Social Behavior
Homans's next major work was called Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. He wrote this book in 1961 and revised it in 1974. This was based on the principles of behavioral psychology, and helped explain the "sub-institutional", or elementary forms of social behavior in small groups. This explanation of social behavior first appeared in an article Homans published titled "Social Behaviour as Exchange" in 1958. He believed his exchange theory is derived from both behavioral psychology and elementary economics. Homans had come to the view that theory should be expressed as a deductive system, in this respect falling under the influence of the logical empiricist philosophers of that period. Substantively, he argued that a satisfactory explanation in the social sciences to be based upon "propositions"—principles—about individual behavior that are drawn from the behavioral psychology of the time. Homans doesn't believe that new propositions are needed to explain social behavior. The laws of individual behavior developed by Skinner in his study of pigeons explain social behavior as long as we take into account the complications of mutual reinforcement.
Social behavior as exchange means that a plurality of individuals, each postulated to behave according to the stated behavioral principles, form a system of interaction. Social approval is the basic reward that people can give to one another. In much greater detail, he developed this approach in his book Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms (1961, revised 1974). Homans exemplifies this type of social behavior below:
"Suppose that two men are doing paperwork jobs in an office. According to the office rules, each should do his job by himself, or, if he needs help, he shoudl consult the supervisor. One of the men, whom we shall call Person, is not skillful at the work an would get it done better and faster if he got help from time to time. In spite of the rules he is reluctant to go to the supervisor, for to confess his incompetence might hurt his changes for promotion. Instead he seeks out the other man, whome we shall call Other for short, and asks him for help. Other is more experienced at the work than is Person; he can do his work well and quickly and be left with time to spare, and he has reason to suppose that the supervisor will not go out of his way to look for a breach of rules. Other gives Person help and in return Person gives Other thanks and expressions of approval. The two men have exchanged help and approval." (Homans, 1961:31-32)
Focusing on this situation, and basing his ideas on Skinner's findings, Homans developed several propositions.
Read more about this topic: George C. Homans
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