Martijn Beijk

Who would have thought, that David McClelland, back in 1961 came up with his Theory of Needs (based on Murray’s theory of motivation, 1938) and we see that one of his classifications (Affiliation) suits Social Media. Whilst mostly used for management purposes we can think of different benefits derived from these psychological reasons of users joining several social media networks and groups.

“Those with a high need for affiliation need harmonious relationships with other people and need to feel accepted by other people. They tend to conform to the norms of their work group. High nAff individuals prefer work that provides significant personal interaction. They enjoy being part of groups and when not anxious make excellent team members, though sometimes are distractible into social interaction. They can perform well in customer service and client interaction situations.”

Does this model apply to our current web 2.0 generation? What do you think?

If you are interested in reading the whole book (the achieving society), you can order it here.

just wanted to share…