Ch 7 Social Needs

This chapter was all about social needs. It briefly talked about quasi-needs; which are needs that arise when wants and desires are induced and go away when they are satisfied. The three other topics that are addressed throughout the chapter are achievement, affiliation and intimacy, and power. Throughout the chapter we learn why these needs arise and how different people are able to satisfy these needs.
One thing that I found very interesting was the meaning of effort. For me I have always perceived effort as a positive thing that helps you to conquer a task that may be more challenging for me. In this chapter, I learned that there are different theorists who perceive effort differently. An entity theorist sees effort as a negative thing; which for me was a new way to look at it. The quote “the more you try, the dumber you therefore must be,” was puzzling to me. I think if we have this viewpoint we could easily decrease one’s motivation much more. Instead of supporting them and encouraging them to keep trying essentially this concept tells them to give up if they have to put in any effort towards the task. I am much more in line with the other theory; which focuses on the idea that with effort comes learning. For me we should encourage effort because it pushes people to keep going even when the task at hand may seem too difficult. By putting in this effort, they are in turn learning and gaining skills.
The first need is achievement. The need for achievement is the desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence. In terms of a standard of excellence it is any challenge to a person’s sense of competence that ends with an objective outcome of success. I believe I have a high level of achievement. This could be tied to the fact that growing up my parents provided an environment for me that pushed me to do well and encouraged me as well. Another factor is cognitive influences. I think this stems from one’s ability to tell them selves that they can in fact do something and their ability to keep an open mind. For me I always enjoy a challenge. In high school, sports provided that challenge for me, I was able to develop this achievement thinking style because I saw myself making progress and had the support necessary to be successful. Next is affiliation and intimacy. I would say I have low affiliation. I do not aim to please people and do things because I want to or find enjoyment in them. In all honestly, whether or not a person likes me really doesn’t matter. If a person doesn’t like me that is their issue and I won’t go out of my way to fix their opinion of me. My intimacy is medium level. I enjoy the close relationships I have an can easily exhibit a warm exchange with something that I genially care about. I do care about my social involvement when it comes to those I have connections with. My relationships with friends and family are important and I will go out of my way to make sure they are happy. The final one is power and reflects on one’s ability to impact other’s lives. I would say my level of power is also low. I don’t have this need to force others to follow my ways because I feel we are all different and will never all agree. I do enjoy helping though which is an aspect of power. By having a job that allows me to influence people I am able to establish a sense of power. I want to be an occupational therapist and through this I will be able to shape people and influence them to better themselves after rehabilitation.
Achievement is the one need I can most relate to. If you think about it life is one big competition. We are always going against someone or something in order to conquer some goal. That is how I am able to relate achievement to my life. By having this outlook I am able to stay motivated to keep working. When I know I have several things due throughout the week I set goals for myself. If I write in my planner that I want to have it done by Thursday I will challenge myself to see if I can have it done earlier than that deadline. By doing so, I am able to demonstrate to myself that I am capable of getting things done on time or even ahead of time. I also do so to make sure that I am putting forward my best work. This goes in line with the concept of performance goals because I want to do well and by giving myself time to look over my work I am also giving myself the time to make sure I am performing well.

Terms:
Quasi-needs
Wants
Desires
Achievement
Affiliation
Intimacy
Power
Effort
Competence
Performance goals

Social needs are acquired needs, as opposed to psychological and physiological needs, which are innate. Quasi-needs also fall under the category of acquired needs. Quasi-needs are urgent wants and desires that appear to be needs. For example, the desire to use an umbrella while it’s raining is a quasi-need; it appears to be a need, but it is not essential to life.

Social needs come from preferences a person learns through experience and development. Social needs include achievement, affiliation and intimacy, and power. Achievement is the desire to do well. People who have a high need for achievement have previously encountered a standard of excellence and was energized by it, so they continue to pursue these high standards of excellence. People with a high need of achievement approach challenges with hope and pride, whereas people with a low need of achievement avoid challenges with fear and anxiety. Because achievement is developmental, a person’s level of need can change over time. This makes achievement quite complex.

I found the classical model, Atkinson’s Model, very intriguing because Atkinson turned achievement into this equations: Ta = Ts – Taf = (Ms x Ps x Is) – (Maf x Pf x If). Essentially, a person is more likely to achieve if their tendency to approach success is stronger than their tendency to avoid failure. I am very analytical in the way approach and understand concepts, so being able to view a social need in a mathematical way made it a little easier to understand. However, as we learned from Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close, “People are not like numbers.” It’s more complicated than that.

The contemporary model explores the differences between mastery and performance goals. Finally, an integration of the classical and contemporary model explains achievement through mastery goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals. Mastery goals focus on self-set standards and making progress. Performance goals focus on proving one’s competence and doing better than others.

This led to the explanation of entity versus incremental theorists, which is what I found most interesting/surprising in this chapter. Entity theorists believe people either have intelligence or they don’t and focus on performance goals. Incremental theorists believe intelligence can change and focus on mastery goals. This differentiation is why people have different views on effort. Entity theorists believe that effort means one lacks knowledge of skill. Incremental theorists believe that effort is a tool to learn and succeed. I can highly related to the latter.

If I had to rate my level of need for achievement, it would be high. I grew up in a family that achievement and effort were highly emphasized. This chapter listed several things that parents can do to instill a high need for achievement in their children, including independence training, realistic standards of excellence, positive value of achievement, and stimulation potential. My parents did all of these things. For example my dad taught me how to read before I started kindergarten, and ever since there were always books available to read (stimulation potential). Another example is related to realistic standards of excellence. Some parents are insistent that their children get straight A’s in high school, which would be a performance-approach goal. A lot of times these students would fear getting F’s, which is a performance-avoidance goal. My mom, on the other hand, always just told me to do my best, as long as I tried my best and learned something, she would be happy. This is a mastery goal, and because she encouraged me in this way, I have always loved to learn (just for the value of learning). Mastery goals fuel my need for achievement. My need for achievement motivates so many of my behaviors, like pursuing two (unrelated) degrees, doing all of my assigned readings, practicing instruments, reading for fun, and so on.

Affiliation is the need for approval, to establish relationships. Intimacy the need for warmth and closeness within those relationships. These two parts work together to build relationships that satisfy this social need. Affiliation usually comes from negative sources, like the fear of loneliness; it’s deficit-oriented. Intimacy usually come from more positive sources; it’s growth-oriented. If I had to rate my level of need for affiliation and intimacy, I would say my need for affiliation is medium, but my need for intimacy is very high. I don’t need a lot of relationships, but I definitely need close ones. Being a fifth-year student, a lot of my friends have graduated and moved away. This year I’ve been striving to make closer relationships with friends that are younger than me.

Power is the need to make others conform to one’s own desires and plans. Power involves impact (establishing power), control (maintaining power), and influence (expanding power). It revolves around dominance and maintaining a good reputation. Leadership, aggressiveness, influential occupations, like business executives, and prestige possessions, like a convertible are all conditions of power. If I had to rate my need for power, I would say its medium-low. I have a weird relationship with power. I don’t like being “in charge” per se, but I like to be in control. I feel like power has a negative connotation to it, so I don’t like to say I need power. However, I want to be a teacher to have an impact on students. In that sense, I have a higher need for influence, or power.

Terms: social needs, acquired needs, psychological needs, physiological needs, innate, quasi-needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power, Atkinson’s model, classical model, contemporary model, mastery goals, performance goals, performance-approach goals, performance-avoidance goals, entity theorists, incremental theorists, effort, impact, control, influence

Social needs is a psychological acquired process that comes from interaction with one’s environment. One’s socialization history activates emotional responses to a particular need-relevant incentive throughout their lives. These need-incentives could be achievement, power, affiliation, and intimacy. The main points of the chapter involve explaining how social needs are present within achievement, power, affiliation, and intimacy, and the theories, formulas, and approaches that have been formed in order to figure this out.

