George Homans
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George Caspar Homans (August 11, 1910 – May 29, 1989) was an American sociologist, founder of behavioral sociology, the 54th president of the
American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...
, and one of the architects of
social exchange theory Social exchange theory is a sociological and psychological theory which studies how people interact by weighing the potential costs and benefits of their relationships. This occurs when each party has goods that the other parties value. Social exc ...
. Homans is best known in science for his research in social behavior and his works ''The Human Group'', ''Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms'', his contributions to exchange theory, and the different propositions he developed to explain social behavior. He is also the third great-grandson of the second President of the United States,
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
.


Background

George C. Homans was born in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
on August 11, 1910, and grew up in a little house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Robert Homans and Abigail Adams-Homans. He was a direct descendant of American Presidents
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
and
John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...
, on his mother's side. Homans attended St. Paul's School in
Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the county seat, seat of Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Merrimack County. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 43,976, making it the List of municipalities ...
, from 1923 to 1928. Homans entered
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
in 1928 with a concentration in English and
American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also ...
. Although Homans came from a long line of lawyers and politicians, during his undergraduate years, he pursued poetry and developed a grand ambition to become a writer and poet. George published his original works in ''
The Harvard Advocate ''The Harvard Advocate'', the art and literary magazine of Harvard College, is the oldest continuously published college art and literary magazine in the United States. The magazine (published then in newspaper format) was founded by Charles ...
,'' in which he was elected to the editorial board. After graduating in 1932, Homans wanted to pursue a career as a newspaperman with a "job beginning in the fall with William Allen White of the Emporia, Kansas, ''Gazette''," but because of the Depression, the newspaper could no longer offer him the job, leaving Homans unemployed. "In 1941, he married Nancy Parshall Cooper, who remained his lifelong compatible partner." Homans served in the Naval Reserve (1941); he always had a love for the sea. As an undergraduate, he assisted
Samuel Eliot Morison Samuel Eliot Morison (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and tau ...
in writing ''Massachusetts on the Sea,'' so much so that Morrison named Homans co-author. He served four and a half years on active duty, serving five years in the navy in total, more than two were spent in command of several small ships engaged in antisubmarine warfare and the escort of convoy operations. Although he served for the duration of the war, in his autobiography ''Coming to my Senses: The Education of Sociologist'' (1984)'','' he later expressed his "impatience with the constraints of the naval hierarchy and his disdain for staff desk officers, especially those in bureaucratic branches such as the Supply Corps." While Homans was at Harvard College, Homans met Bernard "Benny" de Voto, "a crusty man, cantankerous in his literary feuds whose name has been largely forgotten," who was a part-time member of the Harvard faculty and who tutored Homans in English. "George ... was attracted to de Voto's stories about the plains and the prairies, but more, to the actuality of the lives of people and the American character, as expressed in midwestern writing. In many ways, "George adopted the mannerisms of de Voto, the outwardly boisterous tones (but not for either the boosterist mentality) and the scorn of intellectualist rhetoric". Outwardly jaunty and self-assured, yet discreetly he was battling his own demons within his closed heart. He reserved all his pain and suffering for his poetry, which is seen in his book of poetry. Homans describes his entrance to sociology as "a matter of chance; or rather, I got into sociology because I had nothing better to do".
Lawrence Joseph Henderson Lawrence Joseph Henderson (June 3, 1878 – February 10, 1942) was an American physiologist, chemist, biologist, philosopher, and sociologist. He became one of the leading biochemists of the early 20th century. His work contributed to the Hend ...
, a biochemist and sociologist who believed that all sciences should be based on a unified set of theoretical and methodological principles, was an important influence on Homans' perspective. Homans attended Henderson's seminar one day at Harvard and was taken by his lecture. Homans was also influenced by Professor
Elton Mayo George Elton Mayo (26 December 1880 – 7 September 1949) was an Australian born psychologist, industrial researcher, and organizational theorist.Cullen, David O'Donald. ''A new way of statecraft: The career of Elton Mayo and the development ...
, a psychologist studying human factors. Whom, Homans was assigned readings by prominent social anthropologists such as
Bronisław Malinowski Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropology. ...
,
Alfred Radcliffe-Brown Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown, FBA (born Alfred Reginald Brown; 17 January 1881 – 24 October 1955) was an English social anthropologist who helped further develop the theory of structural functionalism. He conducted fieldwork in the Andam ...
, and
Raymond Firth Sir Raymond William Firth (25 March 1901 – 22 February 2002) was an ethnologist from New Zealand. As a result of Firth's ethnographic work, actual behaviour of societies (social organization) is separated from the idealized rules of behavio ...
. From these readings, Homans developed his belief that instead of similarities in cultures, "members of the human species working in similar circumstances had independently created similar institutions." Homans argued, contrary to Anthropology that "cultures were not unique and what was more, their similarities could only be explained on the assumption that human nature was the same over the world." Homans then joined a discussion group at Harvard called the Pareto Circle, which was led by Henderson and inspired by the work of
Vilfredo Pareto Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto (; ; born Wilfried Fritz Pareto; 15 July 1848 – 19 August 1923) was an Italian polymath, whose areas of interest included sociology, civil engineering, economics, political science, and philosophy. He made severa ...
. Henderson often discussed Pareto in his lectures. Pareto was a social scientist who was concerned with economic distribution. Pareto's theories and Henderson's lectures influenced Homans' first book, ''An Introduction to Pareto'', co-authored with fellow Circle member Charles P. Curtis. From 1934 to 1939 Homans was selected to become a part of the Society of Fellows a newly formed institution founded by
A. Lawrence Lowell Abbott Lawrence Lowell (December 13, 1856 – January 6, 1943) was an American educator and legal scholar. He was president of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933. With an "aristocratic sense of mission and self-certainty," Lowell cut a large f ...
at Harvard, undertaking a variety of studies in various areas, including sociology, psychology, and history. His comrades in the institution included Van Quine,
Andrew Gleason Andrew Mattei Gleason (19212008) was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to widely varied areas of mathematics, including the solution of Hilbert's fifth problem, and was a leader in reform and innovation in teaching at ...
, and
B.F. Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1948 until his retirement in 1 ...
most of whom went on to become Harvard professors. Skinner taught Homans about methods of observation and the idea of reinforcement. "One can say that, in nunc, George Homans's sociology was a blend of Skinnerian reinforcement with utility theory." For his junior fellowship project, Homans undertook an anthropological study of rural England, later published as ''English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century'' (1941), which he wrote instead of a Ph.D. that he never received. Homans was taken into the
graduate program Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...
at Harvard;
Pitirim Sorokin Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin (; ; – 10 February 1968) was a Russian American sociologist and political activist, who contributed to the social cycle theory. Sorokin was a professor at Saint Petersburg Imperial University, three times impris ...
, founder of Harvard's sociology department in 1930, was credited with bringing Homans and Robert Merton into the program. From this knowledge gained, "the key idea that Homans took away from these studies was the centrality of interaction and the way sentiments developed between individuals as a consequence on interaction." Additionally, Homans graduated in 1955 with a master's degree from Cambridge University.


