What is affiliation motive?

Introduction

Social behavior is a characteristic of animals with highly developed nervous systems, in particular the vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish) and the invertebrate social insects (ants and termites). In all these species, there are behaviors that are exclusively instinctive (endogenous); however, in mammals and birds, the process of learning from environmental experiences (exogenous behaviors) becomes pronounced. In mammalian and bird species, complex social interactions have evolved in which individuals aggregate and work together for the benefit of the group as a whole.

Such highly social species form aggregations composed of both males and females. These aggregations usually are either migratory, as the individuals of the aggregate search for food, or territorial, in areas of abundant food supply. Aggregation can be defined as a grouping of members of a species for mutual protection and acquisition of resources. Social aggregation is thus designed to find food for the sustenance of the group, to reproduce, and to protect the group members from predators. Single individuals or very small groups generally have more difficulty in finding food and in defending themselves than do large groups. This easily can be seen in birds or cattle, which flock or herd, respectively, at the approach of a predator.

Dominance Hierarchies

Within such aggregates or societies, male and female associations develop; both associations are based on dominance hierarchies. Association can be defined as an accepted social organization into which individuals affiliate based on common interests for the attainment of the society’s cultural goals.

A dominance hierarchy, or pecking order, is a precisely ranked ordering of individuals from most dominant to most subordinate. Dominance hierarchies are important features of practically all mammalian and avian (bird) societies. They are dynamic social structures that are constantly changing because of continual interactions, encounters, and conflicts between individuals and groups of individuals. Several less powerful males may cooperate to usurp the power of the dominant male, for example. Young males or females usually start at the bottom of a dominance hierarchy and gradually work their way up the scale of dominance. Older individuals, as they weaken, generally fall down the dominance scale because of intergroup competition. The overall format of the dominance hierarchy guarantees the best territory, the most mates, the most abundant and best food supply, and the best protection from predators for the most dominant individuals. The most subordinate individuals usually have the worst territory, few if any mates, poor nutrition, and great susceptibility to predation.

Such dominance hierarchies permeate human societies, although their presence is often subtle within the context of extremely complex social and cultural systems. Human societies, whether primarily technological, agricultural, or hunting, consist of institutions, organizations, religions, clubs, and other groups with which individuals are affiliated. To some extent, many of these groups serve the same purposes as groups in other animal societies: food assimilation, reproduction, and protection from predators, enemies, or other “undesirable” people. Human societies, however, employ unique rationales for individual affiliation. Affiliation is defined as the joining of an individual to a group of individuals, many of whom may be unrelated, based on such things as cooperation, mutual interests, friendship, age, gender, and protection.

The affiliation motive behind an individual’s joining a particular group lies within all these factors. Nevertheless, lurking beneath these factors are some very basic sociobiological principles. It is to the individual’s advantage to affiliate with other individuals. Through interactions with others, one can assert one’s position within the existing dominance hierarchy, thereby gaining recognition for oneself not only in terms of dominance relationships but also in terms of meeting the society’s views of acceptable behavior. Outcasts and other individuals who fail to affiliate within the accepted social institutions are frowned on by their peers and are subject to prejudicial treatment and perhaps social exclusion. Antisocial behavior is strongly discouraged and is punished in many societies.

The dominance hierarchy is, without question, a major evolutionary adaptation for the survival of social animal species. In every association of individuals, the dominance hierarchy is expressed in the power structure of the group, as well as in peer pressure aimed at forcing all societal members to conform. Conformity means affiliation with acceptable societal groups and submission to the dominance hierarchy.

Social Motives

An individual’s drive, or motivation, to affiliate with other individuals may be attributable to common interests or characteristics, but often this drive is tempered by social pressures to conform to the stability of the existing dominance structure. In many instances, the motivation to affiliate is influenced by societal incentives—a motivating force or system of rewards that is presented to people if they behave or successfully perform specified tasks according to the norms of society. Affiliation with some groups may bring prestige, a better standard of living, and other benefits. Such affiliations usually are easier when kinship with group members exists. (Kinship is the primary social organizing force in many human and animal societies, based on the relatedness of individuals.) Otherwise, the individual may have to make certain sacrifices.

