Equity and Intimate Relations: Recent Research

From game theory to real life: How social value orientation affects willingness to sacrifice in ongoing close relationships.

“…(For the same reason, we did not seek to manipulate levels of commitment to demonstrate its effects on willingness to sacrifice.) overbenefited and others feeling underbenefited (e.g., Hatfield et al, 1985;Sprecher, 1986).…”

How Low Will Men with High Self-Esteem Go? Self-Esteem as a Moderator of Gender Differences in Minimum Relationship Standards

“…That is, how do people determine whether potential partners are good enough for them or not? When considering this sort of issue, social psychologists have often drawn upon social exchange models (e.g., Befu 1977;Blau 1964;Hatfield et al 1984;Homans 1961;Murstein et al 1977;Thibaut and Kelley 1959). These models propose that individuals will seek the highest quality mates they believe they are capable of attracting based on their ability to exchange their own assets for those possessed by their potential romantic partners (e.g., an attractive young woman entering into a romantic relationship with a wealthy older man).…”

Why Us? Perceived Injustice is Associated with More Sexual and Psychological Distress in Couples Coping with Genito-Pelvic Pain

“…Studies in the last few decades have also shown that perceptions of injustice were correlated with lower levels of love and satisfaction in intimate relationships [36][37][38][39][40][41]. One explanation is that when a source of distress arises in a relationship, such as genito-pelvic pain, negative emotions emerge and signal to the person experiencing the problem that something is wrong, shifting one's attention toward the current difficulty [42,43].…”