15 Item Commitment Measure
*Note that this scale can be modified for either marital relationships or dating relationships
by substituting relationship for marriage.
Reference:
 This is an elaborated version of the commitment measure cited in:
Rusbult, C. E., Martz, J. M., & Agnew, C. R. (1998). The investment model scale: Measuring
commitment level, satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size. Personal
Relationships, 5, 357–391.

This 15-item measure was used in:
Rusbult, C. E., Kumashiro, M., Kubacka, K. E., & Finkel, E. J. (2009). “The part of me that you bring
out”: Ideal similarity and the Michelangelo phenomenon. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 96, 61-82.
My Goals for the Future of our Relationship
Instructions:
To what extent does each of the following statements describe your feelings regarding your
relationship? Please use the following scale to record an answer for each statement listed below.
Response Scale:
0
1
Do Not Agree
At All
2
3
4
5
Agree
Somewhat
6
7
8
Agree
Completely
Response
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
I will do everything I can to make our relationship last for the rest of our lives.
I feel completely attached to my partner and our relationship.
I often talk to my partner about what things will be like when we are very old.
I feel really awful when things are not going well in our relationship.
I am completely committed to maintaining our relationship.
I frequently imagine life with my partner in the distant future.
When I make plans about future events in life, I carefully consider the impact of my decisions on
our relationship.
I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of our relationship.
I feel really terrible when things are not going well for my partner.
I want our relationship to last forever.
There is no chance at all that I would ever become romantically involved with another person.
I am oriented toward the long-term future of our relationship (for example, I imagine life with my
partner decades from now).
My partner is more important to me than anyone else in life – more important than my parents,
friends, etc.
I intend to do everything humanly possible to make our relationship persist.
If our relationship were ever to end, I would feel that my life was destroyed.
Key:
Total: Take the average of all 15 items
Subscales:
Intent to persist: Items 1, 5, 10, 11, and 14
Attachment: Items 2, 4, 9, 13, and 15
Long-term orientation: Items 3, 6, 7, 8, 12