Human social groups include organizations such as elitist country clubs, social clubs, sport-related clubs, special-interest groups (gem clubs, astronomy clubs), professionally related organizations, women’s clubs, men’s clubs, teen groups, elderly groups, churches, volunteer rescue squads and fire departments, and sports teams. Even youth gangs, mobsters, and hate groups fall within such categories. Affiliation is a social behavior in which practically everyone participates in some way, either willingly or unwillingly.

One phenomenon of affiliation behavior that is prevalent in numerous groups is altruism, an unselfish contribution on the part of an individual for others even if they are not genetically related to the individual. Altruism occurs in numerous species, although it usually occurs between related individuals. Humans exhibit an unusual level of altruism even toward unrelated individuals. There is some philosophical debate over whether such behavior in humans is truly unselfish. A number of investigators seek other underlying motives in such behavior and dismiss the notion that people help others purely out of a sense of caring. For example, up until extremely recently on the evolutionary calendar, humans lived in clans and were related to every other human with whom they came in contact.

Affiliation motives, therefore, are based on mutual interest and characteristics between people, altruistic behavior, and peer pressure associated with existing social dominance hierarchies. Affiliation is an important component of the stable structuring of society. It is of major concern in specific cases when individuals are barred from groups because of intelligence, family background, political affiliation, religious beliefs, race, or personal wealth.

Study of Affiliation

Affiliation is a major subject of study for psychologists, sociologists, and sociocultural anthropologists. A critical behavior in the formation of the complex societies that characterize mammalian and bird species, it is very pronounced in human societies. Psychologists and anthropologists study group associations in many different human societies, comparing the characteristics of these different groups to ascertain the importance of affiliation and other group interactions in the development of the individual, the development of culture, and the evolution of human civilization. Studies are also made of group behaviors in primates and other closely related species to arrive at the sequence of evolutionary events leading to group adaptations.

Affiliation motives and drives reveal the psychological background of various individuals and, as a result, enable the researcher to understand differences between people in achievement of goals. Such knowledge can be of great value in uncovering the psychological and physical blocks that prevent some people from reaching their maximum intellectual and physical potential. Dominance hierarchies, while representing a central, structured component of practically all societies, are stumbling blocks to many people. Understanding how they operate can be of great use in assisting the smooth, nonviolent interaction of differing peoples. It also can be used to unravel the roots of antisocial behavior.

Cultural Differences and Similarities

Social and cultural anthropologists have studied the structure and organization of hundreds of different societies throughout the world. These societies exhibit many of the same social processes and patterns of organized behavior. They all exhibit dominance hierarchies, acceptable rules of individual and group behavior, and strong orderliness based on kinship. Some such societies (Hindu, for example) relegate their members to separate castes, permanent divisions based on genetic inheritance and particular trades. In advanced technological societies, large populations, fast-paced lifestyles, and high regional mobility result in social structures based less on kinship and more on other factors, such as mutual interests, age, gender, and race.

The study of social groups and affiliation motives for such groups provides an informative analysis of human social evolution within the context of rapidly changing societies. The psychological impact of such changes on the individual and on the group as a whole can provide an understanding of societal problems such as crime, social inequality, and intergroup tensions. Underlying all these situations is the natural biological tendency for individuals to aggregate for the common good of all members, thereby reducing the chance of danger to individual members. Humans, like all animals, have a need to interact and associate with other members of their own species. The drive to affiliate is related to the need for acceptance and the subsequent goals of recognition, power, protection, and mating.

Motivational Theories

Societal pressures to conform and to affiliate are great. Numerous psychologists have propounded theories describing the psychological bases behind an individual’s motives to affiliate with other individuals. These theories are in agreement as to the goals of affiliation—objectives such as friendship, mutual interests, mating, acquiring food, and ensuring protection. These theories differ, however, in the psychological mechanisms behind the affiliation motive.

Among the most famous of these motivational theories is one that comes from the work of the psychoanalytical pioneer Sigmund Freud. Freud proposed that all motivational drives within an individual center on two principal components of the individual psyche: the libido
and the Eros
instinct. The libido is an aspect of one’s psychological makeup whose prime focus is sexual reproduction, whereas the Eros instinct is one’s inner need to survive. The libido could actually be seen as a component of Eros, which would then be the need to survive and to reproduce. Influenced by Darwinian evolutionary theory, Freud for much of his career maintained that all motives, including the affiliation motive, are aimed at satisfying one’s sexual and survival needs. In his later work, however, he discovered a new instinct, Thanatos, or the death drive, which he described as self-directed aggression resulting from an inability to channel aggression outward at others and a consequent need to redirect it against the self.

