Contemporary sociological theory. The history of the modern foreign economic-sociological thought

Emphasizing the importance of psychology in explaining the social world. Social action George. Homans interprets as a process of exchange, where participants seek to maximise the benefits (tangible or intangible) and to minimize costs. According to Homans, this provision rasprostraneno for all human behavior.

The social system of Humans consist of individuals, in a continuous process of tangible and intangible exchange with each other. To explain this process, Homans has developed five inter-related provisions, based on psychological behaviorism:

1. the position of success, which is that all human actions are subject to the basic rule: the more specific action the individual is rewarded, the more it tends to produce this action;

2. the position of the stimulus that describes the relationship between the stimulus for successful action and its repetition. If any stimulus (or aggregate of stimuli) resulted in an action that proved successful in the case of repetition of this stimulus or a similar individual will seek to repeat action;

3. position values according to which the more valuable for the individual to achieve a certain result, the more it will tend to produce action aimed at achieving it;

4. the position of the "saturation - starvation", according to which the more often in the past an individual has received a particular reward, the less valuable it would be for the recurrence of such awards;

5. the position of the "aggression - approval": if the individual does not receive rewards he expected, or receives punishment, which is not expected to demonstrate aggressive behavior and the results of such behavior become valuable. On the contrary, if the individual receives the expected reward, especially if it is more than that which he expected, or receives punishment he expected, he seeks to demonstrate approved behavior and results of such behavior become valuable.

This set of five positions explains Humans, human behavior in any situation. Humans trying to extrapolate the explanation of all social processes. The theory of social exchange Homans very rationalized model of human behavior determined by external circumstances and internal motives. However, the rationality of the action lies not in the conscious choice of the people (as in Parsons), and in adherence to the rules of social exchange, i.e., human freedom is only an "illusion of choice", subject to psychological rules.