated sensitivity to rejection as a moderator of the normative beliefs–commitment association. We tested and found support for the moderating effect of rejection sensitivity (RS; Study 1) and sensitivity specific to rejection of one's current romantic partner …
Predictors of motivation to comply with social referents regarding one's romantic relationship
This research examined predictors of motivation to comply with social referents regarding one's romantic relationship. Two variables are argued to predict motivation to comply with the opinions of social network members: (a) social consequences of compliance and (b) perceived relationship expertise. Three studies examined the association of these variables with motivation to comply. Study 1 used survey research to demonstrate that these variables…
Partner's understanding of affective–cognitive meta‐bases predicts relationship quality
Knowledge that partners have about each other's attitudes are consequential for relationship quality. This article extends prior research and examines whether knowledge regarding a partner's meta‐attitudinal bases, or subjective perceptions of how one's attitudes are driven, can influence relationship quality. Given how meta‐bases are reflective of information‐processing goals, we hypothesized that partner understanding of meta‐attitudinal bases …
Norms, Diplomatic Alternatives, and the Social Psychology of War Support
Using experiments, we show that subjects who are asked about their support for war without being told about diplomatic strategies to deal with crises back military operations at levels consistent with people who are told that the alternatives to war are of low quality. In contrast, subjects who are told that diplomacy could work to resolve conflicts express less support for military operations. These results suggest that, in the absence of confli…
Committed to us: Predicting relationship closeness following nonmarital romantic relationship breakup
There is little research on the nature of relationships between individuals following the termination of a nonmarital romantic relationship. It is largely unknown to what extent former romantic partners remain close following breakup. The present research used the Investment Model of Commitment Processes, assessed prior to romantic breakup, to examine the closeness of post-breakup relationships. Results obtained from two waves of data collected f…
Relational consequences of personal goal pursuits
Individuals balance tasks necessary to fulfill personal goals and to maintain their interpersonal relationships. In the current studies, we examined the impact of personal goal pursuits on how individuals process and respond to events in their romantic relationships. In 5 experiments, we examined consequences of motivationally active personal goals for relationships. Results indicated that when individuals focused on pursuing a personal goal, the…
Spanish version of the Investment Model Scale
Voluminous work has catalogued the utility of Rusbult's (1980) investment model of commitment processes in understanding why some relationships persist whereas others fail. To date this work has been conducted almost exclusively with samples of English‐speaking individuals. To facilitate testing novel hypotheses among Spanish‐speaking populations as well examining various cross‐cultural questions, we present a Spanish version of the Investment Mo…
Committed to Oprah, Homer, or House: Using the investment model to understand parasocial relationships
People can develop close relationships with media figures viewed on TV. Across two studies we examined the extent to which satisfaction with, alternatives to, and investments in such parasocial relationships (PSR) account for feelings of commitment toward favored TV characters. In Study 1, satisfaction and investments positively predicted commitment to fictional TV characters, whereas the alternative of not following any TV character negatively p…
On the benefits of valuing being friends for nonmarital romantic partners
Romantic relationships are, at their core, friendships. As such, it may be the case that valuing that aspect of the relationship fortifies the romantic relationship against negative outcomes and serves as a buffer against dissolution. We explored the role of valuing friendship within romantic relationships in two two-wave studies examining whether investing in the friendship aspect of the relationship (Study 1; N = 190) and placing importance on …
The Investment Model of Commitment Processes
The investment model of commitment processes is rooted in interdependence theory and emerged from the broader scientific zeitgeist of the 1960s and 1970s that sought to understand seemingly irrational persistence in social behavior. The investment model was developed originally to move social psychology beyond focusing only on positive affect in predicting persistence in a close interpersonal relationship. As originally tested, the investment mod…
Need fulfillment and stay-leave behavior: On the diagnosticity of personal and relational needs
