The maintenance of relationships (SET)

The maintenance of relationships (SET)

1. Thibaut and Kelley (1959); SET is an economic theory of relatioship maintenance that decribes how well a relationship lasts is dependant on the profitability of the relationship exceed the costs then the relationship will continue

2. There are lots of things that can be rewards and costs, for example, money and sex. A reward for one person may be a cost for another

3. Comparison levels; if a person is unhappy with their relationship they may be tempted by a new partner. SET explains that there is a cost benefit analysis of the new partner the current partner continues to be attractive. However, if the current relationship is less profitable than expectation of the new partner the original relatiohsip will end. In addition, the costs of breakup need to be taken away from the potential profit of the new relationship. This means that if the costs of leaving a relationship are high, for example, shared mortage or you have children together, the new relationship would have to offer a significant amount of profit to cover the costs of a break up.

4. Mills and Clark (1980) found that there are two types of relationship; 1. 'Communal couples' who share things and so thing for each other out of concern for the other person. 2. 'Exchange couples' who keeep track of what each has put in, However SET only explain the 'Exchange couples'

5. Simpson et al. (1990) found that those in relationships rate others being less attractive than those who are single. This means that when we compare potential relationships we are less likely to find them profitable in terms of attraction

6. Sedikides (20050 found that most people are capable of being unselfish, a behaviour that is most important displayed when with those who are closest to us. This suggests that SET is too simlistic as it does not explain why a person would be unselfish

7. Musch of the research is focused or hort-term maintenance and has ignored long-term relationships. Therefore we do not know if SET explains relationships that last years/decades