Affiliative Needs, Interpersonal Stress and Symptomatology

Abstract

Presumably, the variability accounted for in the stress-illness susceptibility relationship could be increased by identifying specific areas of personality needs and stress in areas relevant to those needs. In this experiment with 44 female subjects, the role of fulfillment of affiliative needs as a moderator of the interpersonal stress-illness relationship was investigated. It was predicted that individuals whose affiliative needs were unfulfilled would report more symptoms after they experienced high levels of interpersonal stress than would individuals whose needs were fulfilled. Additionally, they would have higher symptom scores than subjects with unfulfilled affiliative needs and low interpersonal stress. Finally, ability to fulfill affiliative needs should have no effect on a person's reaction to non-interpersonal stress and, so, should not contribute to the understanding of the non-interpersonal stress-illness relationship. These hypotheses were confirmed using analyses of variance. The authors concluded that, in order to predict an individual's probability of experiencing stress-induced illness, unfulfilled personality needs and related stressors should be identified.

Index Terms:

• stress
• affiliative needs
• personality
• life change