Need fulfillment has been found to be associated with numerous positive relationship outcomes, but its impact on stay-leave behavior is less clear. In the current study, we considered whether the fulfillment of different needs might differentially affect stay-leave behavior. We distinguished between needs that are personal in nature and those that are relational in nature. Central to our theoretical analysis is the interdependence-based contentio…
Reduced self-expansion in current romance and interest in relationship alternatives
Two studies examined the process by which romantic relationship partners who report lower self-expansion in their relationship come to show greater interest in their alternatives. We tested predictions based on the alternatives literature in which lacking relationship-derived self-expansion would lead to failures of motivational bias (i.e., devaluing attractive alternatives) and perceptual bias (i.e., failing to notice attractive alternatives) to…
Predicting nonmarital romantic relationship dissolution: A meta-analytic synthesis
A meta-analysis of predictors of nonmarital romantic relationship dissolution was conducted, including data collected from 37,761 participants and 137 studies over 33 years. Individual, relationship, and external variables were investigated, and results suggest that commitment, love, inclusion of other in the self, and dependence were among the strongest predictors of dissolution. Other relational variables such as satisfaction, perceptions of al…
Committed to Relationship Science: Lessons From Rusbult
Cognitive interdependence: Commitment and the mental representation of close relationships
On the basis of an interdependence analysis, it is proposed that commitment to a close relationship is associated with cognitive interdependence—a mental state characterized by a pluralistic, collective representation of the self-in-relationship. A cross-sectional survey study and a 2-wave longitudinal study revealed that strong commitment to a romantic relationship is associated with greater spontane-ous plural pronoun usage, greater perceived u…
Commitment, pro-relationship behavior, and trust in close relationships
Relationship perceptions and persistence: Do fluctuations in perceived partner commitment undermine dating relationships
The authors propose specific temporal profiles that reflect certainty versus doubt about where a partner stands with respect to a dating relationship over time. Two multiwave longitudinal studies focused on within-participant changes in perceived partner commitment. Results from multilevel modeling indicate that individuals whose perceptions of partner commitment fluctuate over time were more likely to be in a relationship that eventually ended t…
Need Fulfillment and Emotional Experience in Interdependent Romantic Relationships
Drawing from theoretical models of emotion and aspects of interdependence theory, we investigated the association among need fulfillment, relative dependence, and emotional experience within romantic relationships. Daily self-reports of general and relationship-related emotional experience and perceived fulfillment of relationship needs were collected on four consecutive days from participants involved in romantic relationships. Consistent with h…
The ebbs and flows of attachment: Within-person variation in attachment undermine secure individuals’ relationship wellbeing across time
Although attachment security is relatively stable over time, individuals do experience significant within-person variation in their attachment security across time. No research to date, however, has assessed the relational consequences of within-person variation (fluctuations) in attachment security toward a specific attachment figure. Study 1 (N = 409) first examined whether attachment security was associated with individuals' expectations that …
Perceived Marginalization and the Prediction of Romantic Relationship Stability
The present research examined how perceived marginalization of one's romantic relationship is associated with level of future commitment to and stability of that involvement. Results from a 7-month longitudinal study of romantically involved individuals (N= 215) revealed that perceived social network marginalization at Time 1 predicted breakup status at Time 2, with commitment level at Time 1 fully mediating this association. Among those individu…
Need fulfillment and stay-leave behavior: On the diagnosticity of personal and relational needs
Need fulfillment has been found to be associated with numerous positive relationship outcomes, but its impact on stay-leave behavior is less clear. In the current study, we considered whether the fulfillment of different needs might differentially affect stay-leave behavior. We distinguished between needs that are personal in nature and those that are relational in nature. Central to our theoretical analysis is the interdependence-based contentio…
Reduced self-expansion in current romance and interest in relationship alternatives
