Defining and measuring affiliation motivation

Motives relate to cooperation in social dilemmas but have an inconsistent association with leadership evaluation

A common assumption is that good leaders are driven by a power motive that motivates them to influence others. However, leaders need to restrain themselves in social dilemmas where cooperation maximizes collective outcomes. We theorize that in social dilemmas, a desire for positive relationships (affiliation motive) is more beneficial than a power motive because it draws attention away from short-term self-interest towards understanding others. In a game of Settlers of Catan in the laboratory, we find that a functional variant of the affiliation motive relates to verbal encouragement of cooperation, to fewer occurrences of oil spills, to higher ratings of transformational leadership and, in a field survey, to fewer selfish business decisions. Furthermore, a dysfunctional variant of the power motive relates to two of three indicators of selfishness. Group members perceive selfish individuals as assuming leadership roles which indirectly relates to slightly higher ratings of transformational leadership. This pattern of evaluation may privilege men who, on average, show more selfish behaviour which can be partially attributed to their motives. Mere awareness of gender-based discrimination does not enable raters to circumvent this pattern of evaluation. This work suggests a need for interventions that increase appreciation of cooperative leaders.

Spirituality, Religiosity and Addiction Recovery: Current Perspectives

Substance use disorders are an important public health problem with a multifactorial etiology and limited effective treatment options. Within this context, spirituality-based approaches may provide interesting and useful options in managing substance use disorders. This kind of intervention can have positive effects in alleviating some core symptoms associated with substance use, such as aggressiveness. Improvement in cessation rates for alcohol, cocaine and opioid use disorders have also been described in some clinical studies. However, spirituality may not play a beneficial role in some subgroups, such as among individuals with crack cocaine and cannabis use disorders. A widely available intervention for alcohol use disorders is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which can be seen as a spirituality-based intervention. Spirituality also seems to be especially beneficial for minorities such as Latinos, African-Americans and Native-Americans. Moreover, spiritual-based interventions are also helpful alternatives in many rural environments where conventional healthcare for substance use disorders may not be easily available. However, spiritual-based interventions may be considered as a possible adjunctive therapeutic option to conventional treatments. There is a need for prospective studies outside U.S., especially where spiritual-based approaches are available. It may be difficult to carry out randomized controlled trials because of the nature of the spiritual/ religious dimensions. However, prospective studies that evaluate mediation effect of spirituality and religiosity on recovery would be helpful. Qualitative studies combined with quantitative design offer excellent options to evaluate the recovery process, especially among special populations.