Affiliation

The affiliation is the aspiration to be in the company of other people, the need for creation of confidential, warm, emotionally significant relations. Under this concept such categories as communication, friendship, love and many others get. The nature of relationship with parents and peers in the early childhood causes formation of this requirement. The affiliation leads to decrease in uneasiness and softens effects of both a psychological, and physiological stress.

The negative experience fixed at frequent repetition of the situations interfaced to uncertainty in themselves and mistrust to other person or group of people blocks an affiliation and causes estrangement, loneliness and frustration.

High and low affiliation

In psychology understand the level of social needs of the person as an affiliation. Each of us in different degree needs communication. One want to be always in society, to see friends and colleagues on various actions or parties. For communication it is enough to others to use the Internet – not without reason such distribution was gained by social networks and various communication programs which provide not only text communication, but also allow to see and hear the interlocutor. The third, on the contrary, prefer to the noisy companies a privacy, do not like to draw to themselves attention and even choose distant work with the purpose to limit contact with people around. Certainly, how many people – are so much also options. The affiliation is and there is that concept which defines as far as the person is inspired by perspective of communication with others.

The high and low affiliation is two extremes which seldom meet in pure form. In the first case – it is unconditional extroverts. They are open for communication, without effort can start a conversation with strangers, often are soul of the company. Do not take out loneliness and achieve the best results only in an environment of people. To them exchange of the ideas and opinions "alive" is important.

Low level of an affiliation is more inherent to introverts. Such people are, as a rule, independent and self-sufficient, the personal space is important for them. Long communication with people around exhausts them, and composure is recovered only alone. It is not a lack of social skills, and in desire to establish and maintain close relations with a small circle of friends, without meeting constantly new people.

Motivation of an affiliation

Content of motivation of an affiliation consists in support of the relations of such degree of proximity which suits the person and does not cause discomfort. The purposes at the same time can significantly differ – from attempts to impress other person to desire to make imperious impact.

The affiliation assumes partnership, and asymmetrical cast destroys it, bringing in hard cases to social phobias. If the person understands that he was tried to be humiliated or used for satisfaction of someone's requirements, then it can cause damage to his need for an affiliation. Therefore it is necessary to increase communication value in the opinion of the partner, to establish confidential connection and to try to obtain that the sympathy and friendly support were mutual. Achievement and preservation of the relations such are promoted by a set of verbal and nonverbal means - it is quantity and positive contents of statements, a friendly look, duration of visual contact, a pose, gesticulation and other ways of behavior.

The motivation of an affiliation correlates, on the one hand, with the need to ego-trip and get approval, and with another – with fear to be rejected. On the basis of last experience the corresponding expectations form. For example, if need to communicate with strangers is accompanied by expectation of success, then attractiveness of this situation will be high and vice versa. Respectively, the person or aims at other people, looks for in them companions and trusts them, or is suspicious of them and avoids them. If both types of expectations are low, then in interpersonal interaction disinterest and indifference is shown.

The affiliation significantly influences process and result of communication – setting of new acquaintance will happen friendly and easy or, on the contrary, shy, awkwardly and not affectional. As positive experience raises an affiliation, and negative – reduces, there will be a fixing or gradual destruction of the stereotype which developed earlier each time.

In psychology the affiliation and its motives give in to measurement – for example, by means of Mekhrabian's technique. More reliable is the projective technique, but because of its complexity generally use the test. Its scale is divided into 2 parts, one of which is designed to estimate power of desire to communicate, and another – fear to be rejected.

As a result of calculation of points perhaps 4 typical combinations of these two motives to the following interpretation:

• The strong aspiration to be the expressed fear of rejection (FR) accepted by other people (joint venture) with. Such combination of motives is characteristic of the internal conflict at people who at the same time want to be in society and avoid acquaintances;
• High rate of the joint venture and low WITH. These people actively come into contacts and receive from communication only joy;
• Small level of the joint venture and big WITH. Such result happens at those who look for loneliness and avoid interpersonal interaction;
• Low value of both motives of an affiliation. It is peculiar to all who live among people, communicate with them, but from it does not test either positive, nor negative emotions and normally feels both in the company, and without it.

If the test showed average estimates of motivation, then it is impossible to tell anything certain about an estimated social behavior of the person and his experiences.

On the basis of calculation of level of an affiliation it is possible to choose an occupation, for example. For teachers, teachers, doctors, lawyers and representatives of other professions connected with communication, the affiliation has to be one of the main requirements.