The analytical psychologists Kurt Goldstein and Abraham Maslow maintained that an individual’s psyche organizes itself about a tiered arrangement of personal needs and goals. These tiers include basic bodily needs such as food and protection, the need to be loved, and “ self-actualization.” According to their theories, different individuals focus on different aspects of these psychological needs. They further maintained that one’s psychological needs all emerge from the need for self-actualization, the need to be recognized as an important member of society. Psychological disorders were believed to occur as a result of conflicts within these inner needs.

Other theories of social involvement and motivation include those of Carl Jung and Alfred Adler. Jung concentrates on individuals as being introverts or extroverts. Adler concentrates on inferior people overcompensating to become superior, with inferiority complexes arising when inferior individuals choose socially unacceptable means of becoming superior. All these theories and others employ many of the same basic concepts. They generally center on basic instinctive desires (sexuality, food acquisition, protection from danger) and the need for recognition (dominance, personal achievement). Consequently, they reflect the biological basis of behavior that has evolved in animals over the past few hundred million years.

Role of Sociobiology

The psychological theories of motivation and the cultural manifestations of association and affiliation fall within the domain of sociobiology, a branch of biological thought advanced by numerous behaviorists and analytical psychologists that has been considerably refined and compellingly presented by Harvard University entomologist Edward O. Wilson. The motive of individual affiliation in any animal society, including human society, is the achievement of personal and group needs, which essentially boil down to views of survival and reproduction similar to those expressed by Freud.

Psychology and animal behavior have isolated the basis of affiliation and of behavior as one’s instinctive needs as a living organism. This rationale stems from the fact that humans are animals and are the products of billions of years of evolutionary change on Earth. The nature of all life is to survive and to reproduce. Therefore, the activities of all organisms are centered on the achievement of these goals. In sociobiological theory, animal behavior and animal societies are driving forces in the survival, reproduction, and evolution of any given animal species. This theory has produced much controversy and debate; however, there is considerable evidence supporting it.

Affiliation is one of the foci of social behavior. Animals have a need to associate with other individuals of their own species. In so doing, they ensure their own safety and enhance their own reproductive potential. An individual’s behavior is directed toward these ends. Another sociobiological viewpoint is that of the “selfish gene,” a concept developed by modern molecular biologists and advanced by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book of that name. The selfish gene concept maintains that evolution occurs at the level of the gene and that individual organisms are the means by which genetic information is copied and transmitted to future generations. All aspects of the organism and populations of organisms are geared to this end. Biochemical changes within an individual’s nervous and endocrine systems facilitate such motivations. The physiology of motivation is an object of intense study.

Bibliography

Carter, C. Sue, I. Izja Lederhendler, and Brian Kirkpatrick, eds. The Integrative Neurobiology of Affiliation. Cambridge: MIT P, 1999. Print.

Chagnon, Napoleon A. Yanomamo: The Fierce People. 5th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1996. Print.

Eidse, Faith, and Nina Sichel, eds. Unrooted Childhoods: Memoirs of Growing Up Global. Yarmouth: Intercultural, 2004. Print.

Hall, Edward Twitchell. The Hidden Dimension. 1966. Reprint. New York: Anchor, 1990. Print.

Hill, Craig A. "Affiliation Motivation." Handbook of Individual Differences in Social Behavior. Ed. Mark R. Leary and Rick H. Hoyle. New York: Guilford, 2009. 410–25. Print.

Manning, Aubrey, and Marion Stamp Dawkins. An Introduction to Animal Behavior. 6th ed. New York: Cambridge UP, 2012. Print.

Skinner, B. F. Science and Human Behavior. 1953. Reprint. Delray: Classics of Medicine Library, 2000. Print.

Vela-McConnell, James A. Who Is My Neighbor? Social Affinity in a Modern World. Albany: State U of New York P, 1999. Print.