The most surprising thing I learned was people with fear of failure tend to regulate their behavior in ways that interfere with performance, persistence, and emotionality, which can also be explained as these people adopting performance-avoidance goals. Over time, this negative relationship may lead to implications of personal adjustment, meaning the more avoidance goals a person harbors, the poorer their well-being becomes in regards to low self-esteem, personal control, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being. This continuous action of avoiding activities that may be embarrassing because of fear of failure leads to depreciating well-being because of these performance-avoidance goals that are being adopted more frequently as time goes on. In regards to fear of failure, when I played basketball in high school I would constantly avoid trying to shoot the ball because I feared that I wouldn’t make it. I would frequently pass the ball to someone else and let them take the shot. I was less worried about being recognized and more focused on decreasing the chance of failing, or embarrassing myself. My coach would frequently tell me “Caitlin, you need to get rid of this fear of failure.” Over time I did and I developed a way to get over this fear, which I believe has helped my well-being in many aspects because the sport is not longer able to diminish my interest in succeeding becauses of fear. Thus, this topic is most surprising because the second I read this I instantly looked back on this part of my life and realized this is what happened to me.

If I had to rate myself on these social needs, I would rate myself as high on achievement, low to medium on affiliation, high on intimacy, and medium on power. I rate myself high on achievement because I crave competition within nearly every task I do. I want to be excellent in everything. Growing up I played volleyball, basketball, and ran track, I did well in all of my classes. I have a deep need for success and for the success to be displayed so that people know what I’ve accomplished. I believed developmental influences had a lot to do with my high achievement goals because my parents, grandparents, and other close family members were constantly pushing me to be a better me. I rate myself low to medium on affiliation because on the low side, I rarely form relationships in order to avoid the negative emotions of loneliness or disapproval. I am perfectly content hanging out by myself and doing my own thing and not feeling lonely. But occasionally I will have moments that the reason I affiliate myself with a group of people is because I seek reassurance, and I strive for acceptance and approval from that group, but this does not happen often for me. I ranked myself high on intimacy because ever since I started forming friendships at the more serious level, I have been viewed as someone people can talk to for reassurance, guidance, or just a big hug to ease the pain. I see myself as medium on power because I like to have influence over people and be in charge, which usually leads to me being the leader of groups projects, but I don’t want so much power that nobody else has any say. I like the positions that come with power but not the dominance over others.

The social need of achievement is constantly motivating my behaviors in school and work. As a first time cashier at Blain’s in April of 2017, I strive to learn every aspect of thee cash register. I asked questions, payed attention intently, and made sure to check and recheck that what I was doing was correct. Because I did this, I was promoted to Head Cashier within a mere month of being a cashier. I am now in charge of paperwork (daily, monthly, and yearly), answering questions the cashier’s have and helping them, counting money on the registers throughout the day, managing schedules, and much more tasks involved in bookkeeping. My high level of achievement within work led to a promotion within my department (which partly comes from my need for power as well). I also and high motivated within the achievement of my classes. I work hard to get good grades, to set myself apart from everyone else, and to achieve tasks that not many do.

Terms: Social Needs, Performance-Avoidance Goals, Fear of Failure, Affiliation and Intimacy, Achievement, Power

Chapter 7 takes us through the environmentally-acquired social needs that further dictate our motivated behavior. The chapter begins in a general summary of the two major kinds of “acquired needs” (social and quasi). It goes on to explain that these are not innate needs we are born with, but rather acquired through the environment. We then moved on to further define quasi-needs and social needs. Social needs are further divided into four categories (Achievement, Affiliation, Intimacy, and Power), which the remainder of the chapter talked on. It first discussed achievement, its origins (social, cognitive, developmental), theories on how it works (Atkinson’s Model/Dynamics-of-Action Model, Achievement Goals, Integrative Model), and how your implicit theory of characteristics (entity vs. incremental) affects achievement. It then moves on to cover the needs of Achievement and Intimacy, which it combines due to their similarities, but also to better point out their differences. After discussing their causes and satisfying conditions, the chapter concluded by talking about the need of Power. It discussed the characteristics of those with high power needs, the four telltale conditions that people with high power needs display (Leadership & Relationships, Aggressiveness, Influential Occupations, and Prestige Possessions). The chapter concluded on discussing what makes an effective leader and, by comparison, what makes an effective United States President.

The most surprising thing the chapter touched on was the social need of Achievement. Considering it comprised a good amount of the chapter, there was quite an abundance to learn about during this reading. However, to focus down a bit, I believe the most interesting is the Implicit Theory discussion.

As a brief reminder so it doesn’t look like I’m just throwing words on a page (especially now since it is confirmed that the TA’s do, in fact, read my posts), Implicit Theories are internal thoughts that people have about their own personal qualities (IE: Intelligence, competency). There are two types of implicit theories, entity and incremental. Entity theory is the theory that people are born with fixed and enduring characteristics that are impossible to change. Incremental theory is the theory that those characteristics are malleable, and that the right amount of effort will change your characteristics for the better. Since, if you’re reading this far, I assume you’ve also read the Chapter 6 Blog that I posted last week, you’ll remember I’m a bit of a pessimist. As such, I’m certain you can guess which theory I subscribe to.

While the chapter did give me much to think about regarding my own personal cognitions, I still believe that I fully adhere to the entity theory. We have a set potential that we live up to, live our lives with it, and then off we go. Our ability to learn is not due to effort, it’s because we merely had that within us just waiting to be used. For example, my writing style. Around middle school, my writing style began to take the form that it is now. However, around Junior year of high school, it stalled out and has since remained constant. I hit my natural limit, my predisposition for writing.

Despite my arguments though, I cannot deny that this chapter is correct. I do happen to take a rather performance-oriented achievement goal approach. Other people’s opinions terrify me, mainly because I was raised in a rather “gossipy” world, so opinions were everything. As such, the performance is a performance. I use these opportunities to show off my desirable traits, I’m a showman. Like my roommates tell me, “Max, sometimes you need to stop caring. We already know you’re smart, yet you always act like you have something to prove.” I assure you it was more profanity-filled than that, but I’m not going to subject my fine readers to Adam and Ryan’s lovely vernacular. Profanity and pride aside, it hurt that they were correct because I didn’t want to prove anything, but that’s just the way my life is. From one show to the next, every paper a performance, every conversation a stage play with an improvised script. However, before this gets too long and too philosophical, perhaps we best move on.

For my Achievement Need, I would rate myself as a Medium. I have a strong urge to feel competent, and as I said previously in Chapter 6, I suffer from an incompetent cognition. As such, though I feel the need, that desire to achieve, my fear of failure often gets in the way. As the Integrated Model of Achievement Behavior states, to truly succeed and to feel the positivity of achievement, you must choose the Mastery Goal approach to task completion. However, to choose this approach, one must hold the correct motivation and perceived competency for doing so. One must also not allow fear of failure to override the other two, which I often due, partially because, 1) I’m usually hard to motivate to perform, and 2) I perceive myself as incompetent. This makes fear of failure the strongest by default, leading to either Performance-approach goal or Performance-avoidance goal-oriented behavior.

As for my Affiliation Need, I would rate myself as a High. The fear of rejection also dictates my life greatly, as Affiliation is a deficit need that seeks to avoid negative feelings such as loneliness and rejection. As such, I became a people pleaser. To quote Adam (roommate) once more, “You can’t just become a rug Max, otherwise people’ll just walk all over you.” This time, he was being genuine and not as many profanities were used, so this is closer to a direct quote than the prior one. While I hopefully don’t come across as “needy” or “clingy,” I seek to ensure that everyone feels happy when they are around me, perhaps as some subconscious way of making them attribute their happy feelings to me (Thank you Freud). And when people get genuinely upset with me, I overcorrect like no one’s business. I emotionally recede immediately and begin to try and bridge the gap as soon as possible. That feeling of the rejection eats away at my heart like no other feeling I’d ever care to feel. It feels like that guy from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom who reached in and physically pulled a man’s heart from his chest.

My Intimacy Need, therefore, is also very high. Because I want to be attributed with good feelings, I want my relationships to be warm, reciprocal, and enjoyable. I want people to think of me as the nice guy, because it makes me feel better. For example, I earned the lovely nickname “Lurker” because I have a bad habit of eavesdropping. I only do this out of love though, as I am usually waiting for a part of the conversation that I could possibly jump in on and further connect with the speakers.

