Seek What You Need

In Motive Disposition Theory, the affiliation motive describes our need to form mutually satisfying bonds, whereas the power motive is the wish to influence others. To understand how these social motives shape play experience, we explore their relationship to Self-Determination Theory and Flow Theory in League of Legends. We find that: higher intimacy motivation is associated with greater relatedness satisfaction, autonomy satisfaction, enjoyment, and the flow dimension of absorption; higher prosocial motivation with more effort invested and the flow dimension fluency of performance; and higher dominance motivation with lower relatedness satisfaction but higher competence satisfaction and increased flow in both dimensions. We demonstrate that in addition to being driven to satisfy universal needs, players also possess individualized needs that explain our underlying motives and ultimately shape our gaming preferences and experiences. Our results suggest that people do not merely gravitate towards need-supportive situations, but actively seek, change, and create situations based on their individualized motives.

Affective contingencies in the affiliative domain: Physiological assessment, associations with the affiliation motive, and prediction of behavior.

According to classical motive disposition theory, individuals differ in their propensity to derive pleasure from affiliative experiences. This propensity is considered a core process underlying the affiliation motive and a pervasive cause of motivated behavior. In this study, we tested These assumptions. We presented participants with positive affiliative stimuli and used electromyography (EMG) to record changes in facial muscular activity that are indicative of subtle smiling. We were thus able to physiologically measure positive affect following affiliative cues. Individual differences in these affective contingencies were internally consistent and temporally stable. They converged with affiliation motive self- and informant-reports, and picture story exercise (PSE) scores, indicating that they are partly accessible to the self, observable to outsiders and overlap with implicit systems. Finally, they predicted affiliative behavior in terms of situation selection and modification across a wide variety of contexts (i.e., in daily life, the laboratory, and an online social network). These findings corroborate the long-held assumption that affective contingencies represent a motivational core aspect of affiliation.

Affective contingencies in the affiliative domain: Physiological assessment, associations with the affiliation motive, and prediction of behavior

According to classical motive disposition theory, individuals differ in their propensity to derive pleasure from affiliative experiences. This propensity is considered a core process underlying the affiliation motive and a pervasive cause of motivated behavior. In this study, we tested These assumptions. We presented participants with positive affiliative stimuli and used electromyography (EMG) to record changes in facial muscular activity that are indicative of subtle smiling. We were thus able to physiologically measure positive affect following affiliative cues. Individual differences in these affective contingencies were internally consistent and temporally stable. They converged with affiliation motive self- and informant-reports, and picture story exercise (PSE) scores, indicating that they are partly accessible to the self, observable to outsiders and overlap with implicit systems. Finally, they predicted affiliative behavior in terms of situation selection and modification across a wide variety of contexts (i.e., in daily life, the laboratory, and an online social network). These findings corroborate the long-held assumption that affective contingencies represent a motivational core aspect of Affiliation.