Need for Belonging

Background and Psychological Bases

The need to belong has been viewed as a critical motivation since the early 1900s. For example, Sigmund Freud highlighted the important psychological benefits of contact between people in groups. A few years later, Abraham Maslow, in his famous hierarchy of human needs, argued that only two other basic needs have greater priority than the need to belong: physiological and security needs. In recent years, the need to belong has been incorporated in many psychological theories.

To the extent that the need to belong is innate, it should be manifested from a very early age. Research on John Bowlby's attachment theory provides evidence that infants experience a strong need to feel connected to their caregivers. This need is met in very young children who develop secure bonds with their caregivers. Such children have higher social competence (they are more socially adept) and fewer problems developing relationships with other people later on in life than do children who fail to develop secure bonds with their caregivers. These latter children often experience anxiety and lack of trust in their later social relationships. Thus, meeting the need to belong as an infant is important not only for a child's early survival but also for his or her later social development.

The need to belong probably functions below conscious awareness. However, there are also conscious processes that lead people to affiliate and collaborate with others. These include the desire to compare one's opinions, abilities, and emotional reactions to those of others and the motivation to achieve collective goals (e.g., winning a basketball game).

Research on the need to belong tends to focus on what happens when people feel that they do not belong to (are excluded from) important groups. Rejection produces a host of problems. In terms of physical health, exclusion from groups is associated with increased risk for heart attacks, reduced blood pressure regulation, and increased insomnia. In terms of psychological effects, feeling that one does not belong is associated with negative feelings about oneself, anxiety, and lowered self-esteem. People who fail to meet the need to belong over an extended time are at risk for depression and have a reduced life expectancy.

According to Mark Leary's sociometer model, self-esteem reflects one's perceived belongingness in important relationships and groups. High self-esteem signifies that a person is meeting this need, whereas low self-esteem signifies that he or she is failing to do so. Therefore, people with low self-esteem should be motivated to increase their level of belongingness. Research on the sociometer model has found that people do indeed seek to establish social bonds when their self-esteem has been lowered, supporting the idea that self-esteem is an internal index of one's success in meeting the need to belong.

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