Rumor and gossip in interpersonal interaction and beyond: A social exchange perspective.

To analyze the manifestations of social injustice in various situations in society, it is necessary first of all to study how it arises in interpersonal interaction. In the studies of foreign authors on this issue, the logic inherent to the theory of social exchange by G. Homans appears implicitly or explicitly. The article describes which theories Homans based on when creating his concept, how the individual’s actions are influenced by the “rewards” and “costs” received by him, and why Homans wasnot afraid to defend the methodological principle of psychological reductionism. This paper discusses the propositions of this theory and their applicability in assessing the phenomenon of social justice, whether it is a distributional, procedural or interactional orientation. Distributive justice examines how the parties to social exchange assess the fairness of the “rewards” received; to the sphere of procedural studies – the “honesty” of the procedures and processes by which the distribution of “rewards” is made; the area of interest of the interactionist direction is the actor himself, who participates in the process of social exchange. The article also examines the specifics of such types of social exchange as contractual and mutual. A contractual type of social exchange is a relationship in which agreements and conditions are jointly established, thanks to which it becomes possible to receive “rewards”. In contrast to contractual social exchange, mutual exchange is not supported by any legal restrictions. The article describes why the hypothesis that the contractual type of social exchange will be viewed by the participants as more equitable has not been confirmed. In addition, this paper analyzes the suitability of using contractual and mutual social exchange in the context of G. Homans theory of social exchange, and the relevance of their consideration within the framework of the concept of “rewards” and “costs”.

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Social exchange processes, health behaviour, and health behaviour change

Zeitschrift für Gesundheitspsychologie ◽

10.1026/0943-8149.16.3.131 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 131-134

Author(s):

Urte Scholz ◽

Rainer Hornung

Keyword(s):

Social Exchange ◽

Health Behaviour ◽

Psychological Research ◽

Smoking Behaviour ◽

Self Report ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Main Research ◽

Research Areas ◽

Exchange Processes ◽

Multi Method Approach

Abstract. The main research areas of the Social and Health Psychology group at the Department of Psychology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, are introduced. Exemplarily, three currently ongoing projects are described. The project ”Dyadic exchange processes in couples facing dementia” examines social exchanges in couples with the husband suffering from dementia and is based on Equity Theory. This project applies a multi-method approach by combining self-report with observational data. The ”Swiss Tobacco Monitoring System” (TMS) is a representative survey on smoking behaviour in Switzerland. Besides its survey character, the Swiss TMS also allows for testing psychological research questions on smoking with a representative sample. The project, ”Theory-based planning interventions for changing nutrition behaviour in overweight individuals”, elaborates on the concept of planning. More specifically, it is tested whether there is a critical amount of repetitions of a planning intervention (e.g., three or nine times) in order to ensure long-term effects.

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