Maintenance of Relationships

Question 1

What is Social Exchange Theory? - Thibaut and Kelley

Answer 1

The Social exchange theory was devised by Thibaut and Kelley (1959). -It is a theory of how relationships form, develop and are maintained. -It’s an economic theory that assumes that an individual acts out of self-interest in exchanging and maximising rewards and minimising costs in romantic relationships.

Question 2

What are the rewards and costs?

Answer 2

-Rewards can include companionship, sex, sharing of household chores, etc.
-Costs include effort and financial investment etc.
-Rewards and costs are subjective. What one person considers a significant reward might be viewed by someone else as less valuable. -Also, the value of rewards and costs might well change over the course of a relationship.

Question 3

What is Level 1 - Comparison Level?

Answer 3

-We measure the profit in a relationship against the amount of profit that we believe we deserve to get – this is called the comparison level (CL).
-We consider a relationship worth pursuing if our CL is high. There is an obvious link with self esteem here.
-Someone with low self-esteem will have a low CL and will therefore
be satisfied with gaining just a small profit (or even a loss) from a relationship.
-Someone with higher self-esteem will believe they are worth a lot more.

Question 4

What is Level 2 - Comparison Level for alternatives?

Answer 4

-Comparison Level for alternatives (CLalt), concerns a person’s perception of whether other potential relationships (or staying on their own) would be more rewarding than being in their current relationship.
- According to Social Exchange Theory, people will stick to their current relationships as long as they find them more profitable than the alternatives.

Question 5

What are the 4 stages?

Answer 5

1. Sampling stage: we experiment with the rewards and costs of our
   present relationships.
2. Bargaining stage: This marks the beginning of a relationship, when
   romantic partners start exchanging various rewards and costs, negotiating and identifying what is most profitable.
3. Commitment stage: As time goes on, the sources of costs and
   rewards become more predictable and the relationship becomes more stable as rewards increase and costs lessen.
4. Institutionalisation stage: The partners are now settled down because the norms of the relationship, in terms of rewards and costs, are firmly established.

Question 6

A03 - Useful real life applications

Answer 6

-SET has many useful real-life applications.
- One example of this is Integrated Behavioural Couples Therapy (BCT), during which partners are trained to increase the proportion of positive exchanges in their everyday interactions and decrease the proportion of negative ones, by changing negative behaviour patterns.
- According to Christensen et al. (2004) about two-thirds of couples that were treated using IBCT reported that their relationships have significantly improved and they were feeling much happier as a result of it.
- This shows that SET can be used to help distressed
couples in real life,

Question 7

A03 - Increasing profit rather than it’s size

Answer 7

-Social exchange theory proposes that it is the actual size of profit or loss that influences formation behaviour, however the potential for increasing levels of profit may also be important.

-For instance, Aronson (1965) asked participants to evaluate a number of different potential relationships.
-They found that participants preferred relationships that showed the potential for an increase in profit rather than the actual size of the profit.

-Hence, when making an evaluation of the attractiveness of a potential relationship, just
like economic businesses, an individual’s evaluation may look at longer- term outcomes rather than the simple here and now and profit size, questioning the comprehensiveness of the original model of the SET.

Question 8

A03 - Measuring profit and loss

Answer 8

-SET deals in concepts that are difficult to quantify. Rewards and costs have been defined superficially in order to measure them. But
psychological rewards and costs are difficult to define, especially when they vary so much from one person to another.

• The concept of comparison levels is especially problematic.
• It is unclear what the values of comparison levels must be before dissatisfaction threatens a relationship.
  -Being unable to measure the variables of SET means that it is difficult, if not impossible, to test.
  Hence, SET lacks scientific credibility.