Commitment, Relational Uncertainty, and the Investment Model

Based on Rusbult’s investment model and Knobloch and Solomon’s conceptualization of relational uncertainty, this study investigated how uncertainty in romantic relationships affected satisfaction, quality of alternatives, investments, and commitment. 343 adults in romantic relationships completed measures of relational uncertainty, satisfaction, investment size, quality of alternatives, and commitment. Results indicated that relational uncertainty was negatively related to satisfaction, investment, and commitment, and positively related to quality of alternatives. Relational uncertainty moderated the relationship between satisfaction and commitment. The satisfaction-commitment relationship was quite strong at low levels of relational uncertainty, but as relational uncertainty increased the satisfaction-commitment relationship weakened and eventually become nonsignificant.