Most people could probably be described as having a moderate need for affiliation, but some people have an extremely low need and others have an extremely high need. Murray used the term need to describe a kind of force within a person that organizes a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. A person with a high need for affiliation is so motivated to build and maintain relationships with other people that many of his or her thoughts, emotions, and actions are directed toward fulfilling this motivation.

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Need for affiliation

2. Need for Affiliation Definition
 Human beings differ from each other in how much they like to associate
with other people.
 Some people
 Avoid being alone,
 Put a high priority on their friendships, and
 Try hard to please other people.
 Others are just the opposite:
 They are content to be alone,
 They don’t put much effort into their relationships with other people, and
 They aren’t very concerned about making other people happy.
 People with high need for affiliation are generally
 Friendly,
 Outgoing,
 Cooperative, and
 Eager to join groups
 People with low need for affiliation are
 Unfriendly,
 Reserved, and
 Aloof.

3. Need for Affiliation Definition
 Most people could probably be described
as having a moderate need for affiliation,
but some people have an extremely low
need and others have an extremely high
need.
 Murray used the term need to describe a
kind of force within a person that organizes
a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
 A person with a high need for affiliation is
so motivated to build and maintain
relationships with other people that many
of his or her thoughts, emotions, and
actions are directed toward fulfilling this
motivation.

4. Nature of the Need for Affiliation
 Apparently people would like to have high need for affiliation as an
important part of a desirable personality as we would rather think of
themselves as being friendly than as cold or standoffish.
 Advantages of High Need of Affiliation
 Try hard to make other people happy, which probably helps them
build and maintain strong relationships.
 Disadvantages of High Need of Affiliation
 Tend to be conforming and may even go along with unwise
choices made by people around them.
 Under some circumstances may also have trouble getting their
work done.
 They may put such a high priority on socializing that they neglect
some of their other goals.
 Hues of Need for Affiliation changes depending on the way people express
their need on other aspects of their personality.
 A person who is high in the need for affiliation and also high in need
for nurturance might be extremely kind,
 A person who is high in the need for affiliation and high in the need
for deference might be extremely compliant.
 In other words, a group of people who are all high in the need for
affiliation might consist of people who are all outgoing, but they would
differ in other ways according to their unique need profiles.

5. Nature of the Need for Affiliation
 Need to Belong and Need for affiliation
 The need to belong is considered a universal human drive to
establish and maintain lasting, positive relationships with other
people.
 Most researchers describe the need to belong as a component of
human nature, or something that all normal human beings
possess.
 Much research suggests that if people do not maintain at least a
minimum quantity of enduring, healthy relationships, their well-being
will suffer.
 The need for affiliation is used to describe people’s personalities.
 People vary in how motivated they are to socialize and establish new
contacts, hence individual differences in the need for affiliation.
 People who are high in the need for affiliation are more motivated
to form relationships than other people are, and as a result, they
may be more successful at fulfilling their need to belong.

6. Developments
 Tests for Need of affiliation
 Thematic Apperception Test(TAT), which requires respondents to
interpret a number of ambiguous pictures, to identify the strength of
people’s need for affiliation
 Personality Research Form(Need for Affiliation Scale) designed by
Douglas Jackson as part of his comprehensive measure of personality
 The Interpersonal Orientation Scale developed by Craig Hill, a self-
report questionnaire that measures several specific components of
affiliation motivation.
 These and other tests have made it possible for researchers to find out
how the need for affiliation shapes people’s experiences.
 Research on the need for affiliation confirmed Murray’s description of the
need.
 Relative to people with a low need for affiliation, people with a high need
for affiliation are
 More concerned about others’ acceptance,
 Feel more empathy for others,
 More likely to initiate contacts and friendships, and
 More likely to conform to the wishes of experts who pressure them
into a decision.

7. Developments
 Other research has made discoveries that Murray might not have
anticipated. For example,
 Hill’s research shows that in some ways women have a higher need
for affiliation than men do.
 Compared with men, women report that they get more pleasure from
interacting with other people and are more likely to seek out others’
company when they are upset.
 People with a high need for affiliation can be discriminating when they
choose a conversational partner:
 They prefer people who are warm and friendly to more than reserved
people.
 This is in line with social psychological research that shows that
people tend to like others who are similar to themselves.
 People with a high need for affiliation may also be better leaders than
people with a low need for affiliation.
 Successful leaders are both ambitious and sociable meaning they are
high in both the need for achievement and the need for affiliation.
 References:
 Hill, C. A. (1987). Affiliation motivation: People who need people…but in
different ways. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1008-
1018.
 Murray, H. A. (1938). Explorations in personality: A clinical and