Reciprocity (I Do Learn in School!)

I was reading for my integrated marketing class about partnerships of integration and reciprocity and came across an interesting theory called economic distributive justice. J. Stacy Adams (why do some people initial their first name, especially if they're men and their second name sounds like a girl's name? I guess if you have a really crappy first name, you'd want to initial it...like in my case) developed that concept and basically said that "whenever two individuals exchange anything, there is the possibility that one or both of them will feel that the exchange was inequitable"...or in other words, one person will invest something and expect to receive something in return that is equal but ends up receiving more or less than what he (for the sake of this conversation, assume "he" means "she" as well) originally put in.

So what is a person to do when that happens? One of six things:

1. Vary his inputs by increasing or decreasing them
2. Alter his outcomes by increasing or decreasing them
3. Cognitively distort the inputs or outputs
4. End the relationship
5. Alter or cognitively distort the other party's inputs and outcomes or try to force the other party to end the relationship
6. Change the party with whom he makes a comparison

In the book, the author discusses the reciprocal theory and customer relationships, but it got me thinking about relationships in general. What happens when one person puts more into the relationship than the other person? If a person is really giving, does that person give because he expects to get back just as much in return or does he give unconditionally knowing that the other person may not be able to give back equally? If a person starts to decrease his input as a reaction to the other person's low input, then wouldn't that devalue the relationship and eventually lead to the end of the relationship? If a person starts to rationalize his levels of inputs and outputs, where does he draw the line for making up excuses for the other person?

I guess relationships are like investments...it's hard to find an investment that you can be so sure of that you're willing to risk everything for it.

(OMG--or should I say OMB, B for Buddha--this is what happens when I have a frappuccino at 9pm...my mind runs in different directions...and the frappuccino, which was a pumpkin spice frap from Starbucks, wasn't even good at all!...or maybe it was because I chewed gum before I drank it and the gum messed up my taste buds.)