PSYC 331 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Guy Hands, Norethisterone, Equity Theory
Document Summary
So far, theories about interpersonal relationships pretend to be true for all relationships: one on one, one to group, group to group. These theories are supposed to have us understand everything. However, it starts up on a bad foot: it says that at the heart of what you and i are, in every relationship we tend to do, we look for relationships that maximize the benefits for us. That"s what most of psychology said before equity theory came around. According to equity theory, in every single relationship, the principle is not that to seek to maximize things for ourselves. Find, as long as it is fair: what if it is unfair to my advantage. The first reaction in the scientific community was that the psychologists proposing equity theory were dreaming in colors. They thus proposed a very interesting analogy to understand the implications of equity theory. Imagine an old english town with a common in the center.