Rational choice theory (RCT) proposes that all human behavior is rationally motivated to maximize personal utility even if it appears irrational. RCT views individuals as making choices by weighing costs and benefits to optimize outcomes based on their preferences. RCT assumes that individuals make rational decisions to maximize benefits while minimizing costs, and that social phenomena arise from the aggregate of individual choices rather than external social forces.

1. All action is rationally motivated even if it appears to
be irrational.

2. RCT try to explain human behavior in terms of
utility maximation.
When a person is confronted with a set of choices,
the person will choose the option that will be serve
his or her objectives.
Rational – means people act base on or in
accordance with reason or logic

3. Choice- refers to an act of selecting or making a
decision faced with two or more possibilities.
In economics; estimating the probable costs and
benefits of any action before deciding what to do.
In political theory, the two- fold initial beliefs that
explaining individual behavior is the key to
understanding the functioning of political group.

4.  In structural- functionalism, structures and the
functions they perform are considered important
for the smooth functioning of society.
While in RCT, it is individual choices and how they
affect society which is considered more important.

5.  Basic Assumptions:
 1. Utility maximization
 2. Structure of preferences
 3. Decision making under conditions of
uncertainty
 4. The centrality of individual in explanation of
group outcomes

6.  It refers to the patterns of behavior in societies
wherein the choices made by an individual are
governed by maximization of benefits and
minimization of costs.
 People make decisions about how they should act
by comparing the costs and benefits of different
courses of actions.

7.  Consequently, patterns of behavior will develop
within that society that result from the those
choices.
 People will choose the object that provides the
greatest rewards at the lowest costs.

8.  It refers to the idea that people are motivated by
their personal desires and aspirations but since it
is not possible for them to attain all of the things
that they want, they must make choices related to
their goals and the means of attaining those goals.

9.  According to British Sociologist John Scott, in
RCT, individuals must predict the outcomes of
alternative courses of actions and calculate which
will be best for them.
 It sees social phenomena as caused by the actions
of individuals, while individual actions can also be
explained by psychological responses.

10.  For Homans, human behavior is identical with
animal behavior in that both are not free but
determined.
 They are both shaped by rewards and
punishments.

11.  It means that each individual takes full advantage
of the likely worth of his own payoff.
 Decision- making according to RCT, often takes
place under conditions of uncertainty since the
focus is on the expected rather than actual
usefulness.
 All action is rationally motivated even if it appears
to be irrational.

12.  Means that rational choice theorists believe that it
is by reference to the maximizing actions of
individuals that group outcomes must be
explained.
 Social phenomena can be explained by in terms of
the individual actions that led to those phenomena.
 Group outcomes are therefore cause by
maximizing actions of individuals.