Commitment (Psychology)

The current study examined the association between retrospectively recalled paternal investment and current levels of commitment readiness in young adults. Various aspects of the participants’ relationship with their fathers during childhood were measured in a sample of 250 undergraduate students. Participants were also asked questions about how ready they are to be involved in a committed romantic relationship. The results did not support the main hypotheses: there were no significant associations between retrospectively recalled paternal investment and commitment readiness. Exploratory analyses revealed that attachment avoidance was significantly negatively correlated with both paternal investment, including measures of nurturant fathering and father involvement, and commitment readiness.

Guarding oneself from cuckoldry can be a challenging task for males of socially monogamous species. Accordingly, human males may possess evolved psychological mechanisms designed to prevent their partner's infidelity, and to "correct" that infidelity if it occurs. Because preventative tactics are not failsafe, I hypothesized that men's reports of their mate-retention behaviors and copulation frequency would function as complimentary tactics (Study 1). Research has suggested that men's reports of their own anti-cuckoldry behaviors can be flawed, and that women may be more accurate. Therefore, Study 2 analyzed reports made by women of copulation frequency and their partner's mate-retention behaviors. In the two studies, the hypotheses that (1) men's reports of copulation frequency and their own mate-retention behaviors and (2) women's reports of copulation frequency and their partner's mate-retention behaviors would show positive correlations was supported. Discussion focuses on the use of copulation frequency and mate-retention behaviors as complimentary tactics in solving the adaptive problems of sperm competition and cuckoldry.

Mate poaching occurs when an individual has sexual relations with the romantic partner of another. In Study A, I investigated the prevalence of mate poaching by presenting participants with questions whose devising was informed by a stricter definition of mate poaching than that employed by earlier studies. As expected, relative to participants in earlier studies, the current participants reported fewer experiences of mate poaching. In Study B, I investigated the likelihood that the benefits and costs of mate poaching will, respectively, motivate participants to poach or will deter them from doing so. Results indicated that for males and females to be motivated to poach, the attached individual must be more attractive than the unattached individual.

This academic exercise in organizational commitment research explores the causal relationships between organizational commitment, job satisfaction as its covariate latent exogenous variable and nine manifest endogenous variables: (a) organizational conflict, (b) personal values/role conflict, (c) cognitive/affective attitude, (d) intention to leave the organization, (e) job security, (f) role ambiguity, (g) job satisfaction, (h) organizational commitment and, (i) the deficiency in meeting basic Maslovian needs. This data sample of 400 (faculty members from four public community college districts in south-central Florida) represented urban and non-urban community colleges, large and small campuses, east- and west-coast community colleges, and both full- and part-time faculty. The covariance matrix based on complete data for the sample (n = 400), along with information of the estimated reliabilities, were analyzed using EzPATH, the SYSTAT implementation of structured equations modeling. GFI criteria accompanied diagnostic output and are provided. The path coefficients of the primary model and their respective standard errors complied with accepted statistical methods in most cases. Also, the root mean square residual of the primary model was .0180. The p-value for the primary model was 0.4506 which was supported by a chi-square (χ2) divided by DOF equating to 1.00513. The determined AGFI and GFI indices were .9755 and .9897 respectively. Only the psychological attitudes of conflict, either conflicting standards of the organization or personal values with the organization, and role ambiguity, showed any direct influence by satisfaction and non-significant influence by commitment. Only the psychological attitudes of cognitive/affective attitude, intention to leave the organization, and job security showed any direct influence by commitment and non-significant influence by satisfaction. In this study, job satisfaction and commitment show a mutual causal relationship with each other (represented by the high mutual causation coefficient of 0.94556 SE = 0.02163). The primary model was modified to address both the path of satisfaction being a precedent of commitment (SAT --> COM) and commitment being a precedent of satisfaction (COM --> SAT). Neither of these two models demonstrated goodness of fit criteria as strong as the primary model. This dissertation has shown that by using carefully collected data, it is possible to construct structural equation models consisting entirely of psychological-social variables in a model as large as nine manifest endogenous variables.

To prevent a partner's infidelity and relationship defection, men perform mate retention behaviors. Some of these mate retention behaviors are high-risk because they decrease the likelihood of infidelity while potentially increasing the likelihood of relationship defection. Although previous research has indicated that mate value may be related to mate retention generally, research has not addressed these cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors specifically. The current research examines the relationship between men's and women's mate values and men's use of partner-directed insults - a specific type of cost-inflicting mate retention behavior. The results from a sample of 158 women indicate that although men's and women's mate values predict men's partner-directed insults, men's mate value is a better predictor than is women's mate value. Women who report that their partners have lower mate value also report that their partners insult them more frequently than women who report that their partners have higher mate value.