Although a variety of psychological theorists have posited that a central aspect of psychological health is the ability to join with other persons in cooperative efforts to achieve mutually desired goals, there is little direct evidence linking the social psychological literature on cooperation with the personality literature on psychological health. An exploratory study was conducted to examine the relationship between attitudes toward cooperation, competition, and individualism and psychological health as indicated by the MMPI. Subjects were 70 white, middle-class, high-school seniors in a midwestern suburban community. Attitudes toward cooperation were significantly negatively correlated with 8 of the 10 clinical MMPI scales and with a variety of the research MMPI scales. Attitudes toward competition were significantly negatively correlated with 7 of the 10 clinical MMPI scales and with a variety of the research MMPI scales. Attitudes toward individualism were positively correlated with 9 of the 10 clinical MMPI scales and with a variety of the research MMPI scales.
Four studies to clarify the relationship between attitudes toward styles of social interdependence and ways of deriving self-esteem were conducted among 821 white, middle-class, secondary school students in a midwest suburban community. Correlations between attitudes toward three styles of interdependence and four ways of deriving self-esteem indicate distinctive and theoretically predictable patterns of relationship. Students who indicate a cathexis for cooperative relationships report patterns of higher self-esteem related to freedom of personal expressiveness and feelings of personal well-being; students indicating a cathexis for competitive or individualized patterns of interdependence report greater vulnerability on dimensions of self-esteem reflecting sensitivity to experiences of success, approval, and support of others. The magnitudes of correlations between a global measure of personal worth and attitudes toward the three types of interdependence reflect the extent to which positive social reinforcement is available in these settings. Speciflc correlations that reflect these findings are significant, p < .01.This study investigates the relationship between attitudes toward types of interdependence between oneself and others, and ways through which individuals derive conclusions about their self-worth. The three types of interdependence studied are cooperative, competitive, and individualistic (Deutsch, 1962;Johnson & Johnson, 1975). Cooperative interdependence involves a positive correlation among goal attainments of the people involved while competitive interdependence involves a negative correlation among the goal attainments of the people involved; when the goal attainments of people are independent there is an individualistic situation. Each of these types of interdependence is hypothesized 1. This study was funded through the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Programming and
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