PSYC 333 L14 - The Need to Belong

• High trait self-control seems to be less about lots of willpower, and more about relying on automatic processes to self-regulate
• Implementation intention


  A specific plan about how a goal will be achieved in a particular situation. Implementation intentions allow goals to be pursued automatically and more effortlessly (i.e. without willpower)
• Auto-motive


  Strong mental links between a goal, an action, and a situation can be created outside of conscious awareness through repetition
• Auto-motive model can be applied to relationships

  Thinking about a specific relationship can lead us to pursue the interpersonal goals we typically pursue in that relationship outside of conscious awareness
• Moderation


  When the strength and direction of the relationship between an independent and dependent variable depends on a third variable
• Moderation examples


  • The relationship between implementation intentions and goal completion is moderated by goal difficulty
  • The relationship between rejection and aggression depends on rejection sensitivity

  
• Mediation

  Explains the mechanism that underlies a relationship between an independent and dependent variable via the inclusion of a third variable

  
• Mediation examples


  • Age influences self-concept clarity via role commitments
  • The link between threat to self and increased self-esteem is mediated by prejudicial attitudes
• Humans have a "pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, significant interpersonal relationships"
• "A great deal of human behavior and thought is caused by this fundamental interpersonal motive"
• To satisfy the need to belong

  • Frequent pleasant interactions
  • Long-lasting caring relationships
• Creating new social bonds is strongly associated with positive feelings
• The loss of social bonds is strongly associated with negative feelings
• Social rejection is one indicator of an unmet need to belong
• Social reconnection hypothesis


  Feeling rejected motivates us to seek out new bonds and strengthen existing ones
• Rejection leads to a desire for social contact


  Rejected participants showed strongest desire to work with others
• Rejection is also associated with withdrawal and even aggression sometimes
• Intensity of rejection as a moderator

  The intensity of rejection moderates the rejection-aggression link
• Being accepted by even one person greatly reduces likelihood of rejected person lashing out


  Additional acceptance had decreasing incremental effect
• Rejection elicited aggression only in those high in rejection sensitivity


  Amount of hot sauce given
• Rejection promotes affiliation only if we see connecting with others as a realistic, and viable option
• Intensity of rejection using Cyberball paradigm

  • Excluded by all 3 players
  • Excluded by 2
  • Excluded by 1
  • Included by all
• A Little Acceptance Goes a Long Way

  • Being accepted by even one person greatly reduces likelihood of rejected person lashing out
  • Additional acceptance had decreasing incremental effect
• Rejection Sensitivity and Hot Sauce

  Rejection elicited aggression only in those high in rejection sensitivity
• If Fundamental Need, Then...

  • Need satisfaction/ thwarting should influence emotions
  • Unmet need should motivate behaviour to satisfy it
  • Satiation and substitution
  • Chronic need satisfaction/ frustration should be related to health outcomes
  • Universal
• Satiation


  • People seek out new relationships until their need to belong is met
  • Less motivated to seek out relationships once they feel like they have a sufficient number of satisfying relationships
• Substitution


  • Need to belong can be satisfied by different relationships
  • As a romantic relationship develops, people generally spend less time with other people, including old friends
  • People are more likely to cheat in relationships in which they feel lonely/ rejected
  • We replace relationships that have ended with new ones
  • What if we're "hungry" for belonging and there's no one to connect with?
• Creative Substitutions to Meet Need to Belong

  • Looking to para-social relationships
  • Ascribing human characteristics to non-humans (anthropomorphism)
  • Pets
  • Technology
  • Objects
• Seeing Life Where There Isn't

  1. Manipulated feelings of connection/disconnection using future alone paradigm

  2. Created animacy judgement task

  3. Animacy threshold: point at which participant detects animacy

  4. Lower threshold = accept face with less human features as animate
• People who received "future alone" feedback had a lower animacy threshold than those who received "future belong" feedback
• Suggests that social disconnection makes us lower the bar for acceptable social contact
• Consequences of Chronic Belonging Deprivation

  • Poorer mental health
  • Poorer physical health and immune response
  • Mortality
• Belonging Lowers Mortality Risk


  People who have stronger social relationships are 50% more likely to survive in a given time frame than those who have weaker relationships
• The influence of social relationships on mortality is comparable, and even exceeds, the effect of well-established risk factors for mortality
• Evolutionary Basis of Need to Belong


  • Social connection critical for survival
  • Attachment system's function is to ensure infants' proximity to caregivers so that they survive
  • Connection to group to fend off predators and share labor, food, care for young
  • Led to development of biological mechanism to motivate us to seek belonging to social groups and lasting relationships
• Neural Correlates of Physical Pain

  Activation in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) associated with emotional aspect of physical pain
• Neural Correlates of Social Pain

  • dACC activity associated with feelings of rejection
  • Evidence that physical and social pain are processed in the same brain region
• Physical pain sensitivity

  Associated with sensitivity to social exclusion (reported feelings of rejection in Cyberball)
• Curing Heartache with Pain Killer?

  1. Experimental group: Daily dose of Tylenol (acetaminophen) for 3 weeks

  2. Control group: Placebo for 3 weeks

  3. Tylenol group reported fewer hurt feelings (vs. placebo group)

  4. Tylenol group showed less dACC activation after exclusion