Custom essays: Social Exchange Theory. Exchange theory by Homans.

Exchange theory by Homans. According to George Homans, the social behavior is an exchange of material goods, and it is also intangible, such as the symbols of approval and prestige. Homans, George tried to explain the behavior defined in the broadest sense as a result of interaction in which individuals acquire, sell, or share resources. He tried to explain social behavior using fundamental concepts of behavior, developed by behavioral psychologists, and neoclassical economists. Behavioral model of operant conditioning is based on the utilitarian principle that individuals will seek to maximize enjoying and to avoid or minimize the pain. It is assumed that individuals will respond as expected to reward and punishment. Any interaction provides an opportunity to share resources, in which each party tries to get resources, with a higher value in comparison with that which he or she gives or which refuses. “All social organizations were created on the basis of the network exchanges. The organization needs the unit to be fulfilled by other bodies belonging to this organization.” Homans has developed five general provisions relating to social behavior and resource sharing. Three of them reproduce the model of behavioral psychologists. The first statement directly follows from the model of operant conditioning, and says: “In respect of any acts performed by people, the more often a person is rewarded for a particular action, the more that person will perform this action. The second situation is linked to recognition of the role of past experience: “In the past, the emergence of a particular stimulus or set of incentives has created a situation in which human action is rewarded, the more the present-day incentives are similar to those past stimuli, the more that person will perform the same or similar to his action in the present.”

However, the third provision states that “for their actions when a person does not receive the expected rewards or receive unexpected penalty, he goes berserk and can behave aggressively. “He created a series of allegations, among them are the claim of success, the assertion of deprivation and that there is saturation of aggression. These statements are a part of seven and, according to crowning this list is the assertion of rationality, which says that the body of the two alternative measures will choose the one which gives the most likely results to achieve greater benefits. The basic proposition is:
– success: the more action the individual is rewarded with, the more likely it is to take this action.
– the stimulus: if the past occurrence of a specific stimulus or combination of stimuli was a circumstance, in which individual action has been rewarded, the more likely it is that the unit would take this or a similar effect.
– value: the more the action is for the individual securities, the more likely that it will be demonstrated this action.
-saturation of deprivation: the more frequently in the recent past, the unit received a particular prize, the less valuable it becomes for each additional unit of the award.
– frustration-aggression: If the unit does not bring action to obtain a reward or punishment received by the entity, which they did not expect, it will react with anger, and anger aggressive behavior results will have a reward value.