Career

In 1939, Homans became a Harvard faculty member, a lifelong affiliation in which he taught both sociology and
medieval history In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
, "as well as studied poetry and small groups." This teaching brought him in contact with new works in
industrial sociology Industrial sociology, until recently a crucial research area within the field of sociology of work, examines "the direction and implications of trends in technological change, globalization, labour markets, work organization, managerial practic ...
and exposed him to the works of functional anthropologists. He was an instructor of sociology until 1941 when he left to serve in the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
to support the war effort. After four years away, he came back to Boston and continued his teaching as an associate professor from 1946 to 1953, and a full professor of sociology after 1953. He was a
Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
Fellow at Harvard's Graduate School of Business Administration. He was also a visiting professor at the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
in 1953, at
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
from 1955 to 1956, and at the
University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...
in 1967.Treviño, A. Javier (2009). Homans was very dedicated to his students, and did not give any different treatment to neither his pupils nor those he worked with, he did not turn anyone away due to their age, sex, rank, or social status. He believed in the respectful discussion of academic arguments. By virtue of his various writings, he was elected a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
in 1956, a member of the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 1964, the 54th president of the
American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...
in 1964, and a member of the United States
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 1972. He retired from teaching in 1980."George Homans, 78, Sociologist and Harvard Professor Emeritus"
(
obituary An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...
). ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' (May 30, 1989): sec. A, p. 20.


Death

George C. Homans died of a heart ailment on May 29, 1989, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


Legacy

George C. Homans left to the sociological world many works on social theory and is best known for his Exchange Theory and his works on social behavior. The impact he had on his students and colleagues and people he came in contact with is described by
Charles Tilly Charles Tilly (May 27, 1929 – April 29, 2008) was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was a professor of history, sociology, and social science at the Uni ...
in "George Caspar Homans and the Rest of Us": "His students inherited distrust of theory for its own sake and theories about theories. Even when they disagreed, his students and readers came away stimulated and refreshed. George was a vivifier, a life-giver" (Tilly, 1990:264).


