Models of Man - Social and Rational

This book is a collection of 16 previously published papers organized under the following topics: (1) Causation. These papers consider formal definition of causal relations and problems of causality in the study of influence and power. (2) Social processes. Four papers outline a) differential equation models for Homan's theory of group interaction and Festinger's propositions on pressures toward group conformity, b) stochastic models that yield skewed distributions. (3) Motivation. This section presents formal models a) for integrating the theory of the firm and theory of organization, b) for behavior in the employment relation. (4) Rationality. In this section are papers on urban-rural population ratio, use of servomechanism theory, behavioral models for rational choice, and a game theoretic derivation of matching behavior under partial reinforcement.