Two studies examined the process by which romantic relationship partners who report lower self-expansion in their relationship come to show greater interest in their alternatives. We tested predictions based on the alternatives literature in which lacking relationship-derived self-expansion would lead to failures of motivational bias (i.e., devaluing attractive alternatives) and perceptual bias (i.e., failing to notice attractive alternatives) to…
One Love: Explicit Monogamy Agreements among Heterosexual Young Adult Couples at Increased Risk of Sexually Transmitted Infections
HIV prevention strategies among couples include condom use, mutual monogamy, and HIV testing. Research suggests that condom use is more likely with new or casual partners, and tends to decline as relationships become steady over time. Little is known, however, about explicit mutual monogamy agreements and HIV testing within heterosexual couples. This study used data from 434 young heterosexual couples at increased risk of HIV and sexually transmi…
Committed to us: Predicting relationship closeness following nonmarital romantic relationship breakup
There is little research on the nature of relationships between individuals following the termination of a nonmarital romantic relationship. It is largely unknown to what extent former romantic partners remain close following breakup. The present research used the Investment Model of Commitment Processes, assessed prior to romantic breakup, to examine the closeness of post-breakup relationships. Results obtained from two waves of data collected f…
Committed to Oprah, Homer, or House: Using the investment model to understand parasocial relationships
People can develop close relationships with media figures viewed on TV. Across two studies we examined the extent to which satisfaction with, alternatives to, and investments in such parasocial relationships (PSR) account for feelings of commitment toward favored TV characters. In Study 1, satisfaction and investments positively predicted commitment to fictional TV characters, whereas the alternative of not following any TV character negatively p…
Satisfaction, Alternatives, Investments, and the Microfoundations of Audience Cost Models
In this paper, we suggest that the Investment Model of Commitment, developed in social psychology, offers a solution to an important microfoundational issue in audience cost theory. Audience cost models are useful for thinking about the foreign policy behaviors of democratic and nondemocratic states. However, they often assume that citizens reliably penalize leaders who break their foreign policy promises even though the empirical record suggests…
Norms, Diplomatic Alternatives, and the Social Psychology of War Support
Using experiments, we show that subjects who are asked about their support for war without being told about diplomatic strategies to deal with crises back military operations at levels consistent with people who are told that the alternatives to war are of low quality. In contrast, subjects who are told that diplomacy could work to resolve conflicts express less support for military operations. These results suggest that, in the absence of confli…
Socially Desirable Responding in Close Relationships: A Dual-Component Approach and Measure
Five studies were conducted to develop and validate a brief measure of socially desirable responding (SDR) for use in close relationships research, the Inventory of Desirable Responding in Relationships (IDRR). Specifically, a two-component measure of SDR was created to assess individuals' tendencies to: (i) deceive themselves, and (ii) deceive others regarding negative aspects of their close relationship. Study 1 employed exploratory factor anal…
Contraceptive Method Choice Among Young Adults: Influence of Individual and Relationship Factors
Because decisions related to contraceptive behavior are often made by young adults in the context of specific relationships, the relational context likely influences use of contraceptives. Data presented here are from in-person structured interviews with 536 Black, Hispanic, and White young adults from East Los Angeles, California. We collected partner-specific relational and contraceptive data on all sexual partnerships for each individual, on f…
Running on empty: Measuring psychological dependence in close relationships lacking satisfaction
Commitment has often been used to examine why individuals unjustifiably persist in relationships that are lacking in or devoid of satisfaction. However, the practicality of using commitment to examine these situations has been questioned because of its substantial association with satisfaction. Across three studies, we created a measure of nonvoluntary dependence and investigated the validity and reliability of the Nonvoluntary Dependence Scale f…
Playing the field or locking down a partner: Perceptions of available romantic partners and commitment readiness
On the benefits of valuing being friends for nonmarital romantic partners
Romantic relationships are, at their core, friendships. As such, it may be the case that valuing that aspect of the relationship fortifies the romantic relationship against negative outcomes and serves as a buffer against dissolution. We explored the role of valuing friendship within romantic relationships in two two-wave studies examining whether investing in the friendship aspect of the relationship (Study 1; N = 190) and placing importance on …
