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Activity, Passivity, Self‐Denigration, and Self‐Promotion: Toward an Interactionist Model of Interpersonal Dependency
Author(s) -
Bornstein Robert F.,
Riggs Janet Morgan,
Hill Erica L.,
Calabrese Casey
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1996.tb00525.x
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , dependency (uml) , interpersonal communication , task (project management) , promotion (chess) , assertiveness , interpersonal relationship , test (biology) , politics , engineering , economics , biology , paleontology , management , systems engineering , political science , law
Although dependency in adults is inextricably linked with passivity and submissiveness in the minds of many theoreticians, clinicians, and researchers, evidence has accumulated which suggests that in certain situations, dependency is actually associated with high levels of activity and assertiveness. Three experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that when a dependent person is concerned primarily with getting along with a peer, he or she will “self‐denigrate” (i.e., will utilize strategies that ensure that a peer will be evaluated more positively than he or she is on a laboratory task), but when a dependent person is concerned primarily with pleasing an authority figure, he or she will “self‐promote” (i.e., will adopt strategies that increase the likelihood that he or she will be evaluated more positively than a peer on a laboratory task). This hypothesis was supported in all three experiments. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed, and an interactionist model of interpersonal dependency is briefly described.