摘要：Exchange theory has become one of the most ambitious social, especially socio-psychological, theories. Social exchange theory’s fundamental premise is that human behavior is an exchange of rewards between actors. This is the rationale for the claim that social exchange can serve as a general paradigm for sociology and anthropology as well as social psychology. The present critique is aimed at rational choice and behaviorist variants of social exchange theory rather than at the theory as such. First, the main assumptions of (these variants of) social exchange theory are presented. This is followed by a critique of these assumptions at two levels. The first level pertains to the treatment of social interaction as an exchange, and the second to the status of social exchange as an economic or psychological phenomenon. Other criticisms of exchange theory are also presented.
