1.     Bundle of Instincts
        The child first experiences the world through his/her senses.

2.     Conditioning
        The child associated pleasure with the mother's milk and
        then with the presence of the mother.

3 .     Imitation
        The child imitates the behavior of people toward objects,
        animals, people, etc.

4.     Self as Object
        The child sees himself or herself as an object, and imitates the
        behavior of others toward himself . The "Looking Glass Self"
        phenomenon occurs.

5.     Play (Role Playing)
        The child puts himself or herself in the role of another person
        and acts our the behavior, attitudes and values of that role.

6 .     Game
        Games involve multiple roles in which children, in order to play
        the game successfully, not only have to act our their own role
        competently, but also have to anticipate the behavior of other
        role players.

7.     Generalized Other
        The child views a person as a representative of a class of "other"
        people. The child generalizes the behavior of one individual to
        typical characteristics of a group of people.

PAGE 2

1.         Focuses on the SUBJECTIVE aspects of social life. Takes human
            beings as they are, with minds, experience, agency, etc. The model
            of reaflty which Symbolic Interaction creates comes closest to fitting reality.

2.         Emphasizes FREE AGENCY and the individual's ability to interpret
            social life andtogovemhisownbehavior. AvoidsanOVERSOCIALIZED
            interpretation of human behavior.

3.         Avoids DETERMINISM, especiafly one-factor deterministic theories.
            Takes a multi-dimensional, multi-causal orientation to the explanation of
            human behavior which includes the agency of the human actor.

4.         Emphasizes the human INDIVIDUAL. Gives credit to our unique abilities,
            minds, agency, etc.

5.         Avoids an excessive individualistic, psychological approach to human behavior.
            Avoids an UNDERSOCIALIZED conception of human beings.

6.         Emphasizes PROCESS rather than structure or static states.

7.         Explains MACRO-Sociological phenomena from a micro-sociological
            point of view.

8.       Can deal with both stability and change, with conformity and deviance,
            with integration and conflict. Avoids taking a position on these
            theoretical opposites.

9.         Has a strong practical orAPPLIED orientation. Isuse useful to help
            people deal with the problems in their fives.

10.       Emphasizes neglected aspects of social life, especially the SITUATION.

11.     Emphasizes important social phenomena often missed by other
          theories,such as socialization, social roles, norms, interaction, etc.

PAGE 3

Herbert Blumer, Symbolic Interactionism. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1969

1.     The concepts, data, instruments of data gathering, interpretations of data, etc. all have to
        be judged "in the light of the nature of the empirical world under study." (p. 27)

        Since the empirical world is a symbolic world--in the mind of the actor--all
        methodological techniques have to take into account this subjective reality.

2.     The researcher must have a first-hand acquaintance with the sphere of social life he
        is studying.

3.     The researcher must develop the sldll of placing himself in the position of another individual.
        This takes training and practice.

4.     Participant observation is the major method by which data are gathered. However, any
        other methods are also useful.

5.     Triangulation, or the use of many methods--coming at a phenomenon from many sides--is a
        useful method, especially in the early stages of research.

6.     The research must focus on process, not on stable patterns. Social interaction is a formative
        process: things are formed and changed.

7.     The research must focus on the micro rather than the macro lever. Don't look for social action
        to be determined by broad societal forces. Look instead at how individuals interact in particular
        situations, and how they change or redefine those situations.

8.     The researcher should use sensitizing concepts to help get an initial picture of the
        situation being studied.

PAGE 4

PAGE 5

FOUNDER:     George C. Homans
                        "Social Behavior as Exchange," American Journal of Sociology, 1956.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS:

John Thibaut and George Kelly, The Social Psychology of Groups, 1959.

Peter Blau, Exchange and Power in Social Life, 1964.

Alvin Gouldner, "The Norm of Reciprocity," American Sociological Review, 1960.

