George Homans
(1910-1989)
“If you look long enough for the
secret of society you will find it
in plain sight: The secret of
society is that it was made by
men, and there is nothing in
society but what men put there”
B
a
c
k
g
r
o
Born to wealthy family in Boston on
August 11, 1910
Eldest of four children
u
n
Came from three generations of
doctors
Looked up to his father Robert, had
mixed feelings about his mother
George was healthy, but small and
d
weak
 Family had their own library, which
B
a
c
k
g
r
o
George took advantage of
Went to top private schools, then
Harvard
u
 English major
Did not study Sociology, but was introduced to
the discipline by a close professor, Bernard
DeVoto
n
 Became interested in Sociology by
d
“Laws of sociology are the laws of
living in environment where people
were highly conscious of social relations
snobbery”
B
a
c
k
g
r
o
 Went to work for newspaper are
graduation
 Paper failed due to Great Depression
u
 Being unemployed with nothing to
do, he attended a seminar at Harvard
Given by Lawrence Joseph Henderson
Theories of Vilfredo Pareto
n
Sociologist concerned with economic
distribution
All individuals will be made worse off with
everyone being made worse off
d
Was so impressed he co-wrote An Introduction
to Pareto
Was appointed as a junior fellow in
sociology at Harvard
B
a
c
k
g
r
o
u
Brought him in contact with new works in
industrial sociology
Exposed to work of functional
anthropologists
Became an instructor of sociology until 1941
Left teaching to serve in the U.S. Navy to
n
support the war
Came back to teaching after four years
Taught under Parsons
d
Was critical of Parsons work and feud
developed between them
Thought Parsons found examples to fit
his theories
Exchange Theory
C p
o t
n s
c
e
The study of sociology should explain
individual behavior and interactions, not the
large scale structures other sociologists were
concerned with

People
will continue to engage in behaviors
they find rewarding and cease behaviors that
have too high of costs
World consists of interacting persons
exchanging rewards and punishments

Problem for researchers is to weigh the value
individuals place on specific rewards and costs

Exchange Theory
C p
o t
n s
c
e
Other
contributors to the theory:
Peter
Blau
Expanded Homan’s theory by extending it
to more complex issues like, social
structures, organizations, and bureaucracy
Karen
Cook
Created her own version of social
exchange theory
Added to theory saying that we don’t
always expect a reward for actions, but we
expect others to help us in the future
Introduced the idea of free riders
Rational Choice
Theory
C p
o t
n s
c
e
Homans set out a basic framework of
exchange theory

Skinner
was the inspiration behind Homan’s
psychology
Food is the basic goal sought by animals
Animal behavior can be shaped by giving
or withholding of food
Food is the reward for animals
Humans more likely to seek approval, love
and money
Rewards and punishments may differ, but
the mechanisms involved are the same
Rational Choice
Theory
C p
o t
n s
c
e
Rational
choice theorists see social
interaction as a process of social
exchange
Collective
action
Parsons- if actions are self-interested,
how is social life possible?
Homans would respond- If you get a
sense of satisfaction from helping
others, then giving help is an act of
rational self-interest
Human Exchange Propositions

Five Propositions

C p
o t
n s
c
e
1. The success proposition: The principle of reward
 If past activity was rewarded, individual is more likely to
repeat activity
Shorter
interval between behavior and reward, the more
likely individual will repeat action
The more often an action is rewarded, the more likely
individual will repeat action


2. The stimulus proposition: The principle of experience
If a similar stimulus presents itself and it resembles a
previously rewarded activity, individual is likely to repeat their
course of action

The value proposition: Reward and punishment, the
principle of value of outcome
3.
The
more valuable an activity that another gives, the more an
individual will emit activity rewarded by the activity of the
other
If you like someone's company, you will engage in behavior
that the other finds desirable

Human Exchange Propositions
C p
o t
n s
c
e
4.
The deprivation-satiation proposition:
Principle of diminishing returns
The more often a reward has recently been
received, the less valuable further reward becomes

If forced for a long time to go without a certain
reward, individual will lose interest and move on

5. The aggression-approval proposition:
Principle of distributive justice

When
behavior does not receive the expected
reward, the response is anger
Will find
When
the aggression rewarding
individual receives greater reward than
expected, or does not receive expected
punishment, he/she will be pleased
Antifunctionalist
The
C p
o t
n s
c
e
nature of social science
Response
to Parsons & structural-functionalism
Explanation of behavior was only possible through the
use of propositions

Explanation
by concept is not an explanation
Confronted
Durkheim’s structural functionalism on
three main issues
1.
Level of Emergence
Homans
believed all emergent social phenomena
could be explained from psychological propositions
2.
Durkheim’s View of Psychology
During

Durkheim’s day psychology was primitive
3. Durkheim’s Methods of Explanation
Was concerned with the relationship between
cause and effect

