George Homans
| George Casper Homans | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 11, 1910 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | May 29, 1989 (aged 78) Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Fields | English, Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology, Social behavior |
| Alma mater | Harvard University, Cambridge University (Masters) |
| Known for | His famous works The Human Group, Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms, and the Exchange Theory |
| Influences | Robert K. Merton, Talcott Parsons, Lawrence J. Henderson, Vilfredo Pareto, B.F. Skinner, Bernard DeVoto, Émile Durkheim, Elton Mayo |
| Influenced | Richard M. Emerson, Peter Blau, James Samuel Coleman, Edward Laumann, Linda D. Molm, Karen S. Cook, Edward J. Lawler |
George Casper Homans (August 11, 1910 – May 29, 1989) was an American Sociologist, founder of behavioral sociology and the Social Exchange Theory.
Homans is best known for his research in social behavior and his works including The Human Group, Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms, his Exchange Theory and the many different propositions he enforced to better explain social behavior.
George C. Homans was born in Boston on August 11, 1910, son of Robert and Abigail (Adams) Homans, he was the great-great grandson of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, and great-great-great grandson of John Adams, the second President of the United States. "At George's birth, his mother wrote to her Uncle Henry: 'His head is a mass of lumps which will make him look very distinguished when, as a bald old gentleman, he sits upon the bench dispensing justice.' " Through this letter she also explains how Homans received his name: "He is to be named George Caspar for my brother, as the Homans family did not consider that I was the sort of person to produce a good doctor, and so reserved the name [John] for my brother-in-law Jack's benefit..."(Homans 1984:1). The Homanses came from a lineage of distinguished doctors that began when the first John Homans came to the country from Ramsgate, Kent, England in the 18th century. His son, Dr. John Homans, who graduated from Harvard, was the first to become a doctor and begin the reputation of the John Homanses (Homans 1984:1-2). However, "George's father was a lawyer, but George was the first member of the family to eschew the law".
From his autobiography (Homans 1984), it is learned that Homans entered Harvard College in 1928 with an area of concentration in English and American literature. 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 (Homans 1962:3). "In 1941, he married Nancy Cooper who remained his lifelong compatible partner". Homans served in the Naval Reserve during World War II; for "four years and a half on active duty, more than two were spent in command of small ships engaged in antisubmarine warfare and the escort of convoy operations" (Homans 1962:50). Although he served for the duration of the war, he later expressed in his autobiography "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".
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