Substituting the forest for the trees: Social networks and the prediction of romantic relationship state and fate
This research focused on perceptions held by heterosexual couples' friendship network concerning the couple's relationship. In a three-wave longitudinal study, we examined (a) whether these perceptions were similar to the couple's views of the relationship, (b) whether they predicted current relationship state and future fate, and (c) how they compared with the couple's perceptions in predicting fate. Consistent with within-dyad idealization, res…
Partner's understanding of affective–cognitive meta‐bases predicts relationship quality
Knowledge that partners have about each other's attitudes are consequential for relationship quality. This article extends prior research and examines whether knowledge regarding a partner's meta‐attitudinal bases, or subjective perceptions of how one's attitudes are driven, can influence relationship quality. Given how meta‐bases are reflective of information‐processing goals, we hypothesized that partner understanding of meta‐attitudinal bases …
Relational consequences of personal goal pursuits
Individuals balance tasks necessary to fulfill personal goals and to maintain their interpersonal relationships. In the current studies, we examined the impact of personal goal pursuits on how individuals process and respond to events in their romantic relationships. In 5 experiments, we examined consequences of motivationally active personal goals for relationships. Results indicated that when individuals focused on pursuing a personal goal, the…
Relationship Maintenance Knowledge and Self-Efficacy Among Single Young Adults Desiring a Committed Romantic Relationship
Some people are single despite desiring a committed romantic relationship. Past research has revealed relationship maintenance strategies-thoughts and behaviors that couple members enact to fuel overall relationship satisfaction and commitment-associated with relationship stability. From two independent samples totaling 2059 single young adults desiring a committed relationship, we assessed whether individuals know that given maintenance strategi…
From game theory to real life: How social value orientation affects willingness to sacrifice in ongoing close relationships
This research adopted an interdependence analysis of sacrifice, examining the link between commitment (i.e., the subjective experience of dependence and long-term orientation) and willingness to sacrifice in ongoing close relationships, and determining whether this link is moderated by preexisting individual differences in social value orientation (i.e., prosocial, individualistic, or competitive orientation).Consistent with hypotheses, results o…
Studying the Retention of Rural Physicians
Rural communities and policy‐makers struggle with efforts to enhance the retention of rural physicians. Research available to guide these efforts is often weak methodologically and thus may be pointing retention efforts in nonproductive directions. This article discusses a range of methodologic issues encountered in rural physician retention studies for the purpose of strengthening future studies. Ideal study approaches to answer causal questions…
From game theory to real life: How social value orientation affects willingness to sacrifice in ongoing close relationships
This research adopted an interdependence analysis of sacrifice, examining the link between commitment (i.e., the subjective experience of dependence and long-term orientation) and willingness to sacrifice in ongoing close relationships, and determining whether this link is moderated by preexisting individual differences in social value orientation (i.e., prosocial, individualistic, or competitive orientation).Consistent with hypotheses, results o…
The Investment Model Scale: Measuring commitment level, satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size
Three studies evaluated the reliability and validity of the Investment Model Scale, an instrument designed to measure four constructs, including commitment level and three bases of dependence–satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size. In all three studies, reliability analyses revealed good internal consistency among items designed to measure each construct. Also, principal components analyses performed on scale items revea…
The Role of Social Desirability in Self-Reported Condom Use Attitudes and Intentions
Cognitive interdependence: Commitment and the mental representation of close relationships
On the basis of an interdependence analysis, it is proposed that commitment to a close relationship is associated with cognitive interdependence—a mental state characterized by a pluralistic, collective representation of the self-in-relationship. A cross-sectional survey study and a 2-wave longitudinal study revealed that strong commitment to a romantic relationship is associated with greater spontane-ous plural pronoun usage, greater perceived u…
