social exchange theory Flashcards
(19 cards)
What is the minimax principle?
Relationships reflect economic exchange
Maximise gains minimise losses
Satisfaction = profit
What is profit?
Rewards minus costs
How do rewards and costs differ?
Subjective - reward to one person cost to another
Reward in early stages, might become less so as time goes on
What are costs in a relationship?
Can cost time and energy
Opportunity cost - energy in relationship uses resources you can’t use elsewhere
How do we measure profit in a relationship?
Comparison level
Comparison level for alternatives
What is CL?
Amount of reward you believe you deserve
Develops from experience of previous relationships
Influenced by social norms and media
How does CL influence our choice in relationship?
High CL = relationship worth pursuing
Low self esteem = low CL, satisfied with small profit
What is CLalt?
Could we gain profit elsewhere?
SET = staying in relationship if it is more rewarding than alternatives
Depends on state of current relationship
Costs outweigh rewards = alternatives become attractive
Satisfaction = not noticing alternatives
What are the stages through which relationships develop?
Sampling
Bargaining
Commitment
Institutionalisation
Who devised SET?
Thibault and Kelley
What is the sampling stage?
Explore rewards and costs by experimenting with them in our relationships or observing others
What is the bargaining stage?
Beginning of relationship
Exchange rewards and costs
Identifying what is most profitable
What is the commitment stage?
Costs and rewards become predictable
Relationships becomes stable
Rewards increase costs lessen
What is the institutionalisation stage?
Partners are settled
Norms in terms of reward and cost are established
Evaluation - inappropriate assumptions underlying SET
Clark and Mills - theory does not distinguish between types Exchange relationships (work colleagues) - involve SE Communal relationships (romance) - give and receive rewards without keeping score
Evaluation - direction of cause and effect
Dissatisfaction comes first - we don’t measure costs and rewards until we are dissatisfied
Miller - committed people spend less time looking at images of attractive people
Evaluation - SET ignores equity
Ignores fairness or equity
Limited explanation - cannot account for research support for equity
Evaluation - measuring SET concepts
Rewards and costs difficult to define, vary person to person
What value must CL be at before dissatisfaction occurs
How attractive must alternatives be?
Evaluation - artificial research
Strangers work together in game playing scenario
Relationship depends on task
Realistic studies have been less supportive
Snapshot studies can’t account for properties that emerge over time such as trust