Richard Emerson, "Power-Dependence Relation," American Sociological Review, 1962

Peter P. Ekeh, Social exchange Theory, 1974
 

INFLUENCES:

Game Theory, Von Neumann and Morgenstern

Classical Economics, Adam Smith

Behavioristic Psychology, B.F. Skinner

Anthropological Exchange Theory, Bronislaw Malinowski

PAGE 6

"The definition of power . . . is the ability of persons or groups to impose their
will on others despite resistance through deterrence either in the forms of
withholding regularly supplied rewards or in the form of punishment..... 11 (p. 717)

"By supplying services in demand to others, a person establishes
power over them" (p. 118)

"Providing needed benefits others cannot easily do without is undoubtedly the most
prevalent way of attaining power, though not the only one, since it can also be
attained by threatening to deprive others of benefits they currently enjoy unless they
submit." (p. 118)

If people need a service from a powerful leader, they have four
alternatives: (pp. 118-119)

I .     They can supply him with a service he needs in exchange.
        (This results in relative equality.)

2.     They can obtain the needed service elsewhere.

3.     They can coerce him to furnish the service.

4.     They may do without the service.

If none of these alternatives are possible, they become dependent upon the powerful
person and have to exchange their deference in order to obtain the needed service.

Source:     Peter Blau, Exchange and Power in Social Life. New York: Wiley, 1964

PAGE 7

SUCCESS PROPOSITION: "For all actions taken by persons, the more
often a particular action of a person is rewarded, the more likelythe
person is to perform that action." (p. 16)

STIMULUS PROPOSITION: "if in the past the occurrence of a particular
stimulus, or set of stimuli, has been the occasion onwhich a person Is action
has been rewarded, then -the more similarthe present stimuli are to the past
ones, the more likely the person is to perform the action, or some similar
action, now.,," (pp. 22-23)

VALUE PROPOSITION: "The more valuabletoaperson is the result of his
action, the more likely heis to perform the action.'# (p.25)

DEPRIVATION - SATIATION PROPOSITION:

" The more often in the recent past a person has received a particular reward,
the less valuable any further unit of that reward becomes for him." (p. 29)

AGGRESSION - APPROVAL PROPOSITION:

(A) "When a person Is action does not receive the reward he expected, or receives
punishment he did not expect, he will be angry; he becomes more likely to perform
aggressive behavior, and the results of such behavior become more valuable to him."
(p, 37)

(B) "When a person Is action receives the reward he expected, especially a greater
reward than he expected, or does not receive punishment he expected, he will be
pleased; he becomes more likely to perform approving behavior, and the results of
such behavior become more valuable to him." (p. 39)

RATIONALITY PROPOSITION:
" In choosing between alternative actions, a person will choose that one for which,
as perceived byhim at the time, the value, V, of the result, multiplied by the probability,
p, of getting the result, is the greater.,, (p- 43)

Source:     George C. Homans, Social behavior: its Elementary Forms
                (Revised Edition). New York: Harcourt, 1974.
 

PAGE 8

1. Assumes hedonism: people always seeking rewards.

2 . Assumes rationality: people act rationally to achieve the best outcome.

3 . Difficulty of measurement:variables like value, profit,
    cost, rationality are hard to measure.

4. Has a faulty view of:      social structure
                                           power
                                            the decision making process
                                           interaction

5. Doesn't account for symbolic processes, e.g. doesn't explain
   where values come from.

6. often exchange doesn't occur
    a.     Some people serve others without thought of reciprocity
    b.     children and parents - no fair exchange
 

CRITICISMS WHICH APPLY TO HOMANS

1.     Reductionism isn't acceptable to sociologists. When groups
        are formed, new conditions come into existence which can't
        beexplained by reference to individual characteristics.

2.     Does not explain macro-sociological behavior

3.    Historicity is impossible to study.

4.   People aren't like rats or pigeons.

PAGE 9

FROM: John B. Watson, “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it.” Psychological Review, 20 (1913), pp. 158-177.

Criticisms of Contemporary Psychology:

1. Psychology had made consciousness or mental states its field of study.

2. Introspection was the method used by psychologists to gain facts about consciousness.

3. Nothing within the realm of consciousness could be experimentally tested and verified.
 

The Behavioralist Approach:

1. Psychology is a “purely objective, experimental branch of natural science.”

2. Psychology should focus on behavior and thus, make its theoretical goal the prediction and control of behavior.

3. Behavior of men and animals can be observed and investigated without taking consciousness into account.

4. Men and Animals adjust themselves to their environment by means of hereditary and habit equipments.

5. Behavioralist studies deal with such things as stimulus and response, habit formations, and habit integrations.

    Abraham Maslow was born in 1908 (died in 1970) in a poor Jewish district of Brooklyn, NY, the first of seven children.  His parents were Russian immigrants.  As his father’s business as a cooper (one who makes or repairs wooden casks and tubs) improved, Maslow’s family moved out of the slums and into lower-middle-class neighborhoods.  As a result, the young Maslow found himself the only Jewish boy in the neighborhood and a target of anti-Semitism.  Embarrassed by his physical appearance and taunted, isolated, friendless, and lonely, he spent a great deal of his early years cloistered in the library in the companionship of books.