The Need of Power I do not have in any way, if there was a “No” option here, I would say it. However, because there is no “No,” I’m forced to say Low. I personally feel we all are endowed with some form of free will, and that forcing my own onto other is wrong. I’ll gladly help whomever asks me for it, but I would never force my own problems or directions or ideas onto others. If prompted, I will say them, but I would never force my way into conversation just to ensure that everyone could visually notice me and take my opinions into account. If there was one part to attribute the power need to me, perhaps it would be the influencing aspect. I like to be a positive influence, and I occasionally use this influence to “friend hop,” where the friends of friends ask to meet me because my current friends have such good things to say about me. However, this works out for the best, as the chapter also states that to be in power means to be a leader, and to be an effective leader (The Leadership Motive Pattern section, Pg. 198) one must have a low Affiliation/Intimacy Need. Also, I lack the aggression, desire for influential occupations, and “prestige possessions” that are associated with High Power Need individuals.

Finally, I’d like to touch back on the “Lurker” portion of the Intimacy Need section for my specific behaviors. I’m going to, once again, reference my lovely roommates, who have essentially become my guinea pigs for psychological study, especially in terms of social phenomenon. For the fist three weeks, we never said a word to one another. They had begun classes halfway through the semester, so I came back to ROTH after winter break to find two more names on my door. They seemed nice enough, didn’t spread out, didn’t move around any of my things. However, we just didn’t communicate. I should state that neither of them has a very high intimacy need, or at least they do not show it. I, however, wear my heart on my sleeve, so the lack of warmth in the “friendship” was absolutely killing me. So, I began to sit out in our common space while they sat in their room. From there, I could hear every conversation they had, and would wait for the correct moments to strike. It was a slow start, but like a vulture waiting for an exhausted animal to collapse (Great analogy, I know), my patience paid off. I should point out that this treatment started in the second week, and by the fourth week, we were eating at the Piazza together and regularly hanging out on the weekends. Confessions were made, feelings were shared, and I finally received that satisfaction that warm, reciprocal relationships give you in satisfying the Intimacy Need. Also, the “Lurker” nickname was given to me by Adam because he was the first to catch on that I was eavesdropping in the living room.

Terms Used:
Quasi-Needs – Pg. 173
Social Needs – Pg. 174
Achievement – Pg. 175
Atkinson’s Model of Achievement Behavior – Pg. 178
Dynamics-of-Action Model – Pg. 180
Achievement Goals Model – Pg. 183
Mastery Goals – Pg. 183
Performance Goals – Pg.183
Integrated Model of Achievement Behavior – Pg. 184
Performance-Approach/-Avoidance Goals – Pg. 185
Implicit Theory – Pg. 189
Entity Theory – Pg. 189
Incremental Theory – Pg. 189
Affiliation – Pg. 192
Intimacy – Pg. 192
Power – Pg. 195
Leadership Motive Pattern – Pg. 198
Prestige Possessions – Pg. 198

Chapter 7 is a chapter that focuses on the various social needs ( Achievement, Affiliation, Intimacy, Power) and what those various social needs look like. There are four social needs and they are achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. All of these coincide with each other in our everyday lives to make up our social needs that we have as humans.

The most surprising thing I learned in Chapter 7 was the tendency to avoid failure. According to the textbook Understanding Motivation and Emotion the tendency to avoid failure is , “ The tendency to avoid failure motivates the individual to defend against the loss of self-esteem, the loss of social respect, and the fear of embarrassment.” (Reeve 2009, pg 179). I thought this was interesting because I didn’t know as humans we have this need to avoid failure. I know that I personally do not mind failure because it allows room for me to grow in the future but the I never really saw failure being this thing that could damage self-esteem, social respect, and make the individual overall feel embarrassed.

If I had to rate myself as high, medium, low, on the various social needs, my ratings would be high in both affiliation and intimacy, medium on achievement and low on power. I say I would be high in power because according to the textbook it refers to power is having impact on others. I find that I like to be associated with others and make others happy over myself and get approval from them to make sure I am doing the right things to make them happy and leave an impact. I also would say that I am high in intimacy because I really try to keep warm, happy, a secure friendships and relationships. I try really hard to keep my friendships but more specifically my relationship with my fiance really close, secure, and mutual. These social needs manifest in my life by affecting how I treat my friends, family, and partner. I try really hard, sometimes way to hard of being warm and overbearing so I do not lose friendships but that in the end could just make things worse. So I think it is a blessing and a curse. I would say that I am medium on the social need of achievement. Achievement in my understanding is doing something to show that I am capable of interacting with my environment. I would say that this is medium because while I like achieving things and getting things done in my environment, it isn’t as high as my need to have social interaction and friendships with other people. This level of social need manifests in my life because I feel good when I complete something such as this paper or any paper for classes I am taking this semester. By writing this paper I am showing that I am interacting with my learning environment by writing about things I have learned. The last and lowest social need I have is affiliation. Affiliation is this need to please others and gain their approval. This is my lowest because I do not feel the need to please others because I don’t feel the need to have others approval. This while it is the lowest of my social needs it does tend to creep into my life. Sometimes when it comes to my gender identity I feel that I need to put myself in a box so I can be approved of others, but other than that I do not see much need for affiliation.

One social need that motivates me most of the time is power. Power again is that having impact on others. I find this motivates a lot of my behaviors because a lot of my friends and fellow people of the LGBTQ* community come to me to talk about things in hopes that I can help solve their problems that arise. So my behavior by giving them the help they seek can influence the way that they act if they choose to take my advice.

Terms
Social Needs
Failure Tolerance
Achievement
Affiliation
Intimacy
Power

This chapter focused on categories of acquired psychological needs: social needs and quasi-needs. Quasi-needs are ephemeral, situationally induced wants that create tense energy to engage in behavior capable of reducing the built-up tension. These kind of needs originate from situational demands and pressures. Social needs are an acquired psychological process that grow out of one’s socialization history that activates emotional responses to a particular need-relevant incentive.
Need for achievement is one of the main social needs. This need is the desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence. A standard of excellence is any challenge to a person’s sense of competence that ends with an objective outcome of success versus failure, win versus lose, or right versus wrong. I would say that I have a high need for achievement. Like I have mentioned in previous posts, I have certain goals for myself when it comes to school and achieving those goals means a lot to me, so that would be how this need manifests its way into my life. The book mentions that all types of achievement situations have in common is that they person who encountered a standard of excellence and has been energized by it, largely because they know that the forthcoming performance will produce an emotionally meaningful evaluation of personal competence. This would explain why I also have a high competence as well.
Need for affiliation and intimacy is the need to engage in warm, close, positive relations (intimacy need), and the anxious need to establish, maintain, and restore interpersonal relations (affiliation need). I would say that I have a medium need for affiliation and intimacy. I do strive for those close and warm relationships, but when I have them I am very anxious all the time because I have such a low self-esteem, so that would be how this manifests its way into my life. I can definitely see how this need has positive and negative aspects.
Need for power is a desire to make the physical and social world conform to one’s personal image or plan for it. People with a high need for power desire to have impact, control, and influence over another person, group, or the world at large. I would say that I have a low need for power. I think that people have the right to be in control of their own lives because then they are responsible for the outcomes that come into play. The only what I can see that manifesting its way into my life would be with my dog. I am trying to train her right now and I obviously try to assert a type of power over her.
If I were to discuss one social need and how it motivates my behavior, I would have to choose the need for achievement just because I am highest in that need over the others. Because I have the goal of getting straight A’s, this needs to achieve these grades motivates me to study more and harder. It motivates me to actually complete the readings for class and take my own notes so I have a better understanding of the information.
The most surprising thing that I learned in this chapter was that there is a need for power. I know that some people want power and they strive for it, but I didn’t know that it was actually a common social need that people have. During negotiations, high power individuals are more likely to express anger, and in this strategy often gets them what they want, largely because they are seen as tough negotiators who win concessions from others. This seems like a need that a lot of country leaders might have, especially in communist areas.

