Outline and Evaluate the Equity Theory of Romantic Realtionships

Outline and evaluate the equity theory of romantic realtionships

Equity theory claims that people are most comfortable when what they get out of a relationship is roughly equal to what they put in .

Equity theory is an extension of that underlying belief that with its central assumption that people are most comfortable when they perceive that they are getting roughly what they deserve in a given relationship. An equal relationship according to the theory be where one partner's benefits minu the costs minus their costs benefit equal their partners benefits less their costs. When it's not equal people can feel dissatisfied by a relationship, if they feel that they are benefiting too much from the relationship they may feel guilt or shame , if they feel underweight they may feel anger or sadness, the larger the inequality the more dissatisfaction within the relationship resulting in relationship breakdown.

Schafer and keith surveyed a variety of married couples noting those who felt that their marriages were unequal because of an unfair division of domestic responsibilities. When couples are raising a child the wife's often feel under benefited while the men feel over benefited during this time resulting in a marital dip. Before children during the honeymoon phase and after the children had left the home people feel most satisfaction with their marriage. Hatfield and rapson suggest that how couples are concerned with reward and equity depends on the stage of the relationship. It is more important to people in the early stages of a relationship however once a couple are committed to each other then they become less concerned with the day to day rewards. Happily married people tend not to keep track of how much they giving and getting. Couples are equitable relationships are also less likely to cheat and the relationship lasts longer.

Equity theory is based on the norms of equality which assumes that everyone is equally sensitive to equality and inequality. This also means that each individual experiences the same level of tension when they perceive inequality, this isn't always the cass research conducted by husemen at al developed the idea of equal sensitivity, this determines how much a person will accept inequality. He found that there were three categorisations are people who are givers and tend to be more tolerant of underbenifiting. Equality statives behave in the way that equity theory expects. Entities prefer to be overbenfited as a result they feel unsatisfied in a equal or under benefited situation.

Research conducted by demaris et al point out are not affected equally by inequality in romantic relationships. Women are