Basic Principles of How the Social Landscape Affects Our Choice of Social Behaviors

Homan's propositions are now accepted by exchange theorists and rational choice theorists. That all talk about how anything “good” makes certain social behaviors “good,” in the sense that they're “more likely to be repeated,” and good to do. (Notice, though, what starts the process of how good is determined in the first place is left open. He'd probably that's a job for psychologists and biologists, not social psychologyists and sociologists. Hmmm.)

1. Success – the frequency that a category of behavior brings good outcomes increases it's value.

2. Stimulus – the relationships of that category with other categories, increases the value of those other categories. the more the others will be repeated.

3. Value – the intensity of the goodness, the more it will be repeated.

4. Deprivation-Satiation – have a lot, don't want; have little to none, want a lot; supply and demand matters, in other words.

5. Aggression-Approval – same as #1, the success proposition, but the inverse for avoiding bad outcomes, or acting against violations of expectations of good outcomes.

O.K., lets apply these to war. Can you rattle off some manifestations of each principle?