Terms: need for achievement, power, affiliation and intimacy, motivation, social needs, quasi-needs

Chapter 7 talks about acquired psychological needs which include quasi-needs and social needs. Quasi-needs are “situationally induced wants and desires” and affects “how we think, feel, and act” (Reeves, 173). Social needs are “acquired psychological process that grows out of one’s socialization history that activates emotional responses to a particular need-relevant incentive” (Reeves, 173). There are 3 social needs achievement, affiliation and intimacy, and power.
I thought that the section “Achievement for the Future” was the most interesting part of this chapter. One reason I liked this section is because it shows how important future achievement goals can be on achieving present goals. Being a sports fan, I instantly thought of many different great athletes that use future achievement orientation. One example comes from LeBron James. One of my favorite quotes of his is when he said “I have short goals, to get better every day, to help my teammates every day, but my only ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship. It's all that matters. I dream about it. I dream about it all the time, how it would look, how it would feel. I would be amazing” (Brainy Quotes). LeBron’s future achievement strivings is to win NBA championships and by focusing on the improvements of himself and his teammates will allow his team to have the best chance to reach the NBA Finals and compete for the championship trophy.
I would say my achievement level is medium. When it comes to competition I have am in the middle of high-need-achieving and low-need-achieving depending on the task or skill that I am using. When it comes to the classroom I follow more into the low-need-achieving because even when I must do an assignment or am taking an exam and am prepared to do well, I tend to feel a certain level of anxiety or avoidance when it comes to competition evaluation. When it comes to mastery and performance goals I feel like the achievement goal style I have adopted is performance goals. I don’t mind taking on challenging tasks where I can learn from but have typically preferred easier tasks in which I can show my high ability. When it comes to learning strategies, I have learned more into memorizing than relating information to existing knowledge. Although I feel that I have adopted performance goals I also have adopted some mastery goals. I am more intrinsically motivated than extrinsically motivated and whenever I am faced with a problem I usually look for help or information from others to continue to work on my own.
I would say my affiliation and intimacy level are both high. The textbook says that “the need for affiliation is rooted in a fear of interpersonal rejection” (Reeves, 192). I have always had dealt with a certain level of anxiety and because of my anxiety I have experienced the fear of creating negative emotions within my relationships. I have always valued experiencing “warm, close, and communicative exchange with another person” and when there are times when I haven’t seen or heard from some of my friends in a while I feel a sense of loneliness. When I feel loneliness, I am always trying to find people to talk to or be with and have came off as “needy”. I have felt at times not good enough for people due to feeling social isolation. Although I have experienced anxiety and loneliness when it comes to friendship I am very good at establishing interpersonal networks. I have always valued my ability to meet new people and “initiate new friendships”. I love spending time interacting with people and forming long-lasting relationships and get a sense of satisfaction when the relationships become more stable or personal.
I would say that my power level is low. I feel like a have desire to “impact, control, or influence” people, groups, or the world, but it I don’t have the level of desire as people with a high-power-need. I think I main reason my desire isn’t high is because I don’t strive to “establish, maintain, or expand/restore power” (Reeves, 195). Instead of seeking to become a leader that “interacts with others with a forceful, take-charge style” I would rather be a leader if needed, but a team member that follows a leader, but I am not afraid to take-charge in a task and enjoy being in charge of a group project. Although I am more of a low-power achiever, if someone asked me to recall peak experiences in my life I would recall events that were “associated with strong positive emotions that occurred because of my impact on others. An example is when I tried out for chamber choir and I looked the opposite way from the class because I was nervous. When I turned around everyone applauded and told me that I did an amazing job. I experienced an elevated level of positive emotions after that tryout and that motivated my need for power and achievement in choir for the next 3 years.
Social Needs
Quasi-Needs
Achievement
Affiliation
Intimacy
Power
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/lebron_james

In this chapter, we discuss acquired needs. Acquired needs can be broken down into two categories: quasi-needs and social needs. Quasi-needs are the desires that arise due to something situational. These desires often go away with time or go away once satisfied. On the other hand, social needs are a bit more in depth. Social Needs can be broken down into four ideas: achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. Achievement is one's desire to do well, relative to the standard of excellence. The standard of excellence is more or less subjective to the person seeking achievement. Affiliation is the desire to feel accepted, the desire to please those around you. While intimacy is the reflection of one's emotions and feelings, the deep stuff. Power is the desire to have people conform to your wishes, to impact someone in a way that is your own.

The most interesting thing I learned in this chapter was the difference between classical and contemporary achievement and Atkinson's model of achievement. Classical view on achievement is when someone achieves something out of fear that they will fail. Achieving in order to avoid failing simply put. Contemporary achievement is different though, in that it revolves more around the mastery of a skill. The contemporary view requires persistence after failing, and learning from your mistakes. The idea that there are two completely different reasons for why a person accomplishes something is perplexing to me. It makes me wonder how often I achieved something because I didn't want to fail, or somebody else didn't want me to fail and I did it for them. It also makes me pick out the various things in my life that I achieved through perseverance and dedication, and because it just meant a lot to me.

If I were to rank myself on these 4 social needs. I would start with a high sense of achievement. I have a high sense of achievement because of pride mainly, which isn't a very good reason. I enjoy achieving things because it reflects well on me and makes me feel good when my work culminates and pays off. When I go too long without feeling a sense of achievement I can slip into a funk where I get lazy and a little down. I think meeting a high sense of achievement is very important in someone's mental health and that everyone should work towards something every day. Affiliation is probably medium to high for me. I enjoy socializing very much it makes me feel really good to have conversations with friends and be around people. I'm not a person who thrives while isolated very long. I feel independent as if I can take care of myself, but at the same time being around people reduces the stresses of the day drastically. When it comes to intimacy I would say I'm at a medium level. I have only had a few very meaningful relationships with people in my adult life that haven't been with family members. I don't really feel the need to vent my emotions to people and have them reciprocate it. In fact sometimes people approach me with their feelings and in a way I sort of reject them, in that I don't follow up with my feelings. That's not to say I don't have a need for intimacy because without the relationships I have with my parents I don't know who I'd talk to about how I'm feeling. I have had a few close friends that we reciprocated emotion, but even then it certainly isn't an everyday thing. Lastly I would say I have a medium level of need for power as well. When it comes to making people conform to how you want them to act, I don't really have much of a desire. However, with some exceptions. I have a 14 year old sister who I don't control how she acts, but I will intervene and say something to her if I think she's going to do something she'll regret. My need for power I guess could more be summed up in that I want to impact people's lives. I would like to leave my impression on those around me.

The need for achievement is very obvious in me. I play golf here at UNI and it is apparent that I am very competitive. Achievement and winning in something I love is what I spend all the hours practicing and training for. I do not enjoy the training aspect for the most part, but the thrill of achievement is enough to keep me working hard.

Terms:
Quasi-needs
Social Needs
Achievement
Affiliation
Intimacy
Power
Effort(Contemporary/Classical Views)
Acquired Needs

Chapter 7 focused on social needs for every individual. This chapter gave insight to to what social needs consists of, preferences gained through experience, socialization, and development. Social needs as acquired needs, unlike the previous chapters. Social needs can be divided into four sub categories, including achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. All of these will go together to make our everyday lives through social needs. Need for achievement was discussed in chapter 7 as the desire to do well on a standard of excellence. It explained that a desire of excellence is anything that is a challenge to an individual’s sense of competence. I believe that I would rank high on achievement, whether it be school, sports, or anything that involves success or failure. I think that achievement is definitely gained through our environment. I have seen this personally, being that I grew up in a very competitive grade, everyone always wanted to be the best at everything from grades to sports. When I was surrounded by others that wanted to have success I did as well. I then look at my older brother’s grade and he did not have as many people who were competitive, and he was average in school as well as sports etc. This chapter also discusses the need for affiliation and intimacy, being in close and positive relationships and restoring interpersonal relations. I think that I would also rank high in both of these as well. I am super close with my family and have a strong need to have them in my life. I often will go home because I miss them, or because I want to watch my little brother’s High School sports. I have an older brother who lives in Maryland and it is hard for me because I do have a need for relationships with others. I also am engaged so that is another close relationship that I have. Power is the one social need that I would rank myself lower on, even though I do not think I rank super low. The book explains that power is the desire to have control, influence, and impact on everything and everyone around an individual. I believe that for the most part I only try to control my own life and I am pretty relaxed about what others are doing. I do not try and tell people how to live their life and I try not to be judgmental about their decisions. The only person that I may show power and the want to have control of are with my finance and I. I want to have a plan and know what we will be doing, I do not like going with the flow I am a very scheduled person. If I were going to to pick one of these social needs that influences my life the most I would pick achievement. I am always wanting to do good on whatever I am doing, and it is what controls my life. I think that ranking high on achievement can be very good but it can also be bad. I know that sometimes I get overwhelmed by the amount of pressure I put on myself to do good on everything. I found a lot to be interesting but the fact that some people’s qualities do not change over their life was crazy. Entity theorist believe that there is little to no change over an individuals lifetime. I am not sure how I feel on this theory because I feel that I have changed a lot already, but then again my personality traits are still there. When I think of this I think of someone who is outgoing is usually always going to be outgoing. Overall this chapter was interesting and can relate to everyone!

