Encyclopedia of Psychology | Affiliation

The need to form attachments to other people for support, guidance, and protection.

The need to form attachments with others is termed affiliation. Attachment is one of 20 psychological needs measured by the Thematic Apperception Test, a projective personality test developed at Harvard University in 1935 by Henry Murray. Subjects look at a series of up to 20 pictures of people in a variety of recognizable settings and construct a story about what is happening in each one. The need for affiliation (referred

to as "n Aff") is scored when a test-taker's response to one of the pictures demonstrates concern over "establishing, maintaining, or restoring a...