    His father was an ambitious man who instilled in his children a desire to succeed.  At an early age, Maslow delivered newspapers.  Later he spent several summers working for the family company.  Maslow was not close to either of his parents.  He was fond of his father but afraid of him.  He described his mother as schizophrenic and later wondered how he had turned out so well in spite of his unhappy childhood.  His mother clearly favored his younger brothers and sister and mercilessly punished her eldest son at the least provocation. Recalling a painful memory, Maslow told how his mother once killed two stray cats he had brought home by smashing their heads against the wall.  Later, Maslow admitted that he hated his mother and all that she stood for (Hoffman, 1988).  They were never reconciled and he did not attend her funeral.  His mother’s brother, however, was a kind and devoted uncle who spent a great deal of time with him and may have been responsible for Maslow’s mental stability.

    Maslow attended New York City schools through the eighth grade and then the Brooklyn Borough High School, where he had an excellent record.  At the age of eighteen he entered the City College of New York, where the tuition was free.  His father wanted him to study law, a subject that he was not interested in, and his grades fell.  Undecided about his studies and in love with a girl of whom his parents disapproved, he floundered, spending time at Cornell, returning to New York City, and trying to escape by going to the University of Wisconsin.

    Within a few months of his arrival in Wisconsin, he announced his intention of marrying his sweetheart.  Later he suggested that life didn’t begin for him until he married and began studying at Wisconsin.  His wife encouraged his academic work.  Further, he had discovered John Watson and was totally absorbed in behaviorism, which he saw as a very practical way of improving society.  During his college and graduate years, Maslow received a solid grounding in empirical laboratory research.  He worked as an assistant to William H. Sheldon, although he was not personally impressed by Sheldon’s theory of the varieties of temperament.  He also studied animal behavior, working with Harry Harlow, a well-known psychologist who conducted extensive research with rhesus monkeys.  Maslow’s own doctoral research concerned the sexual and dominance characteristics of monkeys.

    After receiving the Ph.D. from Wisconsin in 1934, Maslow returned to NY.  He worked as a research assistant to Edwin L. Thorndike and then began to teach at Brooklyn College.  New York was a vibrant place for a young psychologist during the 1930’s.  Many European psychologists, psychiatrists, and others of the intelligentsia who had come to America to escape the Nazis were in New York.  Maslow eagerly met and learned from them.  He was influenced by Max Wertheimer (a founder of the Gestalt school) Eric Fromm, Karen Horney, and Alfred Adler.  He was also impressed by the anthropologist Ruth Benedict, who inspired him with her optimism about the potentialities of society.

    Within such an eclectic climate, it was probably inevitable that Maslow’s interest in behaviorism would diminish.  The birth of his first daughter was the “thunderclap that settled things” once and for all.  All of his experimentation with rats and primates did not prepare him for the mystery of the child. Behaviorist theory might explain what was observed in the laboratory, but it could not account for human experiences.  The advent of World War II also profoundly affected Maslow.  His attention turned more fully to research on the human personality in an effort to improve it, “to show that human beings are capable of something grander than war and prejudice and hatred” (Hall, 1968).

    Maslow remained at Brooklyn for fourteen years.  In 1951, he moved to Brandeis University where he stayed until one year before his death in 1970.  These later years at Brandeis were again marked by a feeling of isolation, in spite of the fact that Maslow had become a very popular figure in the field of psychology.  He clarified and refined his theories and shortly before his death had embarked on a fellowship that would have enabled him to undertake a large-scale study developing a philosophy of economics, politics, and ethics informed by humanistic psychology.

