Commitment has proven to be an integral component within most lasting relationships. Many scholars have worked to uncover the reasoning behind what leads to increased commitment and relationship longevity. Of course, with each romantic relationship, the reasons for why an individual or a couple remains together can vary, leading to a wide variety of theories to be established to explain the components of commitment. Theories include a focus on the investment theory of commitment, perceived relationship satisfaction, relationship alternatives, and the rewards and costs of a relationship in correlation to motivators behind commitment. The primary goal of this paper is to examine the complexities of commitment in relation to the aforementioned theories for promoting relationship longevity.
In order to best understand the role of commitment within already established romantic relationships, it’s necessary to look at the various theories concerning topics of commitment. First and foremost, the work of Lemieux and Hale analyze Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love, which serves as a strong foundation for understanding the role of commitment within a romantic relationship. The aforementioned theory states that love is composed of three parts: intimacy, passion, and commitment. According to the studies pertaining to this theory, each of the three components change in prevalence throughout the course of a relationship.
Lemieux and Hale have found that there are varying correlations
necessarily in order either. In my paper, I will be talking about how this couple demonstrates the
Hazan and Shaver (1987) aimed to investigate whether they could classify the responders’ love relationships as secure, ambivalent, and avoidant, whether there was a correlation between the formed attachment pattern from childhood and attachment pattern during the love relationships, and whether there was a correlation between the distribution of childhood attachment patterns and adult love relationships’ attachment patterns.
Love is unique in its striking ability to be a driving force in dictating interpersonal relationships. It patterns behavior and orients individuals towards their distinct, unique attractions. According to Velleman, love penetrates deeper than one’s qualities; it extends to one’s rational will, or the essence of a person. To him, though love appears to have particularity, it is also a moral emotion. Kolodny subscribes to the relationship theory, asserting that an ongoing, interpersonal, and historical relationship with a relative is a part of the reason for love. In Kolodny’s view, the existence of the true self is irrelevant, as is the morality of love. Both Velleman and Kolodny disprove the quality theory; however, their perceptions of love and its morality differ. I believe that Kolodny is correct in his view that morality is irrelevant to love and that there must be factual reasons for love. Although it is enticing to believe that one is attracted to the essence of another, the essence is not motivation enough for love. The relationship theory takes into account the motivation needed to love a particular person from a historical, interpersonal, and ongoing perspective.
The importance of reward level in determining relationship satisfaction was also demonstrated by Carte et al (1982) in which he asked 337 participants to asses their current relationship in terms of reward level and satisfaction and found that reward level was superior to all other factors in determining relationship satisfaction concluding that rewards are a greater factor than any when it comes to relationship formation. However a criticism of these findings is that the reward/need satisfaction theory only explores
Kerchoff and Davis used their model to do a study on students who had been together for more than or less than 18 months. They were asked to complete questionnaires over 7 months on attitudes and personality of their partners compared to theirs; it was found that this was important in relationships up
According to UCLA psychologists Thomas Bradbury and Benjamin Karney, who co-authored a study together, providing commitment within a marriage ensures that the couple would tackle their problems adequately (Wolpert, “Here is What Real Commitment to Your Marriage Means”). The study showed that more than seventy percent of married couples who had participated in their work remained married, while twenty percent divorced (Wolpert, “Here is What Real Commitment to Your Marriage Means”). When entering a romantic relationship, both individuals agree to commit to one another for as long as their unity lasts. Giving their full commitment within a marriage also establishes a long-lasting love. The poem “To His Coy Mistress” exhibits a great example of this, with its speaker assuring his romantic partner, “… While thy willing soul transpires / At every pore with instant fires / Now let us sport us while we may…” (Marvell, 602). The narrator promises his mistress that he would fully commit to their relationship, and their love would fight through “rough strife / thorough the iron gates of life” (Marvell, 602). Moreover, the speaker in the poem “Oxygen” states to his/her spouse: “… You are breathing / patiently; it is a beautiful sound… / And what does this have to do / with love, except everything?” (Oliver, 610). Despite not explicitly telling the reader, it is very clear that the narrator is willing to commit himself/herself fully into the relationship, and describes their love as an “invisible gift / our purest, sweetest necessity” (Oliver,
In the modern world, there is a difficult word that people are facing and having a hard time to identify it, which is the word “love.” Nonetheless, there is a triangular theory that carried out by Robert Sternberg which helps people to understand love. The three angles are used to represent three dimensions (intimacy, passion, and commitment), and each point represent the extreme of each dimension. This essay mainly discusses about Robert Sternberg and how to improve the current relationship.
One of the reasons that so many marriages today end up in divorce today has to do with the interpersonal personal relationship principle known as fatal attraction. When most people think of fatal attraction, they right away think of the popular definition represented in the movie “Fatal Attraction”. This paper will define the principle of fatal attraction from an interpersonal relationship perspective. Along with a definition of fatal attraction, I will explore some of the causes of fatal attraction. I will discuss my experiences with fatal attractions.
than Americans do. In addition, the authors found cultural differences and cultural similarities among the U.S. Residents, Russians, and Lithuanians. For instance, for the U.S. interviewees friendship and comfort love are important features of romantic love. According to the authors, one of the main purpose of this journal article is to answer the question that romantic love is cultural universal or not based on the data collected from the participants (De Munck, Korotayev, De Munck, & Khaltourina, 2011, p. 27). Indeed, everyone has a different meaning of the term romantic love. Certainly, it is important for couples to talk to each other of ways to overcome any conflicts that may arise in a relationship. People who avoid conflicts by avoiding
Commitment follows when the two parties know enough about each other to develop the ability to predict each others’ behaviour and therefore elicit reward/pleasure/satisfaction from each other.
Sociological perspectives explains love relationships as not perfect but a working progress. A commitment which relies on continuous maintenance and reassurance. Love relationship practices and investments are configured in experiences that will be shared in the past, present and in the future.
There are many different kinds of relationships, and all of them require a commitment and an understanding between people. There are ties of friendship, relationships with family, those that we have with co-workers, and there are relationships in which two people are romantically involved. Regardless of the type of relationship, the desires are the same, to have perfect harmony between all connected. However, since we are human, a perfect relationship usually does not exist. When relationships are broken, or venture upon rocky seas, there comes a time when a person must decide if the union is important enough to work on mending the relationship.
The human idea of love is quite possibly the most misunderstood in today’s society. Love can be between a man and woman, mother/father and their kids, or even really good friends. However, these relationships of love go through many interactions and stages to start and progress. Many psychological events must occur and be worked through in order to be successful. All relationships must endure the five perspectives of human behavior. These perspectives are biological, learning, social and cultural, cognitive, and psychodynamic influences.
When one looks at romantic love, one would conclude that it is a social dyad that brings about certain responsibilities between two people in a relationship such as honesty, protection, openness and expressions of love. (William, 2008: 76). Contrasting with
When discussing love, people generally think about the love between a husband and wife, or the love between a couple in a romantic partnership, and that is one type of love that I will be discussing. In addition to romantic love, there are other types of love also. There is the love we have for our children, our families, and also the love that we have for our friends. All of these types of love share some of the same attributes, however, they have differences also. In reading and researching different types of love, I have found that romantic love and friendship seem to be the most similar in nature, although they have differences, they share a lot of the same attributes. I found that friendship and romantic love tend to have more similarities than differences. In this paper I will examine romantic love and friendship. I will discuss the definitions of the two, and what elements each of these have. I will discuss the different theories of love, and I will compare and contrast the similarities and differences between romantic love and friendship.