Relational Cohesion Theory

Overview

Social exchanges are instrumental in the sense that people engage in exchange to get something for themselves, and they may not care what the other gets. Unless people have some sort of commitment to each other, you would expect them to always be searching or “on the lookout” for better exchange partners and to readily leave one relationship for another. Social ties or relations would be like economic markets in this sense, governed and shaped purely by self-interest. Relational cohesion theory asks, Under what conditions will people in social exchange develop a commitment to their relationship?

Commitment is defined as the tendency for people to keep exchanging with the same person or to stay in a relationship despite good or better alternatives. If people have a commitment, they will not be as inclined to search for better alternatives or to choose an alternative over their current relationship if one becomes available. Relational cohesion theory, as the name implies, argues that social cohesion produces a strong form of commitment that involves not just staying in the relationship but also giving gifts without strings attached (unilaterally) and partaking in new joint activities or ventures that require or imply trust in the other's goodwill. The theory contends that such commitments form because social exchanges produce [Page 690]emotions (or feelings), and under certain conditions, people associate their individual feelings with their relationship or shared group affiliation. When this occurs, people come to value not only the things they personally get from the exchange but also the relationship or group affiliation in itself.

According to the theory, social cohesion has a structural and a perceptual dimension. Structural cohesion is based on the degree of interdependence, that is, how dependent the people are on each other. Structural cohesion is strong if both people in an exchange are highly dependent on each other for valued rewards (high mutual dependence, or interdependence) and if they are equally rather than unequally dependent on each other. Structural cohesion, however, is an unrealized potential. It makes salient to people that they are involved in a joint task or activity with another and that they cannot accomplish the task alone or without the other.

The fact that they “need” each other for this purpose is important, but it does not necessarily lead to actualized or realized cohesion. Actual or realized cohesion has to be produced and perceived by the people themselves in their interactions with each other. Once cohesion is realized, people tend to become committed and thus are inclined to stay in their relationship, give each other gifts, and trust each other enough to partake in new cooperative ventures that expand or grow their relationship.

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