Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 12:13:1015921.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1015921. eCollection 2022.

Social exchange theory: Systematic review and future directions

Rehan Ahmad  1 , Muhammad Rafay Nawaz  2 , Muhammad Ishtiaq Ishaq  3 , Mumtaz Muhammad Khan  1 , Hafiz Ahmad Ashraf  4
Affiliations

Social exchange theory: Systematic review and future directions

Rehan Ahmad et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Social exchange theory (SET) is one of the most influential theories in social sciences, which has implications across various fields. Despite its usefulness being a typical social transaction, there is a need to look at it from the lens of psychological transactions to further its evolution and to identify future directions. After generally reviewing 3,649 articles from the Social Science Citation Index and Scopus, a total of 46 articles were selected for final review using a comprehensive systematic review approach. We have highlighted the need for further research in psychological transactions, reciprocity principles, exchange relations, and the impact of various factors on the exchange process. Among other exchange rules (social, economic, and psychological) and transactions (social, economic, and psychological), this research provides an elevation platform for the less explored exchange rules in psychological transactions. Among other theories in the social sciences, social exchange theory is a theory that shadows many other theories under its umbrella.

Keywords: evolution of social behaviors; reciprocity; social exchange behavior; social exchange theory; workplace relations.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Relationships of transactions in exchanges.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proposed model of transactions and exchanges.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ahmad R., Khan M. M., Ishaq M. I. (2020). The role of envy and psychological capital on performance in the banking industry of Pakistan. Pak. Soc. Sci. Rev. 4, 96–112. doi: 10.35484/pssr.2020(4-IV)07 - DOI
    1. Anderson B., Berger J., Zelditch M., Jr., Cohen B. P. (1969). Reactions to inequity. Acta Sociol. 12, 1–12. doi: 10.1177/000169936901200101 - DOI
    1. Andersson L. M., Pearson C. M. (1999). Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the workplace. Acad. Manag. Rev. 24, 452–471. doi: 10.5465/amr.1999.2202131 - DOI
    1. Andrews M. C., Witt L. A., Kacmar K. M. (2003). The interactive effects of organizational politics and exchange ideology on manager ratings of retention. J. Vocat. Behav. 62, 357–369. doi: 10.1016/S0001-8791(02)00014-3 - DOI
    1. Batson C. D. (1995). “Prosocial motivation: why do we help others?” in Advanced Social Psychology. ed. Tesser A. T. (New York: McGraw-Hill; ), 332–381.

LinkOut - more resources