Terms:
Socialization
Achievement
Affiliation
Intimacy
Power
Rank
Entity theorist

Chapter seven of the textbook discussed the social needs that individua strive to satisfy. The four type of social needs discussed in this chapter are: Achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. It is interesting to note the manner in which these four types of social needs affect the motivation of individuals.

The first social need known as achievement is defined as the desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence. This social need is split into two types of individuals known as approach-oriented and avoidance-oriented people. Approach-oriented individuals have a high sense of achievement which is why they respond with positive emotions such as hope and pride while individuals with low sense of achievement tend to respond with negative emotions such as fear of failure and anxiety. An example of an approach-oriented individual is when they are provided with an opportunity to express their knowledge or skill in front of an audience or crowd. These type of individuals have a high desire to demonstrate their skills and as a result are motivated to perform to the best of their abilities. Using the same scenario, avoidance-oriented individuals will have a sense of fear or anxiety due to their belief that they may embarrass themselves in front of an immense crowd. Entrepreneur and athletes are perfect examples of individuals with high achievement needs. The desire to demonstrate a knowledge or skill to an audience or company is pivotal in order to attain a positive reinforcement.

The second and third type of social needs are known as affiliation and intimacy. These two social needs are grouped together because of the fact that they share similar attributes. Affiliation and intimacy are described as a desire to belong or to establish a relationship with a group, peers, or significant other. This chapter described that many people have a fear of loneliness or the desire to belong to a certain group. Individuals who have a high need of affiliation and intimacy typically experience anxiety due to the fact that they desperately want to make a connection with a group or with another person. The desire to be accepted drastically effects the manner in which they communicate with others. An example of this can be when someone is in a group setting and they desperately try to keep a conversation going and as a result may disrupt the flow of the conversation. People with high affiliation and intimacy needs may come across as needy which may be a detriment to fulfilling this type of social need.

The final social need discussed in this chapter is known as power. Power is defined as the desire to make the physical and social world conform to one’s personal image or plan. This social desire is split into three different categories known as: impact, control, and influence. Individuals with high power needs typically have a desire to establish a form of dominance. An example of this is when an individual wants to take a leadership role in a company or organization. Leadership roles allow someone the opportunity to attain a level of power that satisfies their needs. Leaders of companies or organizations are provided with an opportunity to establish dominance, control their environment to an extent, and are able to influence others to listen to their opinions and beliefs. Chapter 7 explains how negative connotations may arise when the desire for power is not met. People may act in aggressive manners in order to attempt and establish a form of dominance and attain the power they desire. Although aggressiveness may at times provide a sense of power, it may also result in negative outcomes such as destroyed relationships and abuse of drugs and alcohol.

My rating for social needs vary depending on the category. My rating on power is at a medium level due to the fact that at times I may want to have power in situations such as group project and team events. However, this social need is not a high priority in my life. My rating of intimacy and affiliation would also be at a medium level. I currently have established relationships with friends and my significant other and believe that this social need is being met. The one social need I believe plays a big role in my life is achievement. I constantly desire to prove my skills in competitions and in the classroom. I have a very high competitive nature and believe that it influences and motivates me to prove my skills when provided with an opportunity.

Terms:
-social needs
-achievement
-affiliation
-intimacy
-power
-failure
-approach-oriented
-avoidance-oriented
-leadership

Chapter 7 was all about human’s social needs and how these needs motivate our behaviors. The chapter began by describing social needs and quasi-needs as two separate categories of acquired psychological needs. Both of these needs have social origins rather than innate origins, meaning they form based on experiences and development within the environment a person is raised in instead of being needs that a person is born in possession of. Quasi-needs can be defined as the situationally induced wants that motivate our behavior, such as the want for a band aid when a person is bleeding or the want of an umbrella when it is raining. These are more of wants that actual needs that a human must satisfy for growth and survival, therefore they are referred to as quasi-needs. The reflect true needs in the way that they motivate our behavior and affect how we think and feel; therefore, they are included in Chapter 7 because of their resemblance to true needs.
Regarding the second category of social needs, there are four main needs within the category. These main needs are the need for achievement, the need for affiliation, the need for intimacy, and the need for power. With the need for achievement, a person has a strong desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence. This standard of excellence is measured by any challenge to a person’s sense of competence with the outcome of success. Strong needs for achievement can be created within children who have parents that provide independence training, high performance aspirations, realistic standards of excellence, high ability of self-concepts, and more.
The next main social need is the need for affiliation and intimacy. These two social needs can be somewhat related, as they both have to do with social interactions and relationships. The difference between the two is that affiliation needs are more deficiency-oriented motivations focused on the lack of social interactions, while the intimacy need is a growth-oriented motive that is focused on enriching one’s relationships. When a person is high in the need for affiliation, it is surprising to find that they are often a person who is less popular than someone who has a low need for affiliation. People who are high in this need are perceived as needy by others. People who are high in the need for intimacy are associated with characteristics such as active listening, self-disclosure, and frequent conversations. These people care about the relationships they are in and developing them deeper.
Power is the last main social need discussed in the chapter. This need expresses itself in people as the desire to have control, influence, and impact over others. They are often found in leadership positions because of their control-taking style and assertiveness.
The most surprising and interesting thing I learned in this chapter was the difference between the need for intimacy and the need for affiliation and how they differ. It was surprising to see the differences in individuals and how they are perceived when they have different levels of these needs. If I had to rate myself on the four main social needs, I would say I am medium in power, low in affiliation, high in intimacy, and high in achievement. I know I take a leadership-style of assertiveness in aspects of my life such as school and group projects, so I believe I am a medium with the power need. I believe I am low in affiliation because I do not need to approval or acceptance of others to be happy or satisfied. I would also rate myself as high in intimacy because I care about the depth of my relationships and self-disclosure is an important aspect of that. I rated myself as high in achievement because I have both performance and mastery goals in my life, especially in my education. Specifically the need for intimacy motivates my behaviors in the way of my interactions with old and new friends. I actively listen to what my friends are telling me, and often ask questions that evoke deeper self-disclosure to help develop those old friendships deeper as well as increase the closeness of newer friendships.

Terms:
Social needs
Quasi-needs
Achievement
Affiliation
Intimacy
Deficiency-oriented motives
Growth-oriented motives
Power
Performance goals
Mastery goals

Chapter 7 talks about social needs. There are four of these, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. Achievement is the desire to do well. Achievement has two subcategories, approach-oriented, and avoidance oriented. Approach oriented individuals are those who have a high sense of achievement and respond with positive emotions while those with low sense of achievement respond to things with a negative response. Positive emotions would be like pride, and negative emotions would be something like having fear or anxiety. Approach oriented people when provided with an opportunity show that they have skills. Avoidance oriented people have fear or anxiety because they believe they will mess up and fear embarrassment. Next we have affiliation which goes along very closely with intimacy. These both explain the desire to belong or have relationships with other people. This could be intimate relationships or just friendships. We learned during this chapter that there are many individuals who fear being alone and feel the need to have a relationship with a person or group of people. Those who have a high need for affiliation and intimacy tend to show fear because they need and want to be with people. They need feel as though they are accepted and not an outcast. They are highly dependent on these relationships. Lastly there is power, which is when you want to make the physical and the social world look like your personal image. This can be seen most in leadership roles, these type of people have a plan for how they think things should look or be and they go about a way in doing this to where they can get others on board an to go along with their plan that they have already made up in their own mind.
Atkinson’s model of achievement was also discussed in this chapter. This model shows two views, classical and contemporary. Classical says that a person is ore likely to achieve a goal if their approach is greater than their tendency to avoid something in fear of failure. Contemporary looks into performance and mastery goals. Another point discussed in this chapter was implicit theories which contain people who think their personal qualities are fixed and those who thing their personal qualities can be increased through effort. These are known as entity theorists and incremental theorists.
I personally have a medium rank of achievement; I like to be challenged but when it becomes too much I often back down. This is either in fear of failing or it can be laziness as well. When I succeed at a challenge I do feel good about it, but not as great as others feel. I often find it easy to move on to the next thing. An example could be I always like to apply for leadership roles in anything that I am apart of, once I get these I think to myself “that was challenging but now its over” I don’t reflect on how hard it actually was and how luck I am to be apart of that role. When it comes to affiliation and intimacy I am quite high, I am very high. I need other people and I depend on other people a lot. I love being in a relationship knowing I always have someone to confide in. I also love having my very close friendships for the same purpose. Power I am on the low end, I often do not like to be the leader or think that I have a specific plan that I feel is correct or superior. I think I have a high level of anxiety when I try to reach for the higher end of the scale. I think the most surprising thing was learning we are not all born with these needs, they come with experience and are situational. Its crazy to think that we can all differ so much on something so basic and simple.

