Roloff, M. E. (1981). Interpersonal Communication: The Social Exchange Approach,. Beverly Hills, CA, Sage.

They define interpersonal communication as "a symbolic interaction between people rather then between a person and an inanimate object".

Blau notes that there are two types of exchange -- economic and social. Economic exchange involves specific obligations between two people, while social exchange involves unspecified obligations. The time period for repayment is unspecified. Economic exchanges are based on a legal system, social exchanges on trust. Exchanges create feelings of social gratitude, personal obligation, and trust. Unlike economic exchange, the value of the exchange often depends on the status of the giver or taker.

Another definition by Ekeh is with restricted exchange, where two parties exchange without affecting other parties in the situation. In generalized exchange, A might help B who helps C who reciprocates to A. They operate under different principles.

"Social exchange is the voluntary transferance of some object or activity from one person to another in return for other objects or activities". p. 11 Some of the things exchanged are love, status, services, goods, information, & money.

Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson (1967) note that people who ignore another person's view in effect deny that person's existance. They call it disconfirmation and hypothesize that it's the ultimate insult..[Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of the Interactional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes]

Blau describes six types of social rewards -- personal attraction, social acceptance, social approval, instrumental services, respect/prestige, and compliance/power. There can also be social costs -- Blau describes three types -- investment costs, direct costs, and opportunity costs.

Heath (1976) notes that people often make exchange decisions based on inaccurate or incomplete information. A decision that seems optimal to them may not be to outside observers.

Interpersonal Communication

Occurs in a relational context. A social relationship exists when two people interact because they view themselves as being the sole members of a common collectivity which causes them to interact in a specific manner." p. 27 Some relationships are role oriented, known as formal relationships. Those that also include non-role behavior are interpersonal relationships.

Bernstein defined a taxonomy of language codes involved in a relationship. Lexical restricted code is like "cocktail chatter", narrowly defined, superficial, more typically associated with formal, role relationships.

Elaborated code involves the expression of intent and disclosure of individual characteristics of the source. These are used when people are seeking to understand each other.

Syntactical code is only ritualized within the relationship. There is no need to communicate intent because it is understood.

"Interpersonal communciation is a symbolic process by which two peopel, bound together in a relationship, provide each other with resources or negotiate the exchange of resources". p. 30

Homan's Operant Psychology Approach (in Social Behavior: It's Elementary Forms)

His approach is Skinnerian, seeing environmental cues as guiding behavior. To skinner, thinking is covert behavior.

Homans propositions are that:

1. Humans are more likely to repeat actions that are rewarded, especially if they are rewarded irregularily.

2. The more similar a situation is to a previous one in which the person was rewarded for a specific action, the more likely they are to respond similarily.

3. The more valuable a certain reponse is to the person, the more likely they are to perform the action.

4. The more recent the reward, the less valuable an incremental amount of reward will be.

5. when they don't receive the reward the are likely to get angry

Action in the present is determined by previous reinforcement schedules.

Blau's Economic Approach (Exchange and Power in Everyday Life)

According to Blau, emergent properties "are essentially relationships between elements in a structure. The relationships are not contained in the elements, thogh they could not exist without them, and they define the structure".

Blau uses economics as the primary theoretical base. He uses indifference curves, supply and demand curves. He says that "the only assumption made is that human beings choose between alternative potential associates or courses of action by evaluating the experiences or expected experiences with each in terms of a preference ranking and then selecting the best alternative". He sees three types of expectations -- general, particular, and comparative.

General expectations are associate with one's role, occupation, formed by social norms of what person ought to receive. Particular expectations are associated with rewards received from a particular person. Comparative expectations are the rewards of a relationship minus the cost of maintaining the relationship.

He also talks about the emergent properties of a relationship that emerge from the first social exchange. Social norms also dictate a "fair rate of exchange" and a "going rate of exchange"

Thibaut and Kelley's Theory of Interdependence (Interpersonal Relationships 1978, Kelly's Personal Relationships 1979).

They base their theory on drive reduction and gaming principles. They also believe that "most socially significant behavior will not be repeated unless it it reinforced, rewarded in some way". To be rewarded means that a person has undergone drive reduction or need fulfilment. This approach assumes some internal drive mechanism prompts behavior. "Thus social exchange involves processes by which two people provide mutual resources that reduce drives or fulfill each other's needs".

Additionally, they use game theory to explore the potential behavior between exchange partners.

One limitation of this theory is in novel situations. In initial encounters, determining rewarding behavior is difficult (p. 47). Thibaut and Kellwy argue that people learn in a reinforced way and soon adapt to the limitations.

Their theories also refer to power and control, specifically the dependence of A for the resources of B.

Foa & Foa's Resource Theory (Societal Structures of the Mind, 1974).

They focus on the development of cognitive structures in the mind. Behavior is guided by motivational states. People are motivated to engage in certain behaviors whenever quantities of resources fall outside the optimal range. They posit that every interpersonal behavior consists of giving or taking away one or more resources, and that closely allied resources exchanges occur more frequently (i.e. love for love,

Walster, Berscheid, & Walster's Equity Theory (1976)

In this theory if the ratio or rewards to costs is different between people, they feel an unpleasant emotional state. Their theory implies that people are self-interested. But in groups people will generally punish people who behavior inequitably.