(from Engler, Barbara, 1995. Personality Theories: An Introduction (4th Edition). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.  Pp. 341-343)

    Maslow believed that human beings are interested in growing rather than simply restoring balance or avoiding frustration.  He described the human being as a “wanted animal” who is almost always desiring something.  Indeed, as one human desire is satisfied, another arises to take it’s place.  In the drive to self-actualize, the individual moves forward toward growth, happiness, and satisfaction.

    Maslow (1970) distinguished between motivation, and metamotivation.  Motivation refers to reducing tension by satisfying deficit states or lacks.  It entails D-needs, or deficiency needs, which arise out of the organism’s requirements for psychological survival or safety, such as the need for food or rest, and motivate the individual to engage in activities that will reduce these drives.  Motivation and the D-needs are powerful determinants of behavior.  Metamotivation refers to growth tendencies.  It entails B-needs or being needs, which arose out of the organism’s drive to self-actualize and fulfill it’s inherent potential.  B-needs do not stem from a lack or deficiency; rather, they push forward to self-fulfillment.  Their goal is to enhance life by enriching it.  Rather than reduce tension, they frequently heighten it in their quest for ever-increasing stimuli that will bring a life lived to the fullest.

    Motivation and the D-needs take precedence over metamotivation and the B-needs.  The deficiency needs must be satisfied first.  An individual who is wondering where the next mouthful of food is going to come from can hardly be concerned with spiritual goals like truth or beauty.  Thus, the needs may be conceived as arranged in a hierarchy, in that the needs at the bottom must be satisfied before the needs at the top can be fulfilled.  In his hierarchy of needs, Maslow (1970) described five basic needs.  In order of their strength they are: physiological needs, safety needs, belonging and love needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.  Each lower need must be satisfied before an individual can become aware of or develop the capacity to fulfill the needs above it.  As each need is satisfied, the next higher order needs attains importance.  Some individuals, because of their circumstances find it very difficult to satisfy even the lowest needs.  The higher one is able to go, however, the greater the psychological health and self-actualization one will demonstrate.

    1) Physiological needs- The strongest needs of all are the physiological ones that pertain to the physical survival and biological maintenance of the organism.  They include the need for food, drink, sleep, oxygen, shelter and sex.  For many Americans, physiological needs are satisfied almost automatically.  However, if biological needs are not met for a protracted period of time, an individual will not be motivated to fulfill any other needs.  The person who is really starving has no other interest than obtaining food.  Several experiments and real-life experiences have demonstrated the overwhelming behavioral effects produced by a lack of food, sleep, or other life-sustaining needs.  Gratification of these needs renders them less important and permits other needs to appear. (1970)

    2) Safety needs- Safety needs refer to the organism’s requirements for an orderly, stable, and predictable world. These can be seen clearly in young children, neurotics, or individuals who live in unsafe environments.  The young child, who is helpless and dependent, prefers a certain amount of structured routine and discipline.  The absence of these elements makes the child anxious and insecure.  The neurotic frequently behaves like the insecure child, compulsively organizing the world and avoiding strange or different experiences.  Individuals who live in unsafe environments or suffer from job insecurity may need to spend a great deal of time and energy trying to protect themselves and their possessions.

    3) Belonging and love needs- Once the physiological and safety needs are met, needs for love and belonging arise.  The individual seeks affectionate and intimate relationships with other people, needing to feel part of various reference groups, such as the family, neighborhood, gang or a professional association.  Maslow noted that such needs are increasingly difficult to meet in our technological, fluid, and mobile society.  Such problems may account for new styles of living together.  Love, rather than being physiological or simply sexual, involves a healthy, mutual relationship of trust, in which each person is deeply understood and accepted.

    4) Self-esteem needs- Maslow described two kinds of esteem needs- the need for respect from others and the need for self-respect.  Self-esteem entails competence, confidence, mastery, achievement, independence, and freedom.  Respect from others entails recognition, acceptance, status and appreciation.  When these needs are not met and individual feels discouraged, weak, and inferior.  Healthy self-esteem is a realistic appraisal of one’s capacities and has its roots in deserved respect from others.  For most people, the need for regard from others diminishes with age because it has been fulfilled and the need for self-regard becomes more important.

    5) Self-actualization Needs- If the foregoing needs have been met, the needs for self-actualization may emerge if the individual has the courage to choose them.  These needs are difficult to describe because they are unique, and they vary from person to person.  In general, self-actualization refers to the desire to fulfill one’s highest potential.  The individual on this level who does not fully exploit his or her talents and capacities is discontented and restless.  In Maslow’s words, “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself” (1970).