Terms used
Social Needs
Affiliation
Intimacy
Power
Achievement
Classical and contemporary
Psychological needs

Chapter 7 is the focus on needs when it comes to the social aspect of life and some of the topics that were covered were quasi-needs, and social needs and why we do what we do when it comes to relationships with people and being social with people in general. The first big one mentioned is quasi-needs and as mentioned in the book these are needs that we as humans don’t ultimate need but when around them or influenced by them we think we need them. Something that I thought of right after reading this was when it comes to eating food with friends there will be times in which I’m not really hungry but if other people are eating food I all of the sudden feel the need to eat as well. This also made me think of one time that really stuck out dealing with friends and being social and feeling the need to fit in when my friends were all allowed to go swimming somewhere that was illegal and they wanted me to come so they told me to turn my tracker on my phone off so that my parents wouldn’t even know where I was and the social need to fit in with my friends was so high that I thought I needed to turn my tracker off and go against what my parents said in order to fit in. That for me was for sure a social need since it was in the moment and for that situation I felt it was needed to go against my parents and fit in with my friend group. Social needs I feel are ones that everyone really goes though when it is around the junior high teen years because they want to fit in with certain groups is so high and kids can be so rude and with today’s social media world and friends’ preferences and thoughts it can really effect a person. Social needs can also play a large role when it comes to motivating certain behaviors. For me in my teen years my social needs lead me down some paths I should not have traveled because I wanted to be like my friends and everyone else. We as humans also have senses that help us such as positive and negative feedback when it comes to social needs we learn based on what is around us and what we either receive or don’t receive from around us which makes us either keep doing something or find a point in which we stop. Just like the social need for behavior there is also the social need for achievement. The need for achievement can be different for each person some people may have a higher drive for achievement while others of us not so much. Some of the drive for achievement can come from parents or family life or also peers around us. The drive for achievement is what makes us accomplish what we do in life such as going to school, having jobs etc. Although many people need those things to pay for life and get jobs we also have the drive to go and do something within our lives. Another thing that gives us the drive for keeping jobs, or doing homework or getting places in life is the competition and tasks that come up in our lives. Having other peers around us at jobs and schools are what pushes us to keep going and bettering ourselves.

Terms:
Quasi-needs
Social needs
Motivating behavior
Achievement

Chapter 7 concisely talked about social needs and how these needs are important for all of us. It went into details of talking about quasi needs. Quasi needs can be defined as a need based on intent or purpose and not on a deficit of essential biological nature. The chapter also talked about three other important topics that include, achievement, affiliation and intimacy and power. This chapter taught us that why these needs are important. Not only that, how they originate and what things that we all do same/differently to fulfill these needs.

As we all grow up, we are told by our elders to make an effort to achieve whatever you want. In this chapter what I found most interesting was how the word “effort” is defined. For me personally, I have always thought that “effort” has only positive and definite meanings. But, the chapter talked about many theorists who observe this a lot different than each other. A perfect example of this would be what’s mentioned in the chapter is “the more you try, the dumber you therefore must be”. This phrase was definitely so complicated for me to understand at first because aren’t we all told to try harder and keep trying no matter what? I think this is a point that can play a role in demotivating someone. Because instead of being supportive and motivating someone to reach their goal no matter how hard they have to work, this phrase is pretty much saying that don’t try many times unless you want to look dumb (if you don’t get it the first couple of times). I personally support believe in the other theory that states “more you try, more you learn”. I personally think that effort should be encouraged enough to motivate people to achieve their goals that they want to regardless how difficult something is.

Moreover, the first need that chapter talks about is achievement. The need for achievement is the eagerness to do well relative to a standard of excellence. I could relate to this very well. I grew up in an educated family. I was always surrounded by people with medical professions. I was so encouraged and motivated to see them around that inspired me to do well in school. Another important aspect would be the cognitive influence. Cognitive influence can be defined as one’s ability to tell themselves that they can perform a certain task and their capability to be approachable and impartial. I personally like being challenged. We all have heard phrases like ‘tell me I can’t do something and I will work twice as hard to prove you wrong”. This has been the biggest motivator in my life I must say. I have always told by many people that I can’t do this or that, and not to brag, I have always proved them wrong because I know, the track I am currently taking, is the road to success and pleasure.

The next point that book talked about is the affiliation and intimacy. I definitely feel that I have low affiliation because I don’t chase or beg people to stay in my life because “it would make me happy” or if someone has an opinion about me or my lifestyle, that is absolutely not my concern because no one really knows what we all come from, what are some of the obstacles we been through and why are the way we are. I believe in “you can’t please anyone. The best thing to do is believe in yourself and do what you think is right for you”. Next, is intimacy. I would say my intimacy level is definitely high. I really enjoy the company of people who are very close to me. This include being around my friends and family because this is something I genuinely care about. Also, I would do anything to make sure that I am always there for them whenever they need me and make sure that they are happy.

The final main point that the chapter talks about is power. Power can be defined as the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality. I would say that my power level is medium. I know you can’t really change someone or tell someone to follow your way, but you can always encourage them to the right way. I’ve never really asked someone to follow what I do, but I always tell others the positive reasons to follow something that I am following. However, I feel pleasure when I help someone, which is a facet of power. This is something I really enjoy doing. I volunteer at Sartori Hospital and it truly makes me happy when I assist others in every way I can. Moreover, this knowledge is something that I could apply to my future profession. I want to go to medical school and become a physician or an OB/Gyn. I will be able to apply my expertise when I am dealing with patients and helping and encourage them to do certain things that will help them get better.

In conclusion, achievement is the need I can mostly relate to because I am working towards getting a medical degree and I think of everything as a challenge. We all do something that is wrongful and improper to someone but, we still have to do this in order to achieve our goals and reach our destiny. There are many challenges I have to overcome and deal with many obstacles to achieve something. That’s what’s a challenge to me.

Term Used:
Intimacy
Motivation
Achievement
Quasi need
Effort
Achieving goals
Power

Chapter 7 talked about the social needs that we have as humans: achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. We as humans obtain knowledge about our social needs through experience and this helps us in choosing future environments in which to place ourselves. Achievement is the desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence and a standard of excellence is any challenge to a person’s sense of competence that ends with an objective outcome of success versus failure, win versus lose, or right verses wrong, I would rate myself at a high. When trying to figure out the origins of the need for achievement, it started as observing children and their parents’ styles when raising them and then studying them again once they get into early adulthood. they found out that their findings were only partly successful because they found that achievement strivings can change from childhood to adulthood as well as from decade to decade. There are different ways of thinking that help influence things such as hope, pride, persistence, and things of the like. Next the chapter talked about Atkinson’s Model. Atkinson’s model had two different theories. Theories 1 was the classical view. The classical view is Atkinson’s model for achievement behavior. This includes the dynamics-of-action model which is a model that states that achievement behavior occurs within a stream of ongoing behavior determined by instigation, inhibition, and consummation. Instigation is anything that cultivates an increased hope for success. Inhibition is anything that cultivates an increased fear of failure. Consummation states that performing an activity brings about its own stop. The second theory of Atkinson’s Model is the contemporary view which is a cognitive approach that centers on the goals people adopt in achievement situations. Atkinson’s Model can be expressed by the formula: Ts = Ms x Ps x Is. Atkinson’s Model states that achievement behavior can be defined as the tendency to approach success (Ts). Ms is a person’s need for an achievement, Ps is the perceived difficulty of a task, and Is is the incentive for success. There is also an equation for a person’s tendency to avoid failure. This equation can be expressed as: Taf = Maf x Pf x If
Taf is the tendency to avoid failure, Maf is the motive to avoid failure, Pf is the probability of failure, and If is the negative incentive value of failure. These two tendency equations can be combined to make the equation:
Ta = Ts – Taf =(Ms x Ps x Is) – (Maf x Pf x If)
Where all variables are the same as listed above with the addition of a which is the tendency to achieve. Within an achievement situation one can have up to three different types of goals in order to satisfy the social need of achievement. These goals are performance approach which is predicted by ones need for achievement. Performance avoidance goals are predicted by one’s fear of failure. Mastery goals are predicted by one’s competency expectancies. Following this the chapter begins to talk about implicit theories which have different views on he people feel about their personal qualities. Entity theorists think that people’s qualities are fixed whereas incremental theorists believe that some qualities can be increased. Affiliation can be conceptualized as establishing, maintaining, or restoring a positive, affective relationship with another person or persons. Affiliation and intimacy are paired together in the same section in this chapter. Intimacy can be conceptualized as the willingness to experience a warm, close, and communicative exchange with another person. If you are establishing and maintaining personal relationships then you typically fulfill your intimacy needs at the same time. The essence of the need for power is a desire to make the physical and social world conform to one’s personal image or plan for it. Those that have a high need for power are people that you tend to see in top leadership positions.

