The need to belong

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The need to belong
2015-04-15 20:56:56
Social Psychology
Psychology,Social Psychology
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  1. What is the need to belong?
    • Baumeister & Leary (1995): our fundamental social motive
    • People form social bonds easily and quickly without specific circumstances 
    • Virtual game of ball toss including the ostracising of participants, this led to lower ratings of belonging, self esteem, control and meaningful existence, even if this ostracisation was by a hated outgroup (Gonsalkorale & Williams, 2007) 
    • No societies exist in which people don't form connections with others 
    • People identify with others automatically, even over trivial commonalities
    • Once (even very weak) social bonds form,
    • people are very reluctant to allow them to
    • dissolve
    • Social feedback (acceptance or rejection) is a
    • primary determinant of emotions
    • Deprivation from social connection is associated with stress, depression, poor psychological adjustment, lowered self-regulation, compromised physical health.
    • Evolutionary advantages of hunting in packs
  2. How does conformity relate to social behaviour?
    • Deviations from descriptive norms lead to rejection
    • People confirm, even when doing so requires them to disregard their on experiences and values (Asch, 1955)
    • People are sometimes willing to sacrifice their well-being, violate their standards, and hurt others in pursuit of acceptance and belonging
  3. What is interpersonal attraction?
    • The attraction between two people that leads to friendships or relationships 
    • People are more likely to be attracted to those who are more similar to us-Folkes, 1982 (error management strategy?)
    • People are most inclined to like and pursue relationships with those they believe are likely to like and accept them in a speed dating setting- Aron et al (1989)
  4. How does self enhancement and presentation relate to the need to belong?
    • Much of self presentation is aimed at fostering and maintaining social acceptance -Leary & Baumeister (1995)
    • People distance themselves from those who outperform them on self-relevant tasks, partly to maintain self-esteem, but also to protect their perceived social value
    • People strive for optimal distinctiveness to maintain their social acceptance
  5. Why do in groups discriminate against out groups?
    • Could be to increase cohesion and sense of social identity within the group 
    • We need a common enemy (Allport, 1954)
    • External threats increase ingroup cohesion and enhance members’attraction for one another (Dion, 1979).
  6. How do attitudes and social influence relate to the need to belong?
    • People tend to adopt attitudes that are likely to
    • result in social acceptance from people whose
    • acceptance they value
    • Cogntiive dissonance processes are partly driven by interpersonal concerns with appearing consistent to others
    • Attitude change may often be driven by self presentation concerns
  7. How does culture influence motivation?
    • The motivation of an individual is dependent on their culture 
    • An individualist culture will encourage people to be motivated by personal goals, whereas a collectivist culture will focus on group goals which are to be achieved for the common good (Engin & McKeown, 2012)
    • This could explain why japanese people work better in groups 
    • Person-oriented culture emphasizes the use of innovative motivational practices (emphasising freedom and entrepreneurship), with the aim of developing individuals and their work. The task-oriented culture promotes the use of traditional motivation tools (in IT)
    • Shah & Gardner (2013):
    • Japanese children prefer puzzles they are bad at and americans prefer ones that they are already good at 
    • American workers slack off in groups but Japanese work harder
  8. What is goal contagion?
    • Individuals may automatically adopt and pursue a goal that is implied by another person’s behavior (Aarts, Gollwitzer, & Hassin, 2004)
    • Participants were briefly exposed to behavioral information implying a specific goal and were then given the opportunity to act on the goal in a different way and context. 
    • Pervasive social goals of ingratiating, being accurate, helping others, seeking sex, earning money, when perceived in others, will become active in the self and influence subsequent behaviour  (Chaiken, Giner-Sorolla, & Chen, 1996)
  9. What is the life history theory?
    • The course by which one pursues fundamental human goals for growth, reproduction and survival - (Roff, 1992)
    • Must divide energy into either somatic or reproductive efforts, and the way we do this underpins our personality traits 
    •  Somatic efforts, such as learning, enable individuals to generate better offspring in the future. Without these somatic efforts, reproductive efforts might not generate offspring that will thrive.
    • Without reproductive efforts, however, individuals might not generate any offspring.
    • A bias towards somatic efforts is called a slow life history strategy, whereas a bias towards reproductive efforts is called a fast life history strategy, that is, when individuals demonstrate this bias, they often reproduce quickly, soon after the reach sexual maturity.
  10. Which factors affect one's decision to live fast or slow?
    • Environmental harshness (age-specific rates of
    • morbidity-mortality)
    • Environmental unpredictability (consistency of harshness)
    • Resource scarcity (availability of energy sources and competition for energy sources
  11. How does the life history theory impact upon everyday life?
    • Variation in life expectancy accounts for 74% of
    • the variation in age at first birth, with shorter life expectancy predicting earlier age at first birth (Griskevicius et al, 2010).
    • For individuals who grew up relatively poor, mortality cues led them to value the present and gamble for big immediate rewards. Conversely, for individuals who grew up relatively wealthy, mortality cues led them to value the future and avoid risky gambles. (Griskevicius et al., 2011) 
    • Life History strategies developed during childhood appear to lie dormant in safe, benign environments

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