Social Exchange Theory

what is the SET?

economic theories of romantic rs that attempt to explain a series of change between partners with the explanation of rewards and costs

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what psychologists described romantic rs with economic terminally and what did they say?

Thibuat + Kelly describe romantic rs use economics terminally of reward (profit) and cost (loss), which claims partners in rs want to maximise rewards ie praise, emotional support, sex and minimise costs ie stress, arguments, compromises

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what should be considered when referring to rewards and costs?

they can be subjective is what 1 person thinks is rlly costly, another might think is less costly or even a reward such as time commitments, it can also change over time ie what once was costly may appear less costly as the rs develops

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what are levels of comparison and who suggested this?

T+K suggested that asses how profitable a rs is, a person will assess how much rewards they deserve to achieve in a rs and if a potential partner will be able to provide that for them.

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what can influence the comparison level?

.norms such as cultural norms if that would be normal to expect in a rs
.film and tv programmes
.self-esteem, if someone has high self-esteem they may expect more rewards and vice versa for low self esteem

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for a rs to be successful what should the cl be?

it must have high rewards for both partners in order to succeed in their rs

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what is the second level of comparison?

comparison level of alternatives- concerns a person perception of wether or not other potential partners could provide more rewards in a rs in comparison to a rs they may be in. if the rewards are high in the current rs are high they-

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-they will stay but if its high and low costs somewhere else, the person will leave for the alternative to receive higher rs satisfaction

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what did another psychologist point out that should be considered?

Duck says that if the person is content in their current rs, then they may not even notice available alternatives in the first place

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what are the stages a rs progresses through and who suggested it?

T+K
.Sampling stage- ppl explore potential rewards/costs of rs, not just romantic ones but also from direct experience or observations
.Bargaining stage- first stage of rs, parents exchange-

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-rewards/costs and figure out the most profitable exchange + negotiate dynamics of rs
.Commitment stage- when a rs becomes more stable + partners become familiar w sources of rewards/costs an each others expectations

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.Institutionalisation stage- when costs/rewards as are well established

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what did a psychologist find regarding commitment?

Floyd et al found that commitment (a loss) can change over time as couples feel satisfied and feel rewarded in a rs when they perceive that equally/more attractive rs are unattractive to them

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what did a psychologist say that disapproves of the SET?

Argyle argues that ppl dont start assessing the rewards and costs in a rs until they feel dissatisfied, ie being unhappy may lead to a person assessing if there are more costs then rewards in a rs

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what psychologists did a study and what did they fine? (include A,M,R,C)

Kurden + Schmitt
A-to investigative SET
M- sample of 185 couple PP in this, has 44 heterosexual couples who were married to 1 another, 25 hetero couples cohabiting but not married-

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-,50 homo m couples and 56 homo f couples, none of these couples had children. each individual within the couples comeoplted a Q, designed to measure importance of SET of SE factors in their rs satisfaction w/o discussing responses to partner

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R- for all couples, irrespective of being married or not, or being gay or not, rs satisfaction was always reported higher when partners preferred benefits of current rs to outweigh the costs and that alternatives were less attractive to them

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name the evaluation

+R.S Sprecher- CLoA was a strong predictor of commitment in a rs whilst rewards were important as a predicator of satisfaction esp for women, based on findings it can be concluded that some ppl base their evaluation of rs on rewards and costs

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-difficult to define as its subjective (+Clark+Mills argue that even if this is true for work interactions its not true for rs, this is not the case in romantic rs weakening validity
+useful for real life application ie integrated-

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-behavioural couple therapy (ICBT). Christensen et al 2/3 of couples treated using ICBT reported that their rs improved sig. +they were feeling more happiness. in session, partners are trained to increase proportion of good exchanges in everyday life-

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-and decrease not good exchanges in everyday life
-lacks mundane realism as majority of research on SET is based on studying strangers that are involved in some kind go game-based scenario-

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-w rewards and costs ie Emerson and Cook designed a lab exp where 112 pp were bargaining w a partner to maximise personal score in computer game and so the rs aren't anything like realm life rs

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Social Exchange Theory

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