The most surprising thing that I learned was that power-driven men have higher aggression. Alcohol alters our perceptions and it can make us feel more powerful. So, when power-driven men are stressed they tend to drink in order to feel more control and more power over the things in their lives. This is in turn tends to increase this man’s aggression. The mix of alcohol and aggression lead power-driven men to physically abuse their significant others because it makes them feel even more powerful. However, this is not the same case for power-driven women.

Since the need for achievement is the desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence and a standard of excellence is any challenge to a person’s sense of competence that ends with an objective outcome of success versus failure, win versus lose, or right verses wrong, I would rate myself at a high. The reason for this is because I am a very competitive person no matter what the competition is or who it is against. Affiliation can be conceptualized as establishing, maintaining, or restoring a positive, affective relationship with another person or persons. I would rate myself at a high for affiliation. I do not like it when people are mad at me so I try to avoid conflict in order to keep a positive, affective relationship with others. Intimacy can be conceptualized as the willingness to experience a warm, close, and communicative exchange with another person. I would rate my intimacy as high. I do not have tons and tons of friends but I have close and meaningful relationships with each friend that I do have. The essence of the need for power is a desire to make the physical and social world conform to one’s personal image or plan for it. I would rate my self t a medium for power. There are times were I like to be in control and then there are other times when I could care less what is going on.

Achievement manifests itself in my life in the form of competition. I am very competitive. When I have classes with friends I always want to do better than them in the class. When I coach I do not want my team to lose because I cannot stand losing. Affiliation manifests itself in my life in the form of conflict avoidance or conflict resolution. I do not like when people are mad at me. If I have the chance to avoid conflict I will and if I cannot avoid the conflict I am usually the one to apologize or to reach out and fix things in order for there to not be tension between me and other people anymore. Power manifests itself in my life in the form of being in control. I like to be in control when working in groups with people that I know and feel comfortable around or if I am forced to be in a position where I have to be in control such as with coaching. However, when I am a part of something that I do not really care about all that much, I do not care if I am in control. I would rather sit back and let someone else handle the bossiness. And finally, intimacy manifests itself in my life in the form of my personal relationships producing positive affect. Like I stated earlier, I am very close with all of the friends that I have. I would rather have a few deep meaningful relationships than have a ton of superficial relationships where I do not know more than my friends name.

The social need that I chose to discuss is affiliation. My personal level of affiliation motivates me to make myself into a person in which people enjoy. I am constantly making jokes and making people laugh. I like to do nice things for people just so that they may be happy. I value the happiness of others over my own happiness which is a double-edged sword because it tends to cause me to be walked all over from time to time.

Key Terms:
Social needs, achievement, atkinson’s model, tendency to approach success, tendency to avoid failure, dynamics-of-action model, competition, achievement goals, implicit theories, affiliation, intimacy, power

In chapter seven, social needs are discussed in great detail. Two acquired needs, quasi needs and social needs, are both important; however, quasi needs resemble true needs, but they are only temporary needs. Social needs on the other hand are the constant need for achievement, affiliation, and power. Achievement is encouraged because people know if they complete a certain task it will produce an emotionally meaningful evaluation of personal competence (pg. 176). People also have a need to avoid failure because failing may lead to a loss of self esteem and respect from others. Another motive for succeeding and avoiding failure is to gain achievement in the future, such as academic scholarships for earning a 4.0 grade point average in high school. Affiliation, in this chapter, is brought up in the context that people who strive for affiliation are less likely to be popular in school because they appear to be needy, instead of friendly or sociable. Power, the last of the social needs, is described as the desire to make the physical and social world conform to one’s personal image or plan of it (pg. 194).

If I had to rate myself as low, medium, or high for the three social needs I would rate myself as high for achievement and medium for affiliation and power. I have extremely high standards for myself and I dislike failure greatly. As for affiliation, I do not particularly care if I am liked by everyone. I do my best to be kind to everyone but sometimes that is not enough to please people. If I am not liked by everyone, I do not particularly care. And I do not have the strong desire to obtain power in any aspect of my life really. I enjoy being a part of plans and such, but I would prefer if someone else was ultimately in control.
These various social needs manifest in my life in several ways. For example, I received all A’s my freshman year of college, which resulted in me getting a 4.0 grade point average. My sophomore year of college, I received a “B” and I was extremely disappointed in myself. This reflects my need and strong desire for achievement. Affiliation manifests itself in my life because I like when people like me, but it does not ruin my day if they do not like me. Power exemplifies itself in my life for I like to have a say in things; however, I would prefer for someone else to be in control and make important decisions.

Achievement motivates a plethora of my specific behaviors. For example, my desire to maintain a grade point average above a 3.0 is motivated by my desire to meet my own personal standards and for the potential to receive rewards, such as scholarships, in the future. I also push myself physically in dance in order to dance in state and national routines. It is especially prestigious to dance on the stage at a national level, for thousands of people will see me perform; being nationally recognized as a dancer brings me great joy and pride.

TERMS USED
Achievement
Affiliation
Control
Failure
Motivation
Needs
Power
Quasi Needs
Rewards
Self Esteem
Social Needs

Ch 7 covered social needs and their role in motivation. The four social needs are achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. These four sections of needs are what lead us in our social experiences and desires. Together these are what drive us to get into the social situations we like, and avoid the ones we do not.

The most surprising thing to me was the section on effort and its effects on results. Someone with high effort is much more likely to complete a difficult task. High effort is also linked to higher performance, that is if someone with high skill did not put in any effort, but someone with a lower skill and high effort was more likely to complete the task. For college students this is applicable because though some students may not be gifted academically, they are more likely to succeed if they try their best. This is true as well when a gifted student in high school gets to college and struggles, because they are used to putting in no effort.

For achievement I would rate myself as high. Things I spend time on I would like to be rewarded for, whether that be a good grade, a cool project, or just a new skill I have learned. I would rather not spend the time on something if I am never going to learn how to do it, because there are other people who can do it. Time better spent getting better at something I care about, because when you care about something you put in effort and pay more attention to details. I would rather have someone who is emotionally invested working for me than someone who is outright skilled. An example of achievement affecting my life would be my scholarships from high school. I earned them from good grades, but to keep all four years I need to have good grades here too, which motivates me to keep studying.

For affiliation and intimacy I would rate myself a medium. The relationships I have with people are positive ones because at the point I am in negative people can be avoided, that is, I just do not need to talk to them during my day. For a real job I may have to work with them, but for now I can skirt around it. I cheer for my sports teams heavily, and though I would not be the guy fighting another fan in the crowd I feel apart of the community when I am watching the team. When they win I am happy, when they lose I am disappointed. The book talks about interpersonal rejection, which is what causes people to be extroverted and have many friends. I do not have this fear, at least very much because my friend circles are tight but small. Most of them I have known since kindergarten. An example of this in my life would be when someone I hung around in high school with moves away, I do not get worked up because if they want to keep in contact they will.

