Theories of romantic relationships: Social exchange theory Flashcards
Who proposed the social exchange theory (SET)?
John Thibault and Harold Kelley
What is the SET?
A theory of how relationships form and develop.
It assumes that romantic partners act out of self-interest in exchanging rewards and costs.
What are the two levels of SET?
Comparison level
comparison for alternatives
What is the comparison level in SET?
The amount of reward you believe you should get.
It develops out of our experiences of previous relationships which feed into our expectations of the current one.
It is also influenced by social norms that determines what is widely considered, within a culture to be a reasonable level of reward. ( Books, TV,…)
How is self-esteem linked to comparison level?
Someone with a low self esteem will have a low CL and will therefore be satisfied with gaining just a small profit.
Someone with a higher self-esteem will believe they are worth more.
What is Comparison level for alternatives in SET?
It is the second level of profit which provides a wider context for our current relationship.
SET predicts that we will stay in our current relationship only so long as we believe it is more rewarding than the alternatives.
What is Steve Duck state about the Clalt?
That the comparison level for alternatives will depend on the state of our current relationship. There are usually ‘plenty more fish in the sea’, so if the costs or our current relationship outweigh the rewards, then alternatives become more attractive.
What are the stages of relationship development?
Sampling stage
Bargaining stage
commitment stage
institutionalisation stage
What is the sampling stage in the stages of a relationship?
We explore the rewards and costs of social exchange by experimenting with them in our relationships, or by observing others doing so.
What is the bargaining stage in the stages of a relationship?
It marks the beginning of a relationship, when romantic partners start exchanging various rewards and costs, negotiating and identifying what is most profitable.
What is the the commitment stage in the stages of a relationship?
As time goes on, the sources of costs and rewards become more stable as rewards increase and costs lessen.
What is the institutionalisation stage in the stages of a relationship?
The partners are now settled down because the norms of the relationship, in terms of rewards and costs, are firmly settled.
Evaluation: Research support for SET
Lawerence Kurdek asked gay, lesbian and heterosexual couples to complete questionnaires measuring relationship commitment and SET variables.
He found that those partners who were most committed also perceived the most rewards and fewest costs and viewed alternatives as relatively unattractive.
These findings match the predictions from SET, strongly confirming the validity of the theory.
Evaluation: Direction of cause and effect.
One limitation of SET is its claim that dissatisfaction arises only after relationship stops being profitable .
According to SET we become dissatisfied when we conclude that the costs of the relationship outweigh its rewards / the alternatives are more attractive.
Martin Argyle argued that we don’t monitor costs and rewards, or consider alternatives, until after we are dissatisfied. When we are satisfied in a relationship we do not notice the potential alternatives.
This suggests that considering costs/ alternatives is caused by dissatisfaction rather than the reverse.
Evaluation: SET is a vague concept
SE deals in concepts that are vague and hard to quantify.
Rewards and costs have been defied superficially in research in order to measure them. As in real life they vary from person to person and are hard to define.
It is unclear what the values of Cl and CL alternatives must be before dissatisfaction threatens a relationship.
This means the theory is difficult to test in a valid way.
