John Thibaut's Social Exchange Theory

It’s very well known that all humans love to interact with others and make new relationships throughout their lives. There are different types of relationships that are created such as family, friends, school, romance, sexual, and work. These relationships all have a benefit factor to them and a reason why these relationships are created. This all follows under the social exchange theory where every relationship has a reward system based on the behavior of a person. The social exchange theory best explains society unlike the other theories simply because the social exchange theory perfectly describes the behavior humans create when interacting with their relationships such as marriage, friends, and school.

Marriage is one of the strongest

Social psychologists John Thibaut and Harold Kelley expanded the social exchange theory by creating the Comparison Level and Comparison Level for Alternatives. The Comparison Level is when a person is analyzing their rewards or benefits to others and try to find if they’re receiving a better benefit than others (Comp). For example, a woman will compare her marriage to her best friend and try to see who’s receiving better rewards or benefits. Comparison Level for Alternatives is later used when couples try to picture a life without their significant other and imagine the benefits they receive without their partner. In that same example, the woman will try to picture an alternative world where she’s remarried or divorce and receiving a higher quality of rewards than her real marriage. The social exchange theory helps create the reason why married couples get a divorce simply because they’re not receiving the benefits they would’ve thought or the benefits they had received lost their value over

In David Comp’s article, he explains that if humans cannot have a reward in their relationship then humans lose interest and typically end that relationship (Comp). Comp then highlights the importance of social exchange theory by stating that when humans have a rewarding relationship, they’re able to make that relationship stronger by being able to observe the likes and dislikes of their peers. On the other hand, without the help of social exchange theory, then humans wouldn’t be able to reach their goals or wishes such as going to a good college or being able to win awards in their activities. The social exchange theory explains the choices people make when deciding to create new relationships or goals (Redmond, 2015). This theory gives the best explanation of society as it’s defining why humans make a big effort to work harder in their relationships and goals because they believe that their relationships or goals give them a