Social Exchange Theory Applied Argumentative Essay Example

more in the ssociation since the other's concern with the continuance of the relationship makes him/her dependent and thus, giving the less involved more power. This said power may lead to exploitation of the other. A common manifestation of the said principle is that the individual with stronger affection for the other must yield to the other's wishes and exert effort in order to please the partner. Therefore, the individual with less affection gains advantages in the said relationship.

Such an imbalance of power and extrinsic rewards is often the source and remains the asis of lasting reciprocal love attachments. There is a dilemma to consider here. The ease with which an individual obtains the reward of the other's love tneds to depreciate its value for him. A woman/man promotes another's love by granting him/her sexual and other favors, as demonstrations of his/her affection and as means for making associating with him/her outstandingly rewarding for the other, yet if he/she easily dispenses such favors readily, he/she depreciates their value and their power to arouse an enduring attachment.

Therefore, there should be restraint. To safegurad the value of one's affection for the other, he/she must avoid being too showy or too expressive. He/she mus make any evidence of his/her growing affection difficult to experiences; and b) the value ge/she places on these rewards. The degree of difficulty in obtaining expressions of affection affects their value. An individual who refrains from showing such expression increases the value of these expressions when they are manifested. Lovers, then, are under pressure to express affection for one another as well as under pressure to withhold expressions of affection.

Commitments must

then be kept abreast for a love relation to develop into a lasting mutual attachment. If one is more involved than the other, this greater involvement obliterates love. It may be accepted that rewards in the relation may sustain the relationship for a while but the weak interest of the less committed or the frustration of the more committed partner would later cause the end of the relationship. There must be equal affection for love to persist. From: Blau, Peter. "Excursus on Love". In Exhange and Power in Social Life. London: John Wiley and Sons, 1964.