Differentiating Social Motivations

Satiation of certain social motivational drives and needs produces positive emotion; need frustration induces negative emotion. Henry Murray identified three of many motivational needs, one for affiliation and love (desiring a sense of belongingness, trust, and affection of another), another for dominance (desiring influence, the ability for persuasion, or command with confidence) and achievement (the goal for mastery of objects, human beings and ideas) (Murray, 1938). Abraham Maslow identified four (of many) motivations that with expression and satiation contribute toward personal self-esteem and quality of life. He noted that humans strive to belong and fulfill affection and love needs, to achieve, master, be competent, and experience a sense of capability and adequacy, to dominate and experience a sense of safety and control over ones environment, and to experience relative satisfaction with life (Maslow, 1954). Furthermore the inherent drive for dominance motivates one to exert influence, have an impact over another, or have perceived control over outcomes of a situation or another (McClelland, 1985). The inherent desire for achievement motivates one to perform and seek goals for success and to be responsible for seeking successful resolution over problem solving (Atkinson, 1964). The inherent desire for seeking a positive sense of well-being guides one to seek satiation of need and to adapt to less than optimal environments (Diener, Scollon & Lucas, 2003). Finally the desire for validation by others gives a person feedback as to how others perceive the self. Others’ perceptions help to shape and define how the person should perceive oneself, “a looking glass self” or a social sense of oneself derived from the perceptions of others (Cooley, 1964, p. 152; Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). One can conclude there are many different secondary social motivations that seek positive fulfillment during social interactions due to their perceived rewarding qualities.

Implicit thought monitors satiation of social motivational needs. When social motivational needs are satisfied and match expectation for satisfaction (Stein & Liwag, 1997), the self-other schema, self-schemata, (Markus, 1977; Knapp, 1991) or appraisal of self during social interactions generated is positive. When social motivational needs are not satisfied, and result in mismatch to expectation, the unfulfilled need for affiliation fosters a sense of unlove, for dominance instills a sense of loss of control over outcomes, for achievement imparts a sense of failure, for validation fosters a sense of blame, and sense of well being instills a sense of pain. The appraisal of self in interaction that is generated to describe the mismatch is negative and is accompanied by negative emotion. Therefore the appraisal of self in interaction keeps a record and continually updates that state of match/mismatching to expectation that reflects the nature of satiation of motivational needs. The following is a table of sample appraisals of self in interaction and their associated social motivations.

References

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