The purpose of rational choice theory is to explain social phenomena by assuming rational choice at the actor’s level. To realize this purpose, the theory assumes two mechanisms: choice by actors and the macro–micro–macro transition. After explaining these mechanisms, this article first shows how rational choice theory successfully explains the problem of social order embodied in various fields...

These are exciting times for those interested in the connection of biology to behavior. Consider the following findings that were reported in the first half of 2005 alone. Sexual foreplay for fruit flies is fairly predictable. A male first approaches a waiting female, bumps or taps her with his leg, rubs his wings in such a way as to make music, and then begins to lick her. The remarkable recen...

within the country , there is evidence of the prevalence of alcohol consumption among young people and students. the major purpose of the present study was to investigate social science faculty of tehran university students’ attitude toward alcohol consumption and to explain this attitude from rational choice theory perspective. the method of this research was survey and the data collection ins...

This chapter extends Anderson’s (1990) rational analysis of problem solving to a class of exploratory search situations that involve selecting one of a number of possible options, where little is known about the options before exploration begins. We formulate the situation as one of single-move, multi-stage search, where the probabilities of success of the different options are initially unknow...