Relationships: Social Exchange Theory Ao3

Question 1

Cause and effect

Answer 1

P: Some researchers argue that there is an issue with cause and effect in regards to SET assumptions.
E: Argyle (1987) argues that people rarely start assessing their relationships before they feel unsatisfied with them.
E: For example, being unhappy in relationships may lead a person to question whether there are more rewards than costs in their relationships and the potential alternatives, but these thoughts occur only after the dissatisfaction is discovered.
L: This contradicts SET, which assumes that assessing profit and loss is the way in which all relationships are maintained, even happy ones.

Question 2

Issues and debates - reductionist

Answer 2

P: social exchange theory has been criticised for being reductionist
E: basing the explanation of such complex phenomena as romantic relationships purely on costs and rewards makes limits the range of real life romantic experiences it can explain
E: for example, SET does not explain why many people stay in abusive relationships despite the lack of rewards and overwhelming costs.
L: this suggests that a holistic approach to studying romantic relationships may be better suited to explaining the complexity of relationships maintence

Question 3

Artificial research - counter to research support

Answer 3

P; One limitation is that research often involves artificial tasks and conditions
E: research often consists of game - playing and distribution of rewards and costs in a scenario where “partners” are together just for the study
E: more realistic studies which have used partners have used partners in actual relationships have been less supportive of SET principles
L: the support for SET is weakened by the lack of validity of the studies and the fact that more realistic studies fail to explain its assertions

Question 4

Research support

Answer 4

P: One strength of SET is that it has research support from Sprecher 2001
E: he found that comparison levels for alternatives were a strong predictor of commitment in a relationship and that rewards were important as a predictor of satisfaction, esp for women
E: based on these findings people base satisfaction on rewards, costs and comparison for alt just as SET suggests
L: therefore it would appear some some people stay in current relationship whilst it appears more profitable than alt supporting predictions for SET