Ch. 6 Interdependency
Economy of the relationship
Def: Relience on other and how much we help each other
Social exchange
Successful relationships entail mutual exchange of desirable rewards with others
looking for a good vibe
how do we want our checkbook to look like in an event
we don’t want to be zero but a surplus
Reward
Something you gain
security
finance
affection
car
home
presents
love
acquaintances
cost
something we lose
dislikes
tension
Outcome= rewards- cost
want reward more than cost, we don’t want 0 we want surplus
rewards higher than cost, desirable outcome
higher cost than rewards- dissatifiaction of relationship
Interdependency theory
evaluations of a relationship
what we expect to get
Comparision Level (CL)
what happens when our outcomes exceed our CL?
it’s what we’re getting
feels happy and satisfied in relationships
What happens when it’s lower than CL?
Outcomes - CL= Happiness ( satisfaction level )
what can we get if we left
Comparison level for alternatives ( or CL alt )
this is our lowest level of outcomes that we will expect
outcomes- CL alt = stability of relationship
Cl alt is a Complex judgement
investments
emotional investment
connection investment
financial investment
parental investment
pet investment
outcomes
Current outcomes
CL
CL alt
( from good to poor outcomes )
Stable happy relationship
CL
Current Outcomes
CL Alt
unhappy , but stable relationship
CL alt
Current outcomes
CL
Happy, but unstable relationsips
CL ALT
CL
Current obessions
Unhappy, unstable relationship
if CL alt, CL flipped , still remains the same
CL/ ALT as time goes by:
and both are higher than ever before
Why ?
Individual expectations - social media makes it worse
“I deserve that too “
We put in the work
cognitive mechanism
alt can decrease in relationship over time because we invest in relationship
7X times harder to leave an abusive relationship before it sticks