Commitment, pro-relationship behavior, and trust in close relationships
Being Committed: Affective, Cognitive, and Conative Components of Relationship Commitment
This article presents the first systematic empirical examination of the state of relationship commitment as advanced by Rusbult and her colleagues, defining the state in terms of affective, cognitive, and conative components. From this perspective, the state of commitment is seen as having three distinct components: (a) psychological attachment, (b) long-term orientation, and (c) intention to persist. Two longitudinal studies of individuals in da…
Substituting the forest for the trees: Social networks and the prediction of romantic relationship state and fate
This research focused on perceptions held by heterosexual couples' friendship network concerning the couple's relationship. In a three-wave longitudinal study, we examined (a) whether these perceptions were similar to the couple's views of the relationship, (b) whether they predicted current relationship state and future fate, and (c) how they compared with the couple's perceptions in predicting fate. Consistent with within-dyad idealization, res…
Need Fulfillment and Emotional Experience in Interdependent Romantic Relationships
Drawing from theoretical models of emotion and aspects of interdependence theory, we investigated the association among need fulfillment, relative dependence, and emotional experience within romantic relationships. Daily self-reports of general and relationship-related emotional experience and perceived fulfillment of relationship needs were collected on four consecutive days from participants involved in romantic relationships. Consistent with h…
Socially Desirable Responding in Close Relationships: A Dual-Component Approach and Measure
Five studies were conducted to develop and validate a brief measure of socially desirable responding (SDR) for use in close relationships research, the Inventory of Desirable Responding in Relationships (IDRR). Specifically, a two-component measure of SDR was created to assess individuals' tendencies to: (i) deceive themselves, and (ii) deceive others regarding negative aspects of their close relationship. Study 1 employed exploratory factor anal…
Predictive Accuracy of Rural Physicians' Stated Retention Plans
Context: The retention of rural physicians is a difficult phenomenon to study because job changes–the outcome of interest–take years to unfold. One common way to study retention is to ask rural practitioners through surveys how much longer they expect to remain in their current positions and use these statements of “anticipated retention” as an expedient proxy measure of actual retention Purpose: To test the predictive accuracy of rural physician…
Commitment and its theorized determinants: A meta–analysis of the Investment Model
We conducted a meta–analysis of Rusbult's Investment Model of commitment. Across 52 studies, including 60 independent samples and 11,582 participants, satisfaction with, alternatives to, and investments in a relationship each correlated significantly with commitment to that relationship. Moreover, these three variables collectively accounted for nearly two–thirds of the variance in commitment. Commitment, in turn, was found to be a significant pr…
Subjective norms and the prediction of romantic relationship state and fate
This study examined whether subjective norms are associated with commitment to a romantic relationship and with remaining in that relationship over time. Subjective norms are defined in the context of relationships as the perceived normative beliefs of a social network member regarding a given relationship weighted by the motivation to comply with that network member. In a longitudinal study of college students involved in dating relationships, s…
Marginalized Relationships: The Impact of Social Disapproval on Romantic Relationship Commitment
Little research has examined the effects of prejudice and discrimination on people's romantic relationships. The authors explored whether belonging to a socially devalued relationship affects consequential relational phenomena. Within the framework of the Investment Model, the authors (a) tested the association between perceived relationship marginalization and relationship commitment, (b) compared investment levels of individuals involved in mar…
Relationship perceptions and persistence: Do fluctuations in perceived partner commitment undermine dating relationships
The authors propose specific temporal profiles that reflect certainty versus doubt about where a partner stands with respect to a dating relationship over time. Two multiwave longitudinal studies focused on within-participant changes in perceived partner commitment. Results from multilevel modeling indicate that individuals whose perceptions of partner commitment fluctuate over time were more likely to be in a relationship that eventually ended t…
Perceived Marginalization and the Prediction of Romantic Relationship Stability
