George C. Homans

Social Behavior as Exchange

To consider social behavior as an exchange of goods may clarify the relations among four bodies of theory; behavioral psychology, economics, propositions about the dynamics of influence, and propositions about the structure of small groups.

Bringing Men Back In

A theory of a phenomenon is an explanation of it, showing how it follows as a conclusion from general propositions in a deductive system. With all its empirical achievements, the functional school never produced a theory that was also an explanation, since from its general propositions about the conditions of social equilibrium no definite conclusions could be drawn. When a serious effort is made, even by functionalists, to construct an explanatory theory, its general propositions turn out to be psychological-propositions about the behavior of men, not the equilibrium of societies.

THE CASH POSTERS: A STUDY OF A GROUP OF WORKING GIRLS

There are certain ways, however, in which the approach may be adapted to take account of the time dimension. For one thing, the respondent may be asked directly about changes, about his recollection of the past and his predictions about the future. For another, the same respondents may be interviewed repeatedly at different points of time. This use of the panel technique for the study of interpersonal orientations seems to offer great promise of a better understanding of the dynamics of social systems. Finally, as we indicated at the outset, latent orientations are of maximum interest only as they are manifested in interaction. Both are necessary to a full understanding of the functioning of social systems. To be sure, observation alone throws light upon both, since orientations may be inferred from interactional data. Yet, interaction is the product of many elements (value-orientations, goal-orientations, expectations and sanctions, and so on) from which the empirical abstraction of interpersonal orientations as a single element may prove difficult. The questionnaire, by contrast, may be especially designed to isolate interpersonal orientations for separate investigation. Hence, future knowledge of the interplay between interaction and the underlying system of relationships may well be furthered by combining these two types of approach: direct observations and questionnaires.

The Strategy of Industrial Sociology

Industrial sociology needs more than one set of methods. So far, field work has been dominated by observation and the nondirective interview, and methodological thinking has been preoccupied with discovery, social organization, and the conceptual social system. In the future there should be greater insistence on quantitative methods and analytical concepts.

Steps to a theory of social behavior

Let me briefly recapitulate. An English literature major at college, I got into sociology through almost pure chance. When I graduated from Harvard in 1932, I was one of the few persons in Cambridge who had read Paretos Traite de Sociologie Generale,3 and Lawrence Joseph Henderson, a distinguished Professor of Biological Chemistry and the first teacher at Harvard of the history of science, was an earlier addict of Paretos. In 1933 Henderson proposed to give the first seminar on Pareto offered in the United States and wanted an assistant. Through my old tutor, Bernard DeVoto, a friend of Hendersons, he knew that I was familiar with Paretos Sociologie and offered me the job. I was unemployed and accepted. I shall say no more about the seminar, which has been described elsewhere.4 One of its members was Charles P. Curtis, Jr., a friend of mine and of my familys, a Boston lawyer, and a member of the Harvard Corporation. He suggested that we should write a book introducing the Sociologie to English-speaking readers: it had not yet been translated. We did so, and An Introduction to Pareto came out in 1934.5 It is still a good introduction.

A Life of Synthesis

Publisher Summary This chapter presents various aspects related to a life of synthesis. There are two realities that any writer of a work of synthesis must face. First, unless he is an anthropologist describing a society for the first time, he will have to rely on the work of others on secondary sources. He will not be able to produce wholly new findings. His originality will at best lie in the synthesis itself. This means that he would necessarily be an intellectual parasite, and he had better be ready to tolerate the ambiguity of that role. The other reality that the writer of a work of synthesis must face derives from his purpose: to give the reader some intellectual control of a whole system. For this purpose, it is much more important to state initially generalizations that are largely true rather than to try from the first to enter all their qualifications in detail.

Behavioral theory in sociology : essays in honor of George C. Homans

This book is designed to honor George Caspar Homans for his many and varied contributions to the development of modern sociology. The chapters have been written by sociologists and psychologists who value his work sufficiently to have made his basic approach their own. These original essays are intended to elucidate, assess, and give a progress report on the theoretical tradition Homans founded and to which he has given such significant impetus.

Was ist Sozialwissenschaft

Die soziale Unrast unserer Tage hat sich eine eigene Sprache zu gelegt: Der revolutionare Jargon der Gegenwart gibt sich, wie dies kiirzlim M. Rainer Lepsius bemerkte, soziologisch oder wird doch als solmer empfunden. Es haufen sich die Soziologismen im Umgang mit gesellschaftlichen Fragen. Eine Fachsprame, die sich eigentlich nom nimt allgemein zu etablieren vermomte, wurde bereits zum Ritual. Es wird deshalb mit Begriffen hausiert, die eher verdunkeln als erhellen. Vollends unwissenschaftlich gibt sie sich in ihrer Paro lenhaftigkeit, zu der sie mi braucht wurde. Parolen allenfalls eignen sich fiir politische Erweckung, nicht aber fUr wissenschaftliche Ent deckung. Mi verstandnisse, gewollt propagierte und ungewollt provozierte, haben die moderne Sozialwissenschaft stets begleitet. Nur scheint, da heute die leise aber eindringlime Spracl1e der echten Wissenschaft im Jahrmarkt der Gefiihle und Aufwallungen unterzugehen droht. Die wissenschaftliche Arbeit leidet an unechten Fragen, mit denen besonders die Sozialwissenschaftler in durchaus repressiver Art iiber smiittet werden. Was also ist das Geschaft des Sozialwissenschaftlers? Das wissen schaftlime Bemiihen: Die Sume nach Erklarung. Er hat Soziales zu erkHiren. Indem er erklart, legt er alIen faIls den Grund zur Veran derung. Er kann und solI indes nicht verandern ohne Erklarung, sonst verHi t er das Feld der Wissenschaft. Es ist zwar durchaus legitim, die Wissenschaft zu verlassen und etwa Politiker zu werden, nur ist von vorgetauschter Wissenschaftlichkeit zur falschen Zeit am falsmen Ort abzusehen.

The Human Group

George C. Homanss classic volume The Human Group was among the first to study the small group as a microcosm of society. It introduced a method of analysis and a set of influential theories that cut across areas of specialization on the personality, community, and industry. The study of even the smallest groups is extremely complex, with the simplest associations involving an abundance of actions, relationships, emotions, motives, ideas, and beliefs. Homans concentrates on certain activities and processes he observes in five carefully selected and differentiated case studies and from them draws common patterns and ideas that serve as the bases of testable propositions. He divides his cases into static and dynamic groups. In all five cases, Homans selects comparable phenomena for analysis with a contextually different emphasis and elaboration each time. His results demonstrate that, different as these groups are, their behavior reveals fundamental similarities and social uniformities. A ground-breaking and authoritative work when it was first published in 1950, The Human Group continues to Inform and invigorate the study of small groups in sociology, psychology, management, and organizations.