Murray He defined it as the “desire to have friends, establish reciprocal relationships, or cooperate with others.” At a behavioral level it is reflected in the actions that lead to meeting people, showing friendship, or doing things to please others. It requires assessing the person’s desire to associate with others, converse, strive to resolve differences, cooperate and maintain good harmony, etc.
From the thematic approach, it is described as the concern for maintain or reestablish emotional relationships with another person or group of people, not as a means, but as an end. People with a high need for affiliation seem to make more efforts to integrate into interpersonal communication networks, make more phone calls, write more letters and make more visits.
Positive versus negative affiliation
According to Geen Some researchers have considered affiliation a reason for avoidance or fear of rejection, rather than a positive approach to contact with others due to its intrinsic value. This fear of rejection has been used to explain the paradoxical relationship between the need for affiliation and unpopularity in the group or lack of social success of those high in affiliation (they are relatively more unpopular). There is also no evidence that the relationships established by those high in membership are of superior quality. These results would apply if the affiliation being considered was of a negative type: a desire to relate so as not to be alone or feel rejected.
Boyatzis found that the true need for affiliation correlates positively with the number of close friends. It would lead to a more active search for good relationships. The fear of rejection correlates with the degree of similarity between the beliefs of the person and their close friends. It would reflect a desire to be accepted by others while the need for affiliation would seek good relationships.
McAdams defined the reason for intimacy or desire to establish good interpersonal relationships, in which affection, intimacy and exchange of communication are experienced. It is also evaluated with the thematic method. Although the motives of intimacy and affiliation would be different and with different behavioral correlates, they also have some degree of convergence: both motives seek to establish interpersonal relationships, although there is a differential nuance: “the need for affiliation would mainly represent a desire not to being alone, while the motive of intimacy would be associated more with the fun of the contact, and the desire to maintain it. The intimacy motive is positively associated with certain indices of subjective well-being: in women with self-reports of happiness and life satisfaction; in men, positively with security and negatively with levels of tension or anxiety.
McKay provided a scoring system TAT to evaluate trust and distrust in affiliative relationships. People who described interpersonal relationships as positive or fun and with a happy ending scored high on affiliative trust; expressions of negativity and cynicism in relationships scored in affiliative distrust. This measure would assess the amount of negative thoughts and feelings in relationships, the degree of preference for establishing and maintaining positive relationships or experiencing warmth or intimacy in these exchanges, and the belief that people should trust each other and help each other. b) Affiliation and social support Social support would seek to establish an interpersonal transaction, although in this case it would be a means to achieve an end, receiving support.
This could be:
- emotional (empathy, love, trust),
- instrumental (behaviors aimed at solving the recipient’s problem),
- informative (useful to face the personal problem)
- evaluative (relevant for self-evaluation or social comparisons, excluding affective aspects).
Social support is the help (physical, material or emotional) from other people, available to the subject to cope with their life situations and which would acquire a special meaning in the face of negative events of any kind. Social support would exert a main effect on physical well-being and perceived by the subject, especially in negative or stressful situations, with no differences between people with high or low social support in normal, positive or neutral situations. According to Hill, the role of social support will be modulated by the person’s need for affiliation. He developed the “Interpersonal Orientation Scale” to assess affiliation motivation, with 4 factors:
- emotional support or sympathy
- attention, or potential to increase the focus of attention of others
- pleasant positive, cognitive and affective stimulation
- social comparison or ability to reduce ambiguity by acquiring information relevant to the person.
In Hill’s study, all people benefited from material support in the face of negative events, reporting fewer physical or psychological symptoms; only those low in need for affiliation benefited from emotional support. The high ones are more influenced by the aspects of the relationship than by its usefulness in solving a problem. It is not only important if the person has support but if they will seek it when they need it. Variables of the support recipient and the donor intervene in this decision.
From the receiver: the need for affiliation or interest in interacting with others. People high in this need would be sensitive to the availability of relevant social rewards (such as emotional support) and experience intense positive reactions to them. They would engage more in direct actions to seek support. Women tend to convey their concerns and problems more in their interactions; In men, the same behavior would lead to a more negative evaluation. From the donor: a relevant variable would be expressiveness, understood as the ability to empathize and understand others, or care about others.
McClelland Membership and Health
found that affiliation motivation may be prospectively related to blood pressure. Those high in affiliation show lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Subjects high in affiliation motivation and low in self-reported stress show the lowest disease severity reports. They also have better immune functioning, with higher levels of cells killer. The need for affiliation appears to be associated with positive health indicators.
Being part of a social network or having people who provide good social support can mitigate the harmful effects of stress. The relationship between affiliation and better immune functioning would be present if positive or trusting affiliation were considered, because people with a positive orientation toward relationships may have more social support. Cynical attitudes may diminish the potential buffering effect of interpersonal support. One of the components of hostility is a general cynicism or distrust of others. Cynical attitudes lead to not benefiting from social support, even when said social network is available.
High levels of social support would decrease the reactivity, or change in the physiological functioning of individuals when facing threats or demands of the situation, reducing health risks. High levels of hostility would exacerbate stress reactivity, increasing health risks. d) An example of laboratory research Evidence has been found that in laboratory situations, the presence of a friend can reduce the heart rate expressed in the face of a stressor.
In a group situation in which the individual is challenged and even threatened, the presence of a person who supports him, even if unknown to the subject, will exert a buffering effect on the blood pressure and heart rate responses manifested by the individual. subject. Gerin’s workin which an individual is challenged and even threatened in the presence of a person who supports him, confirm the buffering role of social support in situations of interpersonal conflict.