Affiliation

A concept in the field of social psychology that seeks to explain why humans 'form close relationships' .... a social process that satisfies a physiological need by providing us 'with a network of support that will help when in need'  (Crisp & Turner, 2007 pp266).

I am not ashamed of saying that I had to re-read this explanation of Crisp & Turner in the "Networked Professional Reader" several times, as I found it very intricate as a foreign student to understand. I had to simplify and summarize what they wanted to mean with it. It came down to be a very basic and easy thought: We humans affiliate with one another in order to live at a good personal level when we feel the need. How could we reproduce otherwise and maintain a good quality of life without affiliation? Likewise what Stephanie says in her blog '...one of the essential aspects of being human; we eat, we sleep, we drink, we breathe, we relate.  Also Joanna follows the same thought mentioning in her blog, that everything could have started from Adam and Eve when a need of affiliation started and something new happened for Adam; love and creation with another person.


Yacov Rofe suggested that the need for affiliation depended on whether being with others would be useful for the situation or not. When the presence of other people was seen as being helpful in relieving an individual from some of the negative aspects of the stressor, an individual's desire to affiliate increases. However, if being with others may increase the negative aspects such as adding the possibility of embarrassment to the already present stressor, the individual's desire to affiliate with others decreases. ( Wikipedia, Need for affiliation ).


So we can understand why in our profession it's extremely important to affiliate in our Professional Networks, 'in order to survive as professionals' as it is a psychological need, for ALL people. ( The Networked Professional Reader, 2010/11)
Reflecting how I use affiliation in my profession, I can relate to what O'Connor and Rosenblood state when saying that our need of affiliation may differ and that we all have a preferred level of affiliation, controlled by psychological determinants and individual and cultural differences. 
I consider myself an extrovert person and I tend to affiliate more easily within my social networks (friends and family) but within my professional networks I tend to control my exuberance balancing what could come across a bit too strong in a professional environment. I prefer to safeguard my privacy analyzing more the others and giving me enough time to trust and find a shared level of affiliation with the people interested.


I couldn't really at first answer the question 'If experienced and influential individuals are likely to be at their preferred level of affiliation, why is it common for them to still assist younger, less experienced individuals?' Then I started to think about my little experience as young professional individuals seeking assistance. I thought of my teachers, they definitely had reached their preferred level of affiliation but would live giving help to the ones in need and less experience. They do it as a life choice. Also we humans have the need to form relationships ( professional and personal ) where we somehow tend to "teach" something to the person related to us. I'm not a psychologist but I could think it's a form of psychological human behavior where we feel the need to show off what we already know and be somehow admired by the people in our net. I would love to know more about this if someone has some more accurate clues and opinion.

For the question 'how do we attract those individuals into our professional networks that we wish to benefit from?' I didn't really came up to a proper answer. I believe each of us as individuals, establish what I could call a 'professional intelligence'. During our training/career path we come across situations where we get in touch with individuals we can benefit from, it's then up to us to build up a way to affiliate with them and keep a good relationship in the course of time. What I, for example, do, would be try to know everything possible about that particular casting director, musician, composer, choreographer, actor and try to establish a contact making them feel good about me knowing who they are. I know this my sound a bit 'proclaiming' but I found it a very good way to start out a professional networking relationship. How do you answer this question? Do you have another particular way to attract individuals in your networks? I would be very interested to hear your tactics ... if I can call them so :)