The Social Exchange Theory

Throughout the lifetime of an average human being, one will meet thousands of people, form hundreds of acquaintances, make many close friends, and have multiple romantic relationships. The idea that what encourages an individual to voluntarily turn an acquaintance into a close friend, or into a romantic partner, is that the relationship is seen as profitable is called the Social Exchange Theory. The basis of Social Exchange Theory is that individuals tend to choose to form or continue relationships where the rewards outweigh the costs of the relationship. I chose the Social Exchange theory for analysis because I saw a direct application of it in my recent personal life. Throughout this paper, I will be analyzing the application of this theory

An important part of this theory is that factors considered costs and rewards are completely subjective. In other words, something that may be a cost to one person could be considered a reward to another. Some examples of potential costs of a relationship are time consumption, depending on the partner, exclusivity of the relationship, being tied down, and stress and worry about the potential fallout of the relationship. A few examples of potential rewards of a relationship are companionship, acceptance, support, intimacy, and having a confidant. Another key point of this theory is that although people do feel it’s necessary to reciprocate these rewards, the distribution doesn’t need to be symmetrical. There can be different rewards reciprocated for different

We disclosed our concerns about a new romantic relationship at this point in our lives to each other which was extremely helpful. Bruno told me that he was worried about causing me to miss out on the full freshmen college experience and I explained to him some of my concerns such as a possible fall out. I noticed with every concern one of us brought up, the other countered it with a possible reward. In the end, we decided the pros outweighed the cons of us being in a committed relationship. After this, we both told each other what we would require or ask of the other person such as spending time with each other, providing support and advice to each other, etc. This depicts not only another calculation of the costs and rewards of starting a relationship but also illustrates the nonsymmetrical reciprocation of rewards we wanted from each