COMS 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Social Exchange Theory

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Communication and Media Studies
• Course: COMS 201
• Professor: Dawn Johnson

Document Summary

Dialectics are contradictory or opposing tensions, and dialectical theory focuses on those tensions without necessarily trying to resolve them: dialectics are the tensions, dialectical moments are the temporary periods of tensions. Two key concepts: contradiction looking at the conflict or opposition between two things but seeing those things as necessarily interdependent, they need/require each other. We understand independence because we have ideas about dependency: process is drawing our attention to the way that dialectics are going. Dialectics suggests we don"t need to resolve these tensions. Three key dialects in relationships: integration vs separation: tension between wanting to integrate with other people and also wanting to be separate from them. Wanting sense of community, but we also neediness our identity and uniqueness: stability vs change: things wanting sameness and consistency, but wanting stimulation, nobility and change. Stability is enjoyed in our personal relationship: expression vs privacy: tension desire to be open/ expressive vs the desire to be close and private.