The Need for Affiliation

Previous research findings have concluded that human existences have a demand to consort themselves with their equals, particularly in nerve-racking state of affairss. An experiment conducted by Schachter ( 1959 ) assumed that when faced with a peculiarly hard stressor we seek the company of those persons that are in the same quandary as ourselves. This paper seeks to analyse the theory behind the demand for association and to queer the old standing belief that we merely seek the aggregation of people in our same state of affairs. Yacov Rofe oversaw a survey of 212 Israeli kids and their parents that provinces otherwise. The background to Henry Murray ‘s theory and the complete survey of the Israelis are farther discussed.

Introduction to Henry Murray ‘s Theory

Henry Murray ‘s educational preparation was anything but typical for that of a psychological science professor ; he attained a unmarried man ‘s grade in History, a maestro ‘s grade in biological science from Columbia University, and a doctor’s degree in Biochemistry. It was after reading several of Carl Jung ‘s published work and set uping a meeting with the legendary Swiss head-shrinker that he was persuaded into analyzing depth psychology. He completed his preparation in Harvard University and subsequently taught and conducted his research at that place until his retirement in 1962.

While Murray was manager of the Psychological Clinic in Harvard he developed a term for analyzing personality that he called “ personology. ” His theory was that personality was implanted in the encephalon. A individual ‘s intellectual calm dictates every feature of one ‘s personality ; everything that the personality depends on such as feelings, memories, beliefs etc. , exists in the encephalon hence so does the personality. Murray besides noted in his theory that although people do move to cut down psychological and physiological tenseness we do non move to wholly extinguish that tenseness and that a tension-free environment is an affliction itself.

Along with Christiana Morgan, Henry Murray developed the Thematic Apperception Test. In this projective trial a topic is presented with a figure of black and white images and the topic is asked to state a narrative about each image. The trial is considered to be a projective trial because it is hypothesized that the topic will project their feelings, frights, hopes etc. , into the narrative that he or she tells ( Kaplan & A ; Saccuzzo, 2005 ) . The analysis of the narratives is based upon Murray ‘s construct of demand and imperativeness. ( 1938 )

Murray believed that psychological science ‘s primary concerns should be of single lives and non of people as a whole. His scheme was to interrupt down a individual ‘s complex behaviour into smaller and more manageable units. The basic unit is called a proceeding and the continuance of proceedings is a consecutive. A proceeding is “ a clip period in which an of import behaviour form occurs from get downing to stop ” ( Schultz & A ; Schultz, 2009 ) . Proceedings are normally associated with interactions whether they are existent or fantastical. A series is a “ sequence of proceedings related to the same map or intent ” ( Schultz & A ; Schultz, 2009 ) . Serials are related to clip and map. The researches conducted on these demands were the stepping rocks for the development of Murray ‘s theory of the demand for association.

What is the demand for association? By definition, an association is the disposition to seek the company of others. Animals tend to divide into groups, flocks, and schools for nutrient, migratory intents or protection. In worlds, association has a batch less to make with inherent aptitudes and a batch more with motivations. For illustration, when people are afraid they tend to seek comfort by being with a group of people for support. The company in which they seek may help them in quieting down and cut downing the anxiousness. It is besides suggested that people tend to seek others who are in their same state of affairs for reassurance ( Piotrowski, 2004 ) .

Surveies Conducted on the Need for Affiliation

Over the old ages at that place have been several research attempts to both prove and dismiss Henry Murray ‘s theory of the Need for Affiliation. A survey that was conducted by Craig A. Hill suggested that a individual with strong association demands may be more likely to show that demand if the interaction was warm and compassionate yet, a individual with low association demands conveyed small disposition to care whether the interaction was compassionate or non ( Hill, 1991 ) . Another study explored whether or non there was a difference in the demands for association in people of different ages, sexes and instruction degree ( Ray & A ; Hall, 1995 ) . The survey that we will be concentrating on was overseen by Yascov Rofe of Bar-llan University in Israel utilizing 212 Israeli kids and their parents. The topics were examined from January to March of 2003, when it was believed that there was a high hazard for an Iraqi onslaught against Israel. His hypothesis was that the Israeli households would prefer the company of less dying citizens instead than the company of households that were every bit distressed.

Method

Participants

The participants of the survey consisted of 212 Israeli kids with the age scope from 9-12 old ages of age ( 80 male childs, 128 misss and 4 that did non describe gender specifications ) and 212 parents ( 38 male parents, 172 female parents, and 2 did non describe a gender ) .

