Social exchange theory is a theory associated with the work of George Homans and Peter Blau and built on the assumption that all human relationships can be understood in terms of an exchange of roughly equivalent values. Social exchange theory is linked to rational choice theory and structuralism, and features many of their main assumptions. According to social exchange theory all human relationships are formed by the use of a subjective cost-benefit analysis and the comparison of alternatives. Sociologists George Caspar Homans, Richard Emerson, Peter Michael Blau, Peter Ekeh, and Karen Cook are credited with the consolidation of the foundations of Social Exchange Theory.
For a person, in an exchange in exchange theory, what he gives may be a cost to him, just as what he gets may be a benefit. Frequently intangibles like intimacy, social status, and connections considered in social exchange theory. Homans’s article entitled “Social Behavior as Exchange” is viewed as the most important work on social exchange theory.
Some Amendments to Social Exchange Theory: A
Sociological Perspective
Milan Zafirovski. Abstract: The exchange paradigm entertains high aspirations
concerning its place within social psychology and
generally sociology and psychology. The rationale for the claim that the social exchange
theory paradigm features equivalent generality and relevance for sociological theories. This claim is reexamined in
this paper, by putting emphasis on rational choice
theory and behaviorist versions of social
exchange theory. The examination does not provide prima facie support for the claims
of social exchange theory.
Social exchange theory has been introduced to sociology by psychologically and
economically minded sociologists, as well as in psychology by social psychologists and
partly in cultural anthropology by economic
anthropologists. The key tenet of social exchange theory is that human behavior is in
essence an exchange, particularly of rewards or resources of primarily material character
and secondarily of symbolic attributes.
Social Exchange Theory as a Conceptual Framework
for Teaching the Sociological Perspective.
- O'Brien, Jodi A, Kollock, Peter.
Abstract: Uses social exchange theory as a conceptual framework for developing the sociological imagination. Explains this counters a
trend toward an emphasis on social forces as behavioral determinants and the omission of
values in the classroom. States exchange theory emphasizes how individual action
collectively changes the social structure. Applies
theory to personal relationships, power, institutions, and social
dilemmas.
BRINGING EMOTIONS INTO SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY
Edward J. Lawler, Shane R. Thye.
Abstract: We analyze and review how research on emotion and emotional phenomena can
elaborate and improve contemporary social exchange theory. How these ideas bear on the
context, process, and outcome of social exchange theory in networks and groups. The
current state of the field, develops testable hypotheses for empirical evidence study, and provides specific
suggestions for developing links between theories of emotion and social exchange theory.
Befu, Harumi (1977). Social Exchange. Annual Review of Anthropology, 6, 225-281.
Ekeh, Peter Palmer. (1974). Social exchange theory : the two traditions. London: Heinemann Educational.
Emerson, Richard (1976) Social Exchange Theory. Annual Review of Sociology 2: 335-362.