Relationships: Social Exchange Theory Flashcards
What is Social Exchange Theory
- Uses concepts from economics and from operant conditioning.
- We attempt to maximise our rewards and
minimise our costs. - We commit to the relationship if the outcome is profitable.
-> Rewards – Cost = Outcome.
What is Thibaut and Kelley’s model on the social exchange theory (Rewards, costs and profits) (MiniMax principle)
- Assumes people try maximise the rewards they obtain from a relationship and minimise the costs.
- exchange: when people receive rewards from others they feel obliged to reciprocate.
- Rewards and costs are subjective, rewards and costs can lose or increase their value as the relationship progresses.
-> this is the MiniMax principle.
Give examples of rewards and costs
Rewards:
- companionship
- sex
- emotional support
Costs:
- time
- stress
- money
What is comparison level (CL)
- The amount of reward you believe you deserve.
- Based on experiences in previous relationships which feeds into the expectations of our current one.
- Influenced by social norms – determined within a culture, a reasonable level of reward.
- CL changes as we acquire more data from experiences.
What is comparison level for alternatives (CLalt) (Duck)
- In current relationship, you consider:
- ‘could I gain more rewards and fewer costs from another relationship or being alone?’
- ‘could I do better.’
- SET theory credits that we will stay in our current relationship, only as long as we believe it is more rewarding than the alternative.
-> Duck -> plenty more fish in the sea.
What are the 4 stages of relationship development
- sampling
- bargaining
- commitment
- institutionalisation
What is sampling (1st stage of relationship development)
- We consider potential rewards and costs of a relationship and compare it with other relationships available at the time.
What is bargaining (2nd stage of relationship development)
- We give and receive rewards to test whether a deeper relationship is worthwhile.
- we negotiate what is most profitable.
What is commitment (3rd stage of relationship development)
- The relationship increases in predictability so each partner knows how to elicit rewards from the other, which lowers costs.
What is institutionalisation (4th stage of relationship development)
- relationship norms are developed which establishes the patterns of rewards and costs for each partner.
List the evaluations for SET
Positive:
- validity of Cl-alt
Negative:
- Underlying inappropriate assumptions
- Ignores equity
- Difficulty of measuring concepts
(-) Explain how SET makes underlying inappropriate assumptions (Clark and Mills)
- Clark and Mills (2011) argue that SET fails to distinguish between two types of relationships (work or romantic)
- They suggest that exchange relationships such as between work colleagues, does involve social exchange as the SET predicts -> SET does not factor in other types of relationships.
- SET claims that reciprocal activities are monitored and weighed up.
-> Communal relationships do not keep tabs on rewards and costs.
(-) Explain how SET ignores equity
- Central concern of SET is comparison level - ratio of perceived rewards and costs.
- Ignores fairness or equity.
- Fairness is more important than rewards and costs in relationships.
(-) explain how there are difficulties with measuring SET concepts
- Rewards and costs are defined superficially in order to measure them.
- does not consider psychological rewards and costs.
(+) explain the strength of SET (Cl-alt)
- the Cl-alt helps to explain why somebody would terminate a relationship they were not satisfied with (alternative partner can offer more).
- could explain why people may stay in an abusive relationship -> if someone invested lots into the relationship and there is no Cl-alt then they may stay in that relationship.
