Exchange Theory and Communicative Action

George Homans and Peter Blau each offer an explanation of human interactions and how they reproduced social process and social structures. Homans develop his theory by observing four different social groups; street gang, work group in a factor, kingship system of a private island, and a village in new England. Through his observations he develop five propositions that underlies the dynamics of a group. Peter Blau further developed Homans theory and added that people calculated their actions based on the reward level of their action as well as the level of power they receive from their actions. Blau also explains how exchange theory becomes an institutionalization. I will also being going over Habermas’s uses of the theory of Communicative Action to develop a theory of society with practical intent.

Homans observation of four different social groups; street gang, work group in a factor, kingship system of a private island, and a village in new England, lead to his development of five propositions. Those Propositions being; One, if the frequency of interaction between two or more people increases, then the degree if the liking of one another will increase as well. Two; when people like one another increase, they will express it by participating in more activities together. Three; the more frequent people interact with other people the more similar their behavior will become. Four; the higher the rank of a person with in a group, the more their behavior will conform to the group. Five; the higher the person is social rank, the wider the range of their interaction. These are Homans first Five Major Propositions in his attempt to develop his theory about human interaction.

Though Homans research on these four different social...

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...ce Kohlberg and Jean Piaget to explain the development stages of and individual’s morals. Preconvention level, which is the punishment/obedience stage as well as the instrumental relativist stage, the Preconvention level is where a child response to cultural rules of what is good or bad but s/he learns this lesson by trial and error and sometime punishment. The conventional level is the interpersonal concordance orientation and the law and order orientation and obedience to authority begins. It is also where individuals maintain the expectations of the family and the nation, seeing it as a right and valuable regardless of the outcome. The final level is Post conventional level, in this level individuals develop universal ethical orientation, and social contract orientation, and it is also where people have a clear effort to define moral values and principles.