Social Exchange Theory

Social Exchange Theory is a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties. Social Exchange Theory posits that all human relationships are formed by the use of a subjective cost-benefit analysis and the comparison of alternatives. The theory has roots in economics, psychology and sociology. Social Exchange Theory features many of the main assumptions found in rational choice theory and structuralism.

Read more about Social Exchange Theory:  History, Basic Concepts, 12 Theoretical Propositions, Assumptions, Comparison Levels and Modes of Exchange, Critiques, Applications

Famous quotes containing the words social, exchange and/or theory:

    “What is done for science must also be done for art: accepting undesirable side effects for the sake of the main goal, and moreover diminishing their importance by making this main goal more magnificent. For one should reform forward, not backward: social illnesses, revolutions, are evolutions inhibited by a conserving stupidity.”
    —Robert Musil (1880–1942)

    “My life is superficial, takes no root in the deep world; I ask, When shall I die, and be relieved of the responsibility of seeing a Universe which I do not use? I wish to exchange this flash-of-lightning faith for continuous daylight, this fever-glow for a benign climate.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Thus the theory of description matters most.
    It is the theory of the word for those
    For whom the word is the making of the world,
    The buzzing world and lisping firmament.”
    —Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)