Personal Narrative: Social Exchange Theory

I grew up playing basketball, two on two with my three older brothers. The only thing on each of our minds was winning, that encompassed fun, accomplishment, and approval. This was my first exposure to a team. I would continue on in my life playing basketball through elementary and middle school until finally playing varsity basketball in high school for four years. All around me was competitive spirit and high emotion since I was young. On my team in high school there were people from all different ethnicities, mostly black, but people with different family life, IQ levels, and interests, but we all had one common love of basketball when we stepped on the court.

All around me were obstacles and love and hate and goals that the whole team had individually as a result of their life. The key for us as a team in high school was bringing all of that together into a collective effort to accomplish our goal as a team. My freshman

One was that we were all raised differently, I was raised to believe by choice and circumstances that winning was the priority, anything short of that resulted in a loss of some sort. For others, it was to be popular or hook up with the cheerleaders or fellow students that loved to watch us play, and others for social status or to make friends. The dynamics and community values were different, but we made it work. This relates to our reading about social exchange theory. As long as the rewards/costs relationship worked for everyone, we could accomplish our goal. The rewards outweighed the costs, so the relationships with my teammates remained attractive. I learned so much about myself and others when I was on a basketball team. One of which fits perfectly with Gouran and Hiroko's functional theory. This states that problem solving is effective and likely when members, 1) attempts to satisfy task requirements. 2) Use communication to overcome time constraints. 3) Take time to review their