George C. Homans

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George Caspar Homans , (born August 11, 1910 Boston , Massachusetts, USA; † May 29, 1989 Cambridge (Massachusetts) ) was an American sociologist . He was the 54th president of the American Sociological Association . In 1956 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , 1964 to the American Philosophical Society and 1972 to the National Academy of Sciences .

Act

Homans established a strictly deductive theory of social behavior in the United States and contributed a lot to the sociological theory of exchange . He was particularly prominent as a group analyst . He is considered to be the founder of the rational choice theory .

His deductive theories are based on the results of inductive methods: First, on the basis of observations, conclusions are drawn about the connections between phenomena (discovery). The investigation leads to a hypothesis, a generalizing assumption about the regularities of a phenomenon. Then the question of “how” and “why” arises, so how do the individual variables relate to one another and why do they do that ( explanation )? The theory is a deductive system in which the premises ( hypotheses ) are at the top and the theorems (logically derivable links between the hypotheses) are at the bottom of a hierarchy .

Small group research

Homans studied how norms, activity, emotion, and interaction affect small groups . He further differentiates between the "inner system" and the "outer system". His hypotheses are:

  • Processes of norm formation are intensified by interaction and activity.
  • Emotions and activities (if standardized) develop into expectations (norms) from which hierarchies develop.
  • The lower the frequency of interaction, the more unclear the norms become.
  • Feelings of the actors involved in the interaction, the more likely it is that the more frequently this occurs.

criticism

Homans' work is not without controversy. He was charged with the fact that his theory of elementary social behavior was empirically almost meaningless due to its uncritical adoption of Skinner's behaviorism .

Selected publications

  • English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century (1941)
  • "Social Behavior as Exchange." American Journal of Sociology 63/1958, pp. 597-606
  • Theory of the social group, 6th edition, Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1972
  • Elementary forms of social behavior, Cologne / Opladen 1968
  • Was ist Sozialwissenschaft, 2nd edition, Opladen 1972
  • Basic questions of sociological theory, Opladen 1972
  • Coming to My Senses - The Autobiography of a Sociologist (1984)
  • Certainties and Doubts (1987)

literature

  • Horst Wolfgang Boger : The empirical content of the exchange theory by George Caspar Homans (= experience and thinking , volume 67), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-428-05970-0 (dissertation University of Mannheim 1983, 128 pages).
  • Ekeh, Peter : Social Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions . Heinemann, London 1974
  • Heath, Anthony: Rational Choice & Social Exchange: A Critique of Exchange Theory . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1976
  • Korte, Hermann : Introduction to the main terms of sociology . 6th, exp. and updated edition, Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2002

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member History: George C. Homans. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 2, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Homans, George C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Homans, George Caspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1989
Place of death Cambridge, Massachusetts