Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Australia Says No


We have all seen the ads on TV for the "violence against women Australia Says No" campaign. Many of the people in these campaigns talk about relationships and violence in these relationships. You might be wondering what this campaign has to do with my topic about 'use the investment model to explain love and relationships' , but I've started doing some research and have found out that the investment model is often used to help explain why people stay in abusive relationships.

Our text book explains the investment model as a theory that uses 3 factors - satisfaction, alternatives, and investments - to explain why people stay with their long term relationship partners. The first factor satisfaction refers to if you are satisfied with your relationship, therefore it you are more satisfied then you are more likely to stay in the relationship. The second factor is available alternatives, if you don't really like your relationship but you don't see any better alternative partners then you are more likely to stay in the relationship. The final factor refers to how much an individual has invested in the relationship, if you have put a lot of your emotions, money, and time into the relationship you may be less likely to leave because you would have lost all you have invested into the relationship and would have to start from scratch in the next relationship.

So I thought that I would get you guys to think and come up with ideas of why this model might help explain why people might stay in abusive relationships (it might help you remember the investment model for our test) and then later on I will let you know what the research says and see how right you all were.
Thanks :)

3 comments:

Nigel said...

Is it possible that cultural pressure has an influence on why women stay in abusive relationships?

Especially cultures that place emphasis on the "extended family," with adherence to family and religous law rather than statute law enforced by the state.

This may be a factor for people who have migrated from failed or poor judicial states now living in states dependant on judiciaries for conflict resolution.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Amazing information! Writing an essay on psychology is never an easy task. I found a web that offers premium quality writing services that will help you to complete an excellent essay. Visit this site on psychology essay writing service in australia to know more about it. Good luck!