Theories: Social Exchange Theory Flashcards
What is social exchange theory?
Thibault and Kelley- Romantic partners act out of self-interest in exchanging rewards and costs. A satisfying and committed relationship is maintained when rewards exceed costs and potential alternatives are less attractive then the current relationships.
What are examples of rewards and costs?
Reward- companionship, sex and emotional support
Cost- energy, time, stress and compromise
How can we measure profit in a romantic relationship?
Comparison level
Comparison level for alternatives
What is Comparison level?
The amount of reward you believe you deserve to get, develops out of experience of previous relationships. Influenced by social norms in a culture to a be a reasonable level of reward. If our CL is high we consider pursuing a relationship, someone with low self esteem will have a low CL, will be satisfied with small profit (or loss).
What is Comparison level for alternatives?
Provides a wider context for our current relationship. Whether we believe we can gain greater rewards and fewer costs from another relationship or being on our own. We stay in current relationship if we believe it is more rewarding then alternatives. Duck said the CLalt we adopt will depend on the state of our current relationship
What are the stages of relationship development?
Sampling stage- explore costs and rewards by experimenting in our own relationships or observing others
Bargaining stage- marks the beginning of a relationship, when romantic partners exchange various rewards and costs negotiate and identify what is most profitable
Commitment stage- Sources of costs and rewards become more predictable and relationship is stable.
Institutionalisation stage- the partners are settled down because norms are firmly established
What is brief AO3 of the social exchange theory?
Research support for SET by Kurdek BUT, ignores factor of equity
SET claims dissatisfaction arises only after relationship stops being profitable
SET deals in concepts that are vague and hard to quantify
What are the strengths of the social exchange theory?
Support from Kurdek, asked gay, lesbian and heterosexual couples to complete questionnaires measuring relationship commitment and SET variables. Partners who were most committed also perceived most rewards and fewest costs and viewed alternatives as relatively unattractive. This demonstrates main SET concepts that predict commitment are independent of each other (Have effect). Validity of theory in homo and hetero sexual partners.
BUT, They ignore factor of equity, not just balance of rewards and costs but the partners perceptions of this is fair. Neglect of equity means that SET is a limited explanation which cannot account for significant proportion of research findings.
What are the weaknesses of the social exchange theory?
Dissatisfaction only arises after a relationship stops being profitable. According to SET we become dissatisfied when we conclude that the cost of the relationships outweighs the rewards or alt is more attractive. Argyle argues we don’t monitor cost and rewards or alt until after we are dissatisfied, when we are committed we do not notice potentially attractive alternatives.
SET deals with concepts that are vague and hard to quantify. Rewards and costs have been defined superficially in research, but RW psychological costs and rewards are harder to define. These R + C vary from person to person, unclear what the values of CL and CLalt must be before dissatisfaction threatens a relationship. This means theory is difficult to test in a valid way.