Work


''The Human Group''

Homans was impressed by Henderson's notion of a conceptual scheme, which consists of a classification of variables (or concepts) that need to be taken into account when studying a set of phenomena. It also consists of a sketch of the given conditions within which the phenomena are to be analyzed. It also must contain a statement that the variables are related to one another—and following Pareto, that relationship is usually seen as one of mutual dependence. Homans was very interested in Henderson's conceptual scheme as a way of classifying phenomena and applied it to his own study of small groups. Henderson's teachings were included in Homans' work
The Human Group
' (1950). This book's ultimate goal was to move from a study of the social system as it is exemplified in single groups toward a study of the system as it is exemplified in many groups, including groups changing in time. The work has a theme of, "the way group norms develop and the ways a group, consciously or unconsciously, seeks to maintain the cohesion of the group when members depart from group norms." Homans establishes that, "the general propositions would have to meet only one condition: in accordance with my original insight, they should apply to individual human beings as members of a species." According to Homans the sociologist's goal was to “move from a study of the social system as it is exemplified in single groups toward a study of the system as it is exemplified in many groups, including groups changing in time” (Homans 1949). By the late 1950s, Homans came slowly to the conclusion that human social systems were much less organic than what he had previously believed. Homans said, "If we wanted to establish the reality of a social system as a complex of mutually dependent elements, why not begin by studying a system small enough so that we could, so to speak, see all the way around it, small enough so that all the relevant observations could be made in detail and at first hand?" He fulfilled this study throughout ''The Human Group''. This book allowed him to make certain generalizations, including the idea that the more frequently people interact with one another when no one individually initiates interactions more than others, the greater their liking for one another and their feeling of ease in one another's presence. Although this wasn't Homans' greatest piece of work, it allowed him to become more familiar with this type of methodology and led him to explain elementary social behavior. In this work, Homans also proposes that social reality should be described at three levels:
social event In social psychology, a social event is precisely defined as a social interaction episode characterized by a singular, continuous goal or purpose. This conceptualization views a social event as an atomic unit of social interaction. For example, if ...
s,
customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...
, and analytical
hypotheses A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific method, scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educ ...
that describe the processes by which customs arise and are maintained or changed. Hypotheses are formulated in terms of relationships among variables such as frequency of interaction, similarity of activities, intensity of sentiment, and conformity to norms. Using notable sociological and
anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, wh ...
field studies as the grounding for such general ideas, the book makes a persuasive case for treating groups as social systems that can be analyzed in terms of a verbal analogue of the mathematical method of studying equilibrium and
stability Stability may refer to: Mathematics *Stability theory, the study of the stability of solutions to differential equations and dynamical systems ** Asymptotic stability ** Exponential stability ** Linear stability **Lyapunov stability ** Marginal s ...
of systems. In his theoretical analyses of these groups, he begins to use ideas that later loomed large in his work, e.g., reinforcement and exchange. Along the way, he treats important general
phenomena A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...
such as
social control Social control is the regulations, sanctions, mechanisms, and systems that restrict the behaviour of individuals in accordance with social norms and orders. Through both informal and formal means, individuals and groups exercise social con ...
,
authority Authority is commonly understood as the legitimate power of a person or group of other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' may be practiced by legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government,''The New Fontana Dictionary of M ...
, reciprocity, and
ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...
.


Exchange Theory

Exchange Theory is the "perspective that individuals seek to maximize their own private gratifications. It assumes that these rewards can only be found in social interactions and thus people seek rewards in their interactions with each other". Homans' Exchange Theory propositions are partially based on B.F. Skinner's behaviorism. Homans took B.F. Skinner's propositions about pigeon behavior and applied it to human interactions. Homans argues that the pigeons in Skinner's study were involved in a one-sided exchange relationship, while humans are involved in at least two-sided relationships. He defined the pigeons' behavior as individual behavior as there was no reciprocation; Homans connected this type of behavior to psychology. In sociology, to study social behavior meant to study the activity of at least two individuals and the influences each has on the other. From this conclusion, Homans derives a number of propositions that relate to everyday experiences. The heart of Homans' Exchange Theory lies in propositions based on economic and psychological principles. According to Homans, they are psychological for two reasons: first, because they are usually tested on people who call themselves psychologists, and second, because of the level at which they deal with the individual in society. While Homans makes the case for psychological principles, he acknowledged that human beings are social creatures and spend a considerable amount of time in socialization. He believed that a sociology built on his principles would be able to explain all social behavior. Homans said, "An incidental advantage of an exchange theory is that it might bring sociology closer to economics" (Homans 1958:598). Overall, Homans' exchange theory, "can be condensed to a view of the actor as a rational profit seeker." He regretted that his theory was labeled "Exchange Theory" because he saw this theory of social behavior as a behavioral psychology applied to specific situations.George Ritzer (2008). Homans looked to Émile Durkheim's work for guidance as well but often disagreed in the end with particular components of Durkheim's theories. For example, Durkheim believed that although individuals are the parts of society, society is more than the individuals who constitute it.James Farganis (2008) He believed that society could be studied without reducing it to individuals and their motivations. Homans, through his Exchange Theory, believed that individual beings and behavior are relevant to understanding society. While Homans agreed with Durkheim that something new emerges from social interaction, Homans argued that
social fact In sociology, social facts are values, cultural norms, and social structures that transcend the individual and can exercise social control. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim defined the term, and argued that the discipline of sociology shoul ...
s can be explained through psychological principles, not through new sociological theories as Durkheim intended. To support this claim, Homans argued "the norm does not constrain automatically: individuals conform, when they do so, because they perceive it is to their net advantage to conform, and it is psychology that deals with the effect on behavior of perceived advantage (Homans, 1967:60).


