Abstract
In this chapter, I shall examine the relations between types of psychological interdependence and psychological orientations. I shall employ the term psychological orientation to refer to a more or less consistent complex of cognitive, motivational, and moral orientations to a given situation that serves to guide one’s behavior and responses in that situation. In brief, my theoretical analysis posits that distinctive psychological orientations are associated with the distinctive types of interdependence. I also assume that the causal arrow connecting psychological orientations and types of interdependence is bidirectional: A psychological orientation can induce or be induced by a given type of interdependence. Implicit in this view is the further assumption that each person has the capability to utilize the various psychological orientations and their associated cognitive, motivational, and moral orientations. Although individuals may differ in their readiness and ability to use the different orientations as a result of their cultural backgrounds, their personal histories, and their genetic endowments, people participate in diverse social relations in complex societies and these varied social relations require, and hence induce, different psychological orientations. Thus, my basic assumption is an evolutionary one: Namely, to cope with the psychological requirements of assorted types of social relations, people have developed the capacity to utilize psychological orientations as they are necessary in different situations.
Keywords
- Social Relation
- Interpersonal Relation
- Motivational Orientation
- Competitive Relationship
- Informal Relation
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The writing of this paper has been supported, in part, by a National Science Foundation Grant, BNS 77-16017.
- 2.
Although this research studied the perceptions of interpersonal relations, I see no reason to doubt that the identified dimensions are fundamental aspects of interpersonal relations.
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1 caution the reader not to conclude from this sentence or from anything else in this chapter that relationships that are exclusively task-oriented will be more productive thanthose that have a mixture of task-orientedness and social-emotional orientedness. Effective group functioning on tasks, for example, requires attention to “group maintenance” as well as to “task functions” (Deutsch 1949b).
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Deutsch, M. (2015). Interdependence and Psychological Orientation. In: Morton Deutsch: A Pioneer in Developing Peace Psychology. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15440-4_5
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