Groups

Elements of the group system
Activity-
C p
o t
n s
c
e
What group members do
 Interaction- Relation of the activity of one
member of that group to that of another
Sentiment- Feelings of group members with
respect to the group
Norms- Code of behavior adopted by group
Feedback
Relationship between
internal and external
group systems
Internal system is subject to change as a result
of fluctuations from the group members
Collapse
of a civilization can be explained by
failure of a number of small groups to meet group’s
needs
Better
chance of group survival if members fulfill
their roles
Bernard DeVoto, Lawrence
I
n
t
e
l
l
e
c
I
t
n
u
f
a
l
l
u
e
n
c
e
s
Henderson, and Elton Mayo
Bernard
DeVoto was a junior member
of the teaching staff at Harvard who
Homans came into close association.
DeVoto
was an instructor of English,
and was Homans’ American Literature
tutor.
DeVoto
introduced Homans to the
great publisher, Alfred Knopf, and a
professor named Lawrence Joseph
Henderson and his assistant Elton
Mayo, who introduced Homans to
Sociology
Anthropology
I
n
t
e
l
l
e
c
I
t
n
u
f
a
l
l
u
e
n
c
e
s
Mayo
instructed Homans, as with the
rest of his students, to read books by
prominent social anthropologists,
because at this time the cultural
anthropologists were intellectually
dominant.
The
concept of reciprocity became a
critical element in Homans’ exchange
theory. The concept of exchange itself
was influenced by Malinowski’s
discussion of “The Gift”.
Anthropologists
and exchange
theorists argue that a crucial aspect of
gift exchanges bind society together
through mutual obligations.
B.F. Skinner & Psychological Behaviorism
I
n
t
e
l
l
e
c
I
t
n
u
f
a
l
l
u
e
n
c
e
s
Homans
treated the social exchange
between Skinner and his pigeons as the
paradigm of all social exchange.
In
formulating his version of exchange
theory, Homans turned to the
behavioral school of experimental
psychology founded by his friend
Skinner.
Homans’s
sociology is an attempt to
build a theory about social life from the
basic behavioristic propositions derived
from Skinner’s psychology of operant
conditioning
Economics and Utilitarianism
I
n
t
e
l
l
e
c
I
t
n
u
f
a
l
l
u
e
Rational
n
c
e
s
choice theorists, such as those found
in the exchange theory paradigm, have adopted
4 basic economic propositions:
Individuals are rational profit maximizers.
The more of something an individual has,
the less interested they will be in more of it.
The prices at which goods and services
will be sold in a free market are determined
directly by the tastes of prospective buyers
and sellers
Goods will generally be more expensive if
they are supplied by a monopolist than if
they are supplied by a number of firms in
competitions with each other
Utilitarians
argued that behavior was more or
less a moral activity according to the amount of
utility it bestowed on individuals.
I
n
t
e
l
l
e
c
I
t
n
u
f
a
l
l
u
e
Georg Simmel
n
c
e
s
Simmel
was one of the first early
major social theorists who attempted to
identify universal characteristics of
human behavior.
In
1958, Homans wrote an article for
a special issue of the American Journal of
Sociology in honor of Simmel. Homans
urged small-group researchers to
integrate laboratory experiments with
quantified field work, and to reduce the
propositions established to those of
psychological explanations.
Homans
R
e
l
e
v
a
n
c
y
is, of course, best known for
“creating” exchange theory. But nowhere in his
descriptions of propositions does he use the
term “exchange.”
Exchange theory
combines the principles of
psychological behaviorism, basic economics and
utilitarianism, with a focus on interactions
between humans.
Homans
proposed a number of propositions
that he believed could explain any, or all, human
behaviors. To demonstrate the relevance of these
propositions to today’s world is nearly pointless,
as any behavior that one can think of can be
easily be answered by one or more of his
propositions.
Homans
R
e
l
e
v
a
n
c
y
wrote extensively on the group
system and the group structure. His ideas have
maintained their relevancy because of the reality
of the large number of small group interactions
that humans engage in.
The
formation of a group involves the
development of integrative bonds that unite
individuals in a cohesive unit
1. impressing others
2. social approval
3. attractiveness
4. love
Homans’
brilliant works and contributions to
social theory are only at the early stages of
recognition. His insights of human behavior will
continue to inspire social thought well into the
third millennium.
Realism vs. Idealism
P
h
i
l
o
s
o
p
h
y
Realist – Society is created by
man, which indicates that reality
itself was made by man. One reality
is accepted by everyone, and the job
of the scientist is to figure out why
people act the way they do in this
reality/society.
Realism vs. Nominalism
Nominalist – Believes that
everything was made by man, so
everything is a social construct of
man.
P
h
i
l
o
s
o
p
h
y
 Idealism vs. Materialism
Materialist – believes that
everything in society was put there
by man