The present research examined how perceived marginalization of one's romantic relationship is associated with level of future commitment to and stability of that involvement. Results from a 7-month longitudinal study of romantically involved individuals (N= 215) revealed that perceived social network marginalization at Time 1 predicted breakup status at Time 2, with commitment level at Time 1 fully mediating this association. Among those individu…
Satisfaction, Alternatives, Investments, and the Microfoundations of Audience Cost Models
In this paper, we suggest that the Investment Model of Commitment, developed in social psychology, offers a solution to an important microfoundational issue in audience cost theory. Audience cost models are useful for thinking about the foreign policy behaviors of democratic and nondemocratic states. However, they often assume that citizens reliably penalize leaders who break their foreign policy promises even though the empirical record suggests…
Predicting nonmarital romantic relationship dissolution: A meta-analytic synthesis
A meta-analysis of predictors of nonmarital romantic relationship dissolution was conducted, including data collected from 37,761 participants and 137 studies over 33 years. Individual, relationship, and external variables were investigated, and results suggest that commitment, love, inclusion of other in the self, and dependence were among the strongest predictors of dissolution. Other relational variables such as satisfaction, perceptions of al…
Committed to Relationship Science: Lessons From Rusbult
One Love: Explicit Monogamy Agreements among Heterosexual Young Adult Couples at Increased Risk of Sexually Transmitted Infections
HIV prevention strategies among couples include condom use, mutual monogamy, and HIV testing. Research suggests that condom use is more likely with new or casual partners, and tends to decline as relationships become steady over time. Little is known, however, about explicit mutual monogamy agreements and HIV testing within heterosexual couples. This study used data from 434 young heterosexual couples at increased risk of HIV and sexually transmi…
Reduced self-expansion in current romance and interest in relationship alternatives
Two studies examined the process by which romantic relationship partners who report lower self-expansion in their relationship come to show greater interest in their alternatives. We tested predictions based on the alternatives literature in which lacking relationship-derived self-expansion would lead to failures of motivational bias (i.e., devaluing attractive alternatives) and perceptual bias (i.e., failing to notice attractive alternatives) to…
The Investment Model of Commitment Processes
The investment model of commitment processes is rooted in interdependence theory and emerged from the broader scientific zeitgeist of the 1960s and 1970s that sought to understand seemingly irrational persistence in social behavior. The investment model was developed originally to move social psychology beyond focusing only on positive affect in predicting persistence in a close interpersonal relationship. As originally tested, the investment mod…
Need fulfillment and stay-leave behavior: On the diagnosticity of personal and relational needs
Need fulfillment has been found to be associated with numerous positive relationship outcomes, but its impact on stay-leave behavior is less clear. In the current study, we considered whether the fulfillment of different needs might differentially affect stay-leave behavior. We distinguished between needs that are personal in nature and those that are relational in nature. Central to our theoretical analysis is the interdependence-based contentio…
Spanish version of the Investment Model Scale
Voluminous work has catalogued the utility of Rusbult's (1980) investment model of commitment processes in understanding why some relationships persist whereas others fail. To date this work has been conducted almost exclusively with samples of English‐speaking individuals. To facilitate testing novel hypotheses among Spanish‐speaking populations as well examining various cross‐cultural questions, we present a Spanish version of the Investment Mo…
Committed to Oprah, Homer, or House: Using the investment model to understand parasocial relationships
People can develop close relationships with media figures viewed on TV. Across two studies we examined the extent to which satisfaction with, alternatives to, and investments in such parasocial relationships (PSR) account for feelings of commitment toward favored TV characters. In Study 1, satisfaction and investments positively predicted commitment to fictional TV characters, whereas the alternative of not following any TV character negatively p…
Psychology (41 works) · Social Psychology (37 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (34 works) · Developmental psychology (23 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Romance (17 works) · Political science (9 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (8 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (8 works) · Intimate Partner and Family Violence (8 works)