Measures

The degree of the sharer ‘s concern was determined by inquiring the undermentioned inquiry: “ To what extent are you worried that a war will interrupt out in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein will fire missiles toward Israel? ” The responses were in a scale format that ranged from 1 ( no anxiousness ) to 4 ( high degrees of anxiousness ) . The subscriber ‘s association dispositions were evaluated by their reply to the undermentioned inquiries: “ With whom would you prefer to be in instance of war? ” which was rated on a graduated table from 1 ( person with a high degree of fright ) and 3 ( person without fright ) and “ Would you prefer to speak about war-related issues or other issues? ” besides judged on a 3-point graduated table with 1 ( war-related jobs ) , 2 ( non to talk ) and 3 ( speak of irrelative issues ) .

Procedure

For this analysis questionnaires were administered between January and March 2003. During this timeframe terrorist motion was well-known and there was a terrible chance of a rush of war with Iraq. The kids completed their part if the questionnaire in school or young person groups and their parents at place. All of the participants completed the questionnaire in forepart of the interviewer, who was blind, in order to maintain the confidentiality of the participants.

Consequences

Affiliation

The information confirmed that the lowest per centum of the grownup participants ( 2.2 % ) wanted to consort themselves with a individual with more anxiousness so they had, and 10.8 % of the subscribers wanted to be around people with the same degree of anxiousness and that the bulk of the participants ( 87.1 % ) would instead be affiliated with people who have no anxiousness. The consequences in the kids were comparatively the same. A figure of tabular arraies were put together to analyze the relationship between coevals, anxiousness and association. The consequences concluded that the interaction of those factors were of import. In order to further research the beginning of the interactions a chi-square trial ( a trial used to find whether or non there was a notable difference between the hypothesized informations and the acquired informations ) was administered. The consequences are found in Table 1 and 2.

Table 1

Table 2

Discussion Inclinations

The chi-square information tabular array shows that the bulk of the participants both in grownups and kids preferred discoursing subjects that were unrelated to the war ( 54.2 % ) or would instead remain soundless ( 13.5 % ) . Merely a comparatively little sum of the sharers ( 32.3 % ) were interested in talking about the war and having some kind of lucidity on the affair. The same holds true for kids. Another tabular array was produced to place the relationship between treatment of the war, coevals and anxiousness degrees. They were each done individually for kids and grownups. The consequences are shown in Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3

Table 4

Discussion

The intent of this survey was to turn out that when people are faced with unsafe and nerve-racking state of affairss people would prefer to consort themselves with less dying equals. In grownups ( who were more cognizant of the crisis that the state of affairss presented ) this phenomenon was present regardless of the appliers ain anxiousness degrees whereas in kids that inclination was straight related to the kid ‘s ain anxiousness degree. These findings contradict one of the first experiments in the phenomenon of demand for association that was conducted by Schachter ( 1959 ) sing electric daze and that the people who were anticipating a daze sought out the comfort of others who were waiting for the same thing. In the survey of the Israeli citizens it seems as though grownups would prefer to seek the comfort of non-anxious equals because they are seeking to get away and loosen up instead than talk about the war and stop up with more fright. In kids it seems as though the kids seek the comfort of less discerning equals because they are unable to take any precautional steps and for distraction.

Decision

In summing up, Henry Murray ‘s theory of the demand for association derived from his experimentation in Harvard University sing the theories of personality. He believes that the human personality in located in the encephalon because that is where our belief, memories etc. , prevarication. He subsequently developed the TAT trial with his co-worker Christiana Morgan. Murray besides was a house truster that psychological science should concentrate more on an person ‘s experiences instead than people as a whole and general topic. He produced a mode in which to interrupt down a topic ‘s more complex behaviours into more manageable units. He called these units proceedings and seriess. It was because of this interruption down that he came across the demand for association. An association is the demand to set up a connexion with other people particularly during troubled times.

The instance survey that we focused on was proof that people do seek comfort during utmost nerve-racking state of affairss but it besides thwarted Schachter ‘s old impression that those people who are in the same state of affairs tend to seek out comfort in equals that are traveling through the same state of affairs. This survey suggested that those people who are troubled would instead prosecute an association with person who is either non as dying or nerve-racking and if they are dying, they would prefer non to talk about it. It is believed that this is because as an grownup you are looking for an flight from the stressor. In kids, they tend to seek equals with no anxiousnesss because they can non forestall the stressor and are looking for reassurance or a distraction.