Relational Models Theory and Research Design

Relational models theory (RMT) posits that people in all cultures use combinations of just four relational models (RMs) to organize most aspects of most social coordination: communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing. Exploration of how people use these RMs to motivate, generate, constitute, coordinate, judge, and sanction social interaction. RMT aims to account for what is universal and what varies across cultures, positing necessity for cultural complements that specify how and with whom each relational model operates. Readings may include RMT research in social anthropology, archaeology, social theory, semiotics, linguistics, developmental, cognitive, social, political, moral, clinical, and cultural psychology, neuroscience, evolution, sociology, family studies, philosophy, management, marketing, and consumer psychology, economics, justice, public health, public policy, and international development.

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