Measuring the Motives of Political Actors at a Distance"Let us together create a new national spirit of unity and
trust."
"We have given aid out of humanitarian considerations."
"Our government must be compassionate."
People who use a lot of affiliation motive imagery are quite differ-
ent from achievement-motivated people. They are oriented toward
others: spending time with them, communicating with them, and
cooperating with them. However, their circle of friendly interaction
is limited to those people who are similar to themselves—people
whom they agree with and like. Thus affiliation-motivated people
take advice from friends rather than experts and work harder when
they are working with friends. They are more responsive to the
influence of others they know and trust. If they are surrounded by
friendly, similar people, they are thus able to develop more resources
of social support. As a consequence, they tend to have more enjoyable
marriages, higher subjective well-being, and better adaptation to
life.
When they encounter people they don't know or people they per-
ceive to be "different," however, affiliation-motivated people are
actually less friendly and agreeable. When they think they are being
exploited, they can become obstinate, even aggressive. Under threat,
high affiliation motivation can lead to prickly, defensive behavior. In
other words, the behavior of affiliation-motivated people toward oth-
ers is strongly affected by their perception of the other person and
the relationship. Such perceptions often turn on subtle cues, ges-
tures, and patterns of reciprocation, with the result that the inter-
personal behavior of people dominated by the affiliation motive may
appear erratic and unstable. In competitive situations, their perfor-
mance often deteriorates. Because of their sensitivity to the cues of
friendship, such people are not particularly good at managing, work-
ing with, or even getting along with total strangers and people they
do not like.
Power Motivation: Concern for Impact
Power motive imagery is scored in texts or other verbal material
when there are references to one person, group, or nation having
impact on another person, group, or nation (or on the world at large)