''Social Behavior and Propositions''

Homans's next major work was ''Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms''. He wrote this book in 1961 and revised it in 1974. This was based on the principles of behavioral psychology and helped explain the "sub-institutional," or elementary, forms of social behavior in small groups. This explanation of social behavior first appeared in an article Homans published titled "Social Behavior as Exchange" in 1958. He believed his Exchange Theory was derived from both behavioral psychology and elementary economics. Elementary economics, also known as '
rational choice theory Rational choice modeling refers to the use of decision theory (the theory of rational choice) as a set of guidelines to help understand economic and social behavior. The theory tries to approximate, predict, or mathematically model human behav ...
,' was set to explain how economics and human social behavior were tied together. Homans had come to the view that theory should be expressed as a
deductive system A formal system is an abstract structure and formalization of an axiomatic system used for deducing, using rules of inference, theorems from axioms. In 1921, David Hilbert proposed to use formal systems as the foundation of knowledge in math ...
(deductive reasoning, a researcher tests a theory by collecting and examining empirical evidence to see if the theory is true.), in this respect falling under the influence of the logical empiricist philosophers of that period. Substantively, he argued that a satisfactory explanation in the social sciences is based upon "propositions"—principles—about individual behavior that are drawn from the behavioral psychology of the time. Homans didn't believe that new propositions are needed to explain social behavior. The laws of individual behavior developed by Skinner in his study of pigeons explain social behavior as long as we take into account the complications of mutual reinforcement. Furthermore, he introduces some basic every day examples to help explain and give shape to his framework of the psychological propositions as sociological in nature, as well. Homans uses the workplace example, using "Person" to refer to an individual who is an employee at an office but needs more support than the regular co-workers. Then, he introduces "Other" as the other employee who - with more experience and competence - lends the first employee the help that he needs. Here, Homans emphasizes that "Other" has given aid to "Person" and that in exchange, "Person" then gives thanks and expresses his approval. With this, Homans points out the significance of the mutual exchange of help and approval between individuals.


The Success Proposition

"For all actions taken by persons, the more often a particular action of a person is rewarded, the more likely the person is to perform that action" (Homans, 1974:16). To explain this framework, Homans uses his example of the office workplace and the social interaction between "Person" and "Other". In simple terms, Homans claims that the proposition is applicable when a person seeks advice from others. In this sense, a person will go back to the "Other" for advice if they see that their aid was useful and beneficial to them. In reciprocity, this makes them more comfortable to seek out advice or help from others and in return, they feel encouraged to give that same or other advice to those who seek their help as well. Homans explains that there are three stages to this proposition: 1) a person's action, 2) a rewarded result, and 3) a repetition of the original action. Homans also lists three unique points about the success proposition. First, increasingly frequent regards will lead to increasingly frequent actions. The second point Homans made is that the shorter the amount of time between the behavior and reward, the more likely that person will repeat their behavior. Lastly, repeat behavior is more likely elicited when there are intermittent rewards rather than regular rewards.


Selected works

* ''English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century '' (1941) * ''The Human Group'' (1950) * ''Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms'' (1961) ev. ed. 1974* ''The Nature of Social Science'' (1967; gathers the Walker-Ames Lectures at the University of Washington in the summer of 1965) * ''Coming to My Senses: The Autobiography of a Sociologist'' (1984) * ''Certainties and Doubts'' (1987) * ''Sentiments & Activities: Essays in Social Science'' (1962)


References


External links


"Two Boston Brahmins"
(Summer 1985). The extended recording of Homans with Tom Adams in discussion for the sociological documentary '' American Tongues''. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Homans, George C. 1910 births 1989 deaths Harvard College alumni American sociologists Presidents of the American Sociological Association Adams family Crowninshield family Members of the American Philosophical Society St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni Academics from Boston