Credits, references, and bibliography

The Exchange Theory(3) of George Homans (see also)

Operant Conditioning:

• Learning
• S-R
• Effect of past consequences on current behavior.
• Conformity not automatic, but based on perception of advantage (norms, roles, etc.)

Roots in Behaviorism

• However, premised upon interaction--two or more individuals interacting.
• Exchange--reciprocity: mutual reinforcement.

Basic Propositions

1. Success (act, reward, repeat)
   1. Satiation
   2. Interval between act and reward
   3. Regular-irregular
2. Stimulus (same response to same stimulus)
   1. Generalization
   2. Discrimination
   3. Rewards can be materialistic or altruistic--not simple hedonism.
3. Value
   1. Rewards
   2. Punishments (inefficient)
4. Deprivation-Satiation (frequency of reward)
1. Cost (rewards lost by not pursuing alternatives)
2. Profit (rewards over costs)
3. So, the greater the profits, the more likely the behavior
5. Aggression-Approval
   1. If expected rewards not forthcoming, may act on anger and frustration
   2. If rewarded, then repeat
6. Rationality
   1. Maximize utilities
   2. Value and probability of attainment

"George Homans (1910-1989) developed an exchange theory of everyday behavior that grounded itself in the propositions of behaviorist psychology.  Homans was a psychological reductionist, which means that he believed that sociological phenomena could be explained through the more basic principles of psychology.  In particular he drew on the behaviorist theory of operant conditioning to argue that individual behaviors are learned when particular behaviors are reinforced through interactions with the environment.  Psychological behaviorists, such as B. F. Skinner (1904-1990), studied pigeons or rats in interaction with their environment.  In contrast to Skinner's study of individual behavior, Homans was interested in what is called reciprocal behavior.  He studied the way that human beings interacted with one another and, in particular, the way that the activities of two or more people reinforce or punish the behaviors of others.  Despite his interest in interpersonal interaction, Homans believed that sociology did not need to invent new theories to understand social interaction.  Rather, by extending basic behaviorist propositions, he argued that he could explain all social behavior.  These propositions underlined the importance of concepts such as response generalization, stimulus discrimination, reward, punishment, cost, and profit to the understanding of everyday behavior.  In short, Homan's theory views the actor as a rational profit-seeker who is conditioned to seek particular rewards over others."(1)

Helpful links:

1. Social Exchange Theory: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Russell_Cropanzano/publication/234021447_Social_Exchange_Theory_An_Interdisciplinary_Review/links/0a85e533ad9de76aa1000000.pdf
2. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_exchange_theory

JSTOR Articles

1. George C. Homans. 1958. " Social Behavior as Exchange." The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 63, No. 6, Emile Durkheim-Georg Simmel, 1858-1958 (May), pp. 597-606. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2772990
2. Richard M. Emerson. 1976. "Social Exchange Theory." Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 2,, pp. 335-362. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2946096

Rational Choice Theory

James S. Coleman The basic model:

• See, "Rational Choice Theory"
• People act intentionally to maximize their individual utility (rewards and resources).
• People examine the environment, weigh possible courses of action, and choose what they view as the most expedient path to their goals.
• Expediency is determined by the costs and the benefits involved in the action.
• Opportunity Costs: what you lose by pursuing one path to a goal versus another.
• People have access to different resources making different choices possible.
• Social institutions (accepted and standardized ways of accomplishing goals) also assert their influence .
  • Make some choices more likely
  • Restricting other choices
• Collective Behavior
  • Individual "gives up" control over own behavior to collective.
  • Unilateral--disequilibrium, emergent behavior, instability.
• Trust
  • Possible rewards determined by resources available to others--not equal (age, gender, class, race, etc.)
  • If a person places trust in another, the latter recieves rewards by being trustworthy.
  • It is also advantageous to trust another if the reward obtained is greater than the possible loss accrued if the trustee proves untrustworthy (importance of the information we have about others in making trust decisions).
  • Trusting becomes a rational act and more permanent relationships can form (groups).
• Norms
  • People see benefit in giving up some control and harm in violating (emergent group interests--anti-smoking laws).
  • Individual gain through group regulation.
  • Give up some control, get a bit of contol over others. Stable: equilibrium.
  • Benefit to some more than others. Consensus over right of some to control others (and punish violation).
  • Become interrelated.
  • Internalization: one or some seeing benefit in having others internalize norms (parents-children).
• The Corporate Actor
  • Choosing based on intersts of a larger group or collective.
  • Institutionalization(?) of collective individual interests (voting, etc.).
  • Growth of purposive corporate actors in contemporary society--decline in traditional.
    • Free-standing agencies and status relations versus people.
    • "Unraveling" of traditional structures.
      • Families and Schools

"Foundations of Social Theory "James Coleman (1926-1995) was very influential in the development of rational choice theory.  Not unlike Homans's exchange theory, Coleman's rational choice views the individual as a rational profit seeker.  However, where Homans's theory is rooted in behaviorist psychology, Coleman's theory is rooted in neoclassical economics.  Rational choice theory assumes that people act purposively in order to maximize individual goals.  Actors' efforts to achieve these ends are constrained by two factors.  First, some actors have greater access to resources than others.  As such, individual behavior is based on the calculations that people make as they try to balance their access to resources against the opportunity costs that are involved in trying to realize certain ends over others.  Second, individual action is constrained by the social institutions that restrict the choices that people can make in achieving their ends.  These choices are also shaped by the kinds of information to which individual actors have access.  Coleman argues that rational choice theory provides a potential bridge between microsocial behaviors and macrosocial structures.  Although his focus on the choices made by individual actors makes Coleman a methodological individualist, Coleman argues that the aggregate behavior of individual actors leads to the emergence of systems of action, or social structures.  In other words, the individual effort to maximize personal gains creates social structures that condition the kinds of choices individual actors are able to make."(1)

Useful Links:

1. ASA Section on Rationality and Society: http://www.asanet.org/sections/rationality.cfm
2. Rational Choice Theory: http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/soc401rationalchoice.pdf
3. Keel, Robert. 2005 (last update, original 1995). "The Evolution of Classical Theory: Rational Choice, Deterrence, Incapacitation and Just Desert." (http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/ratchoc.html) Accessed 10/20/08.
4. Emerson's Integrative Exchange Theory

quiz

Works Cited

1. Much of this page comes from the "Instructor's Manual" to accompany Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics, Second Edition, George Ritzer, Mcgraw-Hill, 2007. The Instructor's Manual was prepared by James Murphy, University of Maryland, College Park and Todd Stillman, Fayetteville State University. These excerpts are from chapter 6.
2. Ritzer, George. 2010/2013. Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics. 3rd/4th ed. St. Louis: McGraw-Hill.
3. Student Presentation from Iowa State University, http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/soc401gp.html, Spring 2008 Sociology 401, taught by: Dr. Steve Sapp, accessed 10/15/08)

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