Social Exchange Theory

Social exchange theory is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It takes its place alongside social systems theory, symbolic interactionism, structural-functionalism, and conflict theory. Three of the major exchange theorists are George C. Homans, Peter Blau, and Richard M. Emerson. This general perspective has roots in a number of disciplines in the social sciences, including the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and microeconomics. Some of the early theoretical influences came from pragmatism, utilitarianism, behaviorism, and functionalism. Other sources of influence include the major works of several social psychologists and cultural anthropologists. From psychology, the work of John Thibaut and Harold Kelley, notably their prize-winning book The Social Psychology of Groups (1959, 1986), is closest to the analysis developed by exchange theorists in sociology, especially Homans and later Emerson. The other major influence on theories of social exchange that derived from psychology was behaviorism. It had a strong impact on the development of Homans's theory of social behavior as exchange and the early work of Richard Emerson and later the work of Linda Molm. In cultural anthropology, the works of Claude Levi-Strauss, Bronislaw Malinowski, and Marcel Mauss were especially influential.

The first formal treatment of social behavior as exchange in sociology appeared in George Homans's article published in 1958 in the American Sociological Review. This was also a major topic in his presidential address on “bringing men back in” at the American Sociological Association meetings. He was reacting to the growing dominance of Parsonianism and the focus on large-scale social systems in sociological theory. Homans argued that theory should focus on the subinstitutional level of analysis, specifying the determinants of “elementary” social behavior that formed the bedrock of groups and organizations. For him, this meant a primary emphasis on the actions of individuals in direct interaction with one another in contrast to the study of institutions and institutional behavior driven by [Page 736]social prescriptions or normative elements in society, the focus of Parsons. Homans believed that the subinstitutional elementary forms of social behavior could “crack the institutional crust,” forcing changes in the institutionalized ways of doing things. Rebellion, revolution, and even more modest forms of social change often take this form. They provide the impetus for social change.

Homans' most sustained work on social exchange is his book Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms, published in 1961 and revised in 1974. In this book, he lays out his propositions of elementary social behavior. These propositions are based to a large extent on the work of his Harvard colleague, B. F. Skinner and his ideas about reinforcement processes as determinants of behavior and behavioral change. Skinner defined social exchange as the exchange of activity, tangible or intangible, and more or less rewarding or costly, between at least two persons (Homans 1961:13). Influenced by deductive theorizing and logical positivism, Homans believed that many important aspects of social behavior could be derived from five simple behavioral propositions. He embraced reductionism, arguing that the behavior of collectivities could be reduced to principles of elementary behavior. For Homans, nothing emerged in social groups that could not be explained by propositions about individuals, together with the given conditions under which they were interacting.

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