With or Without You? People Feel Less Autonomous During Social Interactions, Except With Close Others.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Well-being Research

Background:

• Social interaction is linked to well-being and relatedness.
• The costs of social interaction, such as diminished autonomy, are less understood.
• Autonomy and relatedness are fundamental psychological needs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the potential tradeoff between autonomy and relatedness during social interactions.
• To examine how different interaction partners influence feelings of autonomy and relatedness.
• To test the hypothesis that social interaction may come at the cost of personal autonomy.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an experience sampling method with college student participants (N = 352).
• Collected 10,046 self-report observations on social interactions, autonomy, relatedness, and affect.
• Assessed participants' feelings in the past hour regarding their social engagements and personal state.

Main Results:

• Social interaction was associated with lower reported autonomy compared to being alone.
• This autonomy reduction was more pronounced in individuals with higher attachment avoidance.
• Autonomy levels varied by interaction partner: lower with non-close others, similar with friends/family, and higher with romantic partners.

Conclusions:

• Ecologically valid evidence supports an autonomy-relatedness tradeoff, particularly in interactions with non-close others.
• Interactions with romantic partners uniquely satisfy both autonomy and relatedness needs.
• Understanding these tradeoffs is crucial for optimizing social connection and psychological well-being.