For power, I would say I am medium. Most people like to have power in some way, especially over the things they care about. I would not want to be the leader of a country, but I would like to own a business or be high up in a company. Of the three listed factors, impact, control, and influence I think impact means the most to me. I would like people to see what I am doing and do the same, rather than boss other people around and tell them what to do. An example of this in my life would be when I help others with hobbies of mine. Hockey players are great about telling the new people some tricks and tips, and I would like to keep that going. When someone is struggling on the ice I would say it feels good for me to see them succeed where they were falling short.

One social need that motivates me greatly is achievement. I come from a racing background and the old saying “If you ain’t first yer last” was said a lot. We always try to get the best out of what we do, and if we do not get the result it does not feel so good. That being said when in defeat it only motivates us to get back out there and try to finish better.

Terms:
Acquired needs
Achievement
Affiliation and intimacy
Power
Effort
Interpersonal rejection

Chapter 7 emphasizes social needs, whereas previous chapters have emphasized psychological and physiological needs. Social needs are nonconscious needs that drive people toward social incentives and are based on previous experiences. There are three types of implicit motives: achievement, affiliation, and power. Affiliation is the social need to gain peers approval and acceptance by building strong relationships. Achievement is a spectrum of emotions from excitement, happiness, to emotions of fear of rejection, and avoidance known as the “standard of excellence”. when given a difficult challenge. An example of achievement is investing time and money into training for the Olympics and challenging yourself to win gold. Olympians experience of a variety of emotions within the standard of excellence. Oftentimes people develop reactions based off of past experiences of achievement, criticism, or failure; known as developmental influences. The final motive that the book lists is power. Power is the need to feel dominant, have a high status within jobs, community, and friend groups. A person who achieves a high status of power feels satisfied when their peers recognize that they are the leader.

One of the things that I found surprising to read about was the social conditions of people who are high-power-need individuals; leadership/relationship was the most surprising. It was interesting to read that men are less successful within their relationships because men want to achieve power within their interpersonal relationships, whereas woman who are high-power-need tend to separate interpersonal relationships from their power needs—making women more successful partners in relationships and marriage.

My level of affiliation in my life is medium. I say this because even though I value reaching out to people and create new friendships or repair weaknesses of current friendships. However, when it comes to intimate relationships I find myself being within the majority of fearing rejection.
My level of achievement is high. I came from a family where I am a first-generation college student, so performing well for straight A’s wasn’t ingrained in me from the day I started kindergarten. However, in high school and college, I have had to challenge myself with countless hours of studying and time management. After my first year of college, I began looking in a future time perspective, by integrating my studying habits and grade point average into my future of attending a graduate program after achieving a BA.
Rating myself on power, I would have to rate myself as low. I am someone who is not competitive whatsoever in positions at my job or playing sports. I have no desire to boss other people around all day and see that as my “dream job”. I can also say that I am someone who doesn’t value prestige possessions. I could care less about have a luxury vehicle, or paying a mortgage on a mansion until the day I die. I would much rather spend my money on traveling, my future kid’s activities, and for the benefit of my family.

Currently, I am in the process of writing letters and completing applications for future scholarship and assistantship positions while earning a masters degree. I am trying to develop a high-power-need in order to express my strongest traits, and why the board should choose me for the positions I am applying for.

ME TERMS:
Social Needs
Achievement
Affiliation
Power
Standard of Excellence
Developmental Influences
Future Time Perspective

Chapter 7 introduces us to two categories of acquired psychological needs, which are social needs and quasi-needs. Social needs are originated from preferences gained through experience, socialization, and development, being acquired individual preferences. Quasi-needs are more ephemeral and include situationally induced wants, coming from situational events that promote a psychological sense of tension, pressure and urgency. Both, social and quasi-needs, have social origins and, when acquired, manifest themselves in thought, emotion, action and lifestyle. Social needs manifest in action by arising and activating emotional and behavioral potential when need-satisfying incentives appear, making people react to events by learning the emotion-laden incentive value that could be positive or negative. Four social needs that function as personality characteristics are: achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. The social need for achievement is the desire to do something well to show personal competence and end with an objective outcome of success versus failure.
Affiliation is the need to “establish, maintain, or restore a positive, affective relationship with another person or persons” (Atkinson, Heyns & Veroff, 1954). Affiliation is considered (by the more contemporary view) as having two facets: the need for approval and the need for intimacy. The need for intimacy is the willingness to experience a warm, close, and communicative exchange with another person.
The need for power is the desire to have impact, control, or influence over another person or group. Impact allows to establish power, control allows to maintain it, and influence allow individuals to expand or restore power.
The most surprising thing that I learnt on this chapter is how aggressiveness is shown in some people produced by their lack of power. I found very interesting that men with the highest need of power drink the most. After thinking for a moment, I could see how this is related to some people I know, being alcohol a good source to gain a release from societal inhibitions and acting more aggressively. I think that more people should know about this fact about alcohol, warning (as it is done with tobacco warnings) the population about its side effects like the inflation of sense control, power, and risk-taking behaviors. In my opinion, this action could avoid many issues in today’s society like abuse or sexual harassment.
If I had to measure myself in the different social needs: I would consider myself in a relatively high need for achievement as I normally face standards of excellence with approach oriented emotions like hope, pride, or anticipatory gratification. I am a person with good social skills, and I always need to maintain relationships with many people in order to create affective relationships, so i think I would rate myself as very high in Affiliation. It is hard for me to figure out how high my need for intimacy is; I think I have a high need for warm and secure relationships because I value them very positively in many contexts, but on the other hand, I have trouble getting attached to people who I can have close relationships with. This (probably high) need manifests in my life with a behavior that allows me to be open to meeting new people.
For my power need, I would rate myself as very low: I have never wanted to feel responsible for controlling, impacting, or influencing other people and even less for dominance, status, or position reasons.

Terms used:
Psychological needs
Social needs
Quasi-needs
Affiliation
Power
Intimacy
Achievement
Standards of excellence
Approach oriented emotions

Chapter seven of this text focused on the concept of social needs. The chapter breaks down the concept into different sections. These sections elaborate on acquired needs, achievement, affiliation and intimacy and also power.
With acquired needs the chapter defines the both quasi and social needs. The author describes quasi needs as simply the desires that (affects our cognition and emotions) that we as humans tend to see as needs. For example, as a musician I have the quasi need for new instruments or a possible future within this field. These needs are much different then that of social and psychological needs. With social needs we see needs that are developed out of our social settings and surroundings. We create these needs based on what goes on around us that causes us to create certain emotional responses. For example we have the social need to achieve goals and to be successful or be intimate.
As the chapter continues it discusses achievement within the topic of social needs. The author explains how we as humans have the need to be successful and to achieve goals that we set both consciously and subconsciously. With have the need to achieve we see many social, developmental, and cognitive influences that drive us to have this need. With these in mind the chapter elaborates on the Altkinson’s model. This model elaborates not he concept that humans develop achievement behaviors based on tasks that we feel we can be successful at and receive a positive reward for. Within achievement we also see that the chapter highlights some components regarding the conditions that mold our desire to achieve. Some of these include the difficulty of tasks, competition, and entrepreneurship.
Along with achievement the chapter continues and elaborates on affiliation and intimately within the realm of social needs. Affiliation can be seen as the ability to belong to a particular group. With this topic we see how people can often refrain from meeting their needs to socialize and create intimate friendships and relationships due to the fear of rejection. The need for being affiliated is very high for most people and is often thought of as simply the need to be accepted by a group. Thus, rejection having the ability to completely destroy ones desire to fulfill the need of branching out. With affiliation and intimacy the chapter explains some of the actual instances where affiliation and intimacy are seen. Some of these are anxiety and fear, establishing interpersonal connections with groups, and also exposing oneself to new individuals or organizations. These have such a high level of affiliation need because of the fact that we want to feel accepted in social setting where we are establishing social networks and interpersonal networks.
Lastly with power we see how the chapter elaborates on the conditions in which we satisfy our personal need for power. This is seen through becoming leaders, establishing relationships, using aggression, and holding prestigious positions. These are all realistic examples of how we satisfy our power because most people have the desire to be at the top and “over rule” in a sense, and we see this through the examples. Power can be defined as the ability to impact, control and influence a group or position. In this reading the most surprising thing that I learned was the difference between the different types of needs. I originally understood need overall but was shocked that we do actually have physiological, psychological, social, and quasi needs. Only really hearing of a two of these, I was very shocked.

terms
quasi needs
social needs
alkinsons model
affiliation
power