    Self-actualization is possible only if the lower needs have been sufficiently met so that they do not detract from or engross a person’s basic energies. Rather than organize their behavior toward tension reduction, individuals whose deficiency needs are satisfied may, in fact, seek states of increased optimal tension in order to enhance their opportunities for self-actualization.  Higher needs may become as compelling as food to the hungry.  In short, those who are living on a B-level have a radically different motivation from those who are still striving to satisfy deficit states.

    A number of prerequisites are necessary for a person to be motivated on the B-level.  Cultural, economic, and social conditions must be such that the individual does not need to be preoccupied with physiological or safety needs.  Employment settings must consider the growth needs of the employees.  Emotional needs for interpersonal relationships and self-esteem must be met.  This may be very difficult in periods of economic recession or in a climate that emphasizes productivity over human relations.

    The decade of the 1990’s is an era of intense downsizing, where management rather than leadership is encouraged and employees receive their layoff notices through the fax machine.  While Maslow’s theory could yield many fruitful applications in a highly technological society leading to both increased productivity and the fulfillment of human needs, unfortunately it is not being given much consideration in today’s business world.

    In addition to the hierarchy just outlined, Maslow posited the important human needs to know and understand (1970).  These form a small but powerful hierarchy of their own, in which the need to know is more potent than and prior to the need to understand.  Children, by nature, are curious; when their cognitive impulses are satisfied, they seek further comprehension and understanding.  Clinical studies also convinced Maslow that in some individuals aesthetic needs are very important: “They get sick [in special ways] from ugliness, and are cured by beautiful surroundings; they crave actively, and their cravings can be satisfied only by beauty” (1970).  Some people actually become ill when they are confronted by ugliness.  These needs are not sharply delineated from the needs of the earlier hierarchy; they overlap with them and are interrelated.

    Maslow described all human needs as instinctoid, or inherent in human nature (1970).  He recognized that human beings cannot be said to have instincts in the same sense that animals do because whatever “instincts” humans possess are heavily overlaid with learning.  Still, humans have tendencies that need to be nourished and cultivated. They are instinctoid or basic in that unless the needs are met, illness develops, just as a lack of vitamin C leads to illness. Xu (1985) has reviewed genetic and psychological research that directly or indirectly supports the concept of instinctoid needs.

    A number of clinical experiments have demonstrated that the needs that Maslow described are essential for optimal human life and development.  Studies of children in institutions who do not receive adequate love and attention show that these children do not develop normally, although all of their physical needs are met (Spitz, 1951).  Maslow’s own clinical experience showed that individuals who satisfy their basic needs are happier, healthier, and more effective, whereas those whose needs are frustrated display neurotic symptoms (1970).  Furthermore, other clinicians, such as Karen Horney and Carl Rogers, have pointed out that given the appropriate conditions, the individual chooses to move forward and grow.  From where does such a choice or impulse come, unless it is inherent in the individual?  Psychologists speak of species-specific behavior, that is, an inborn tendency for members of a biological subgroup to behave in a certain way.  Chickens tend to scratch for their food, whereas pigs root for it.  Maslow suggests that the species-specific characteristics of human beings include the hierarchical needs and a drive towards self-actualization.  Kristiansen (1989) suggests that there may be gender differences and that Maslow’s hierarchy reflects a male paradigm; Ma (1989) has pointed out cultural differences.  Of course, for an adequate test of Maslwo’s theory, we would have to conduct extensive cross-cultural and longitudinal studies.  Such studies have not yet been conducted.

    Some tools have been developed to measure Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, such as Williams’ and Page’s (1989) Maslowian Assessment Survey and Haymes and Green’s (1982) Needsort.  The Needsort also draws upon Kagan’s (1972) formulation of motivation that describes a group of secondary motives that come from particular cultural forces, for example, in the West, the need for achievement.  Preliminary analysis with the Needsort supports the idea that deliberately imparting healthy dependency needs might help to prevent aggressive behaviors in populations at high risk for those disorders.

(from Engler, Barbara, 1995. Personality Theories: An Introduction (4th Edition). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.  Pp. 343-347)