Relational Dialectics and Social Exchange Theory Flashcards
The scope and main idea of relational dialectics
Scope: personal relationships
Main idea: relationships characterized by the ongoing, constant management of tension
Tension is produce by
opposing or contradictory forces that people experience in their relationships.
Integration/Seperation:
Internal: connection/autonomy
External: inclusion/seclusion
Stability/Change
Internal: predictability/novelty
External: convention/uniqueness
Expression/Privacy
Internal: openness/closedness
External: revelation/concealment
4 ways to manage tensions
- selection
- seperation
- neutralization
- reframing
Temporary periods of equilibrium
Dialectical Moments
critique of dialectical theory
-Could there be more than 3 dialectics?
Scope and main idea of Social Exchange Theory
Scope: Interpersonal relationships
Main idea: People are motivated by the quest maximize personal rewards.
Bakhtin’s dialectic claims that there is no
resolution, just occasional moments of respite
Leslie Baxter used whose model of dialectics?
Mikhail Bakhtin
3 key claims of social exchange theory
- humans are rational and calculating
- people communicate and build relationships in order to gain rewards
- people most value relationships that require the least effort, but give us maximum benefits
Net outcome =
Reward-Cost
CL
Comparison Level
- the expectations for a current relationship are based on a person’s past experiences
- also based on what our observations of other relationships and mediated representations of relationships
CLalt
Comparison Level Alternatives
- the stability of a relationship based on the perceived value of alternatives to the relationship
- if the alternatives are perceived to be better, individuals will leave the relationship
