Human Dominance Motivation

Life in Society

In the evolution of society, the urge to form groups led to the development of affiliation motivation. This affiliation motivation simply dictates that individuals desire the company of others of their species. Mammalian species that have affiliation motivation live social rather than solitary lives. The motive for affiliation involves both pleasure and anxiety. Social mammals generally feel anxious when alone and greatly enjoy being together. The emotions of fear and pleasure thus function to keep mammalian societies together.

There is a second level to the motives, drives, and emotions of mammalian affiliation. That level concerns what individuals do after they affiliate. In humans, there are four other social drives associated with reinforcement, pleasure, and specific emotions. These are the sex, parenting, affection, and dominance drives. Between individual adults, there is variation in the degree to which each of these four is valued as a source of pleasure and fulfillment. This variability between individuals arises during development as a result of interactions between genetics and experience.

Specifically, the degree to which an individual is motivated by a drive for affection varies and is termed communion. Child-rearing practices of warmth and affection, such as the carrying of infants, foster the development of communion. The degree to which an individual is motivated by a drive for dominance also varies and is called agency. Child-rearing practices that promote the development of agency are those that foster independent mastery of the environment. These two, communion and agency, are separate dimensions, and an individual can be high or low in both, or high in one and low in the other. However, the motives of dominance and affection or agency and communication are generally not manifest in the same individual at the same time.

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