People high in communal orientation care for the welfare of others based on others’ needs and desire similar care for themselves. The current study investigates the personal and interpersonal rewards associated with individual differences in communal orientation. We hypothesized that communally oriented people experience rewards from the positive emotion they feel from caring for others. Results from a 4-week daily experience study (N = 232) indicated that communally oriented people experienced greater self-esteem, greater satisfaction and love in their relationships, and greater love for humanity in daily life. These associations were mediated by greater daily positive emotion and the results were unique to tendencies to give care rather than the desire to receive it. We discuss implications for prosociality and well-being in close relationships and beyond.
BolgerN.DavisA.RafaeliE. (2003). Diary methods: Capturing life as it is lived. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 579–616.
2.
BryanA. D.HammerJ. C.FisherJ. D. (2000). Whose hands reach out to the homeless? Patterns of helping among high and low communally oriented individuals. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 887–905.
3.
CanevelloA.CrockerJ. (2010). Creating good relationships: Responsiveness, relationship quality, and interpersonal goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 78–106.
4.
ClarkM. S. (1984). Record keeping in two types of relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 549–557.
5.
ClarkM. S. (2011). In ArkinR. M. (Ed.), Communal relationships can be selfish and give rise to exploitation. New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press.
6.
ClarkM. S.DubashP.MillsJ. (1998). Interest in another's consideration of one's needs in communal and exchange relationships. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 34, 246–264.
7.
ClarkM. S.FinkelE. J. (2005). Willingness to express emotion: The impact of relationship type, communal orientation, and their interaction. Personal Relationships, 12, 169–180.
8.
ClarkM. S.MillsJ. (1993). The difference between communal and exchange relationships: What it is and is not. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 684–691.
9.
ClarkM. S.MillsJ. (2012). Communal (and exchange) relationships. In Van LangeP. A. M.KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (pp. 232–250). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
10.
ClarkM. S.OulletteR.PowellM. C.MilbergS. (1987). Recipient's mood, relationship type, and helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 94–103.
11.
CrockerJ. (2008). From egosystem to ecosystem: Implications for relationships, learning, and well-being. In WaymentH. A.BauerJ. J.WaymentH. A.BauerJ. J. (Eds.), Transcending self-interest: Psychological explorations of the quiet ego (pp. 63–72). Washington, DC, USA: American Psychological Association.
12.
CrockerJ.CanevelloA. (2008). Creating and undermining social support in communal relationships: The role of compassionate and self-image goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 555–575.
13.
CrockerJ.OlivierM.NuerN. (2009). Self-image goals and compassionate goals: Costs and benefits. Self and Identity, 8(2–3), 251–269.
14.
DannerD. D.SnowdonD. A.FriesenW. V. (2001). Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings from the nun study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 804–813.
15.
DunnE. W.AkninL. B.NortonM. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319, 1687–1688.
16.
ForgasJ. P. (1998). On feeling good and getting your way: Mood effects on negotiator cognition and bargaining strategies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 565–577.
17.
FredricksonB. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218–226.
18.
FredricksonB. L.CohnM. A.CoffeyK. A.PekJ.FinkelS. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1045–1062.
19.
FritzH. L.HelgesonV. S. (1998). Distinctions of unmitigated communion from communion: Self-neglect and overinvolvement with others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 121–140.
20.
GableS. L.ImpettE. A. (2012). Approach and avoidance motives and close relationships. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6, 95–108.
21.
GrazianoW. G.TobinR. M. (2009). In LearyM. R.HoyleR. H. (Eds.), Agreeableness. New York, NY, USA: Guilford Press.
22.
HarkerL.KeltnerD. (2001). Expressions of positive emotion in women's college yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality and life outcomes across adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 112–124.
23.
ImpettE. A.GableS. L.PeplauL. A. (2005). Giving up and giving in: The costs and benefits of daily sacrifice in intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 327–344.
24.
ImpettE. A.GordonA. M.KoganA.OveisC.GableS. L.KeltnerD. (2010). Moving toward more perfect unions: Daily and long-term consequences of approach and avoidance goals in romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 948–963.
25.
JackD. C.DillD. (1992). The silencing the self scale: Schemas of intimacy associated with depression in women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16, 97–106.
26.
JohnO. P.NaumannL. P.SotoC. J. (2008). Paradigm shift to the integrative big five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and conceptual issues. In JohnO. P.RobinsR. W.PervinL. A.JohnO. P.RobinsR. W.PervinL. A. (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology: Theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 114–158). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.
27.
JonesD. C.VaughanK. (1990). Close friendships among senior adults. Psychology and Aging, 5, 451–457.
28.
KoganA.ImpettE. A.OveisC.HuiB.GordonA. M.KeltnerD. (2010). When giving feels good: The intrinsic benefits of sacrifice in romantic relationships for the communally motivated. Psychological Science, 21, 1918–1924.
29.
LucasR. E.FujitaF. (2000). Factors influencing the relation between extraversion and pleasant affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 1039–1056.
30.
LyubomirskyS.KingL.DienerE. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.
31.
MaiselN. C.GableS. L. (2009). The paradox of received social support: The importance of responsiveness. Psychological Science, 20, 928–932.
32.
McCallM. (1995). Orientation, outcome, and other-serving attributions. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 49–64.
33.
McFarlandS.WebbM.BrownD. (2012). All humanity is my ingroup: A measure and studies of identification with all humanity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103, 830–853.
34.
MedveneL. J.VolkF. A.MeissenG. J. (1997). Communal orientation and burnout among self-help group leaders. Journal of Applied Psychology, 27, 262–278.
35.
OmotoA. M.SnyderM.HackettJ. D. (2010). Personality and motivational antecedents of activism and civic engagement. Journal of Personality, 78, 1703–1734.
36.
PiferiR. L.LawlerK. A. (2006). Social support and ambulatory blood pressure: An examination of both receiving and giving. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 62, 328–336.
37.
PreacherK. J.SeligJ. P. (2010). Monte Carlo method for assessing multilevel mediation: An interactive tool for creating confidence intervals for indirect effects in 1-1-1 multilevel models [Computer software]. Retrieved fromhttp://quantpsy.org/
38.
RaudenbushS. W.BrykA. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
39.
RobinsR. W.HendinH. M.TrzesniewskiK. H. (2001). Measuring global self-esteem: Construct validation of a single-item measure of the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 151–161.
40.
RobinsonM. D.CloreG. L. (2002). Belief and feeling: Evidence for an accessibility model of emotional self-report. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 934–960.
41.
SeligJ. P.PreacherK. J. (2008, June). Monte Carlo method for assessing mediation: An interactive tool for creating confidence intervals for indirect effects [Computer software]. Retrieved fromhttp://quantpsy.org/
42.
SprecherS.FehrB. (2005). Compassionate love for close others and humanity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22, 629–651.
43.
SrivastavaS.TamirM.McGonigalK. M.JohnO. P.GrossJ. J. (2009). The social costs of emotional suppression: A prospective study of the transition to college. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 883–897.
44.
ThompsonL.DeHarpportT. (1998). Relationships, goal incompatibility, and communal orientation in negotiations. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 20, 33–44.
45.
VanYperenN. W.BuunkB. P.SchaufeliW. B. (1992). Communal orientation and the burnout syndrome among nurses. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 173–189.
46.
WaughC. E.FredricksonB. L. (2006). Nice to know you: Positive emotions, self-other overlap, and complex understanding in the formation of a new relationship. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 93–106.
47.
WilliamsonG. M.ClarkM. S. (1992). Impact of desired relationship type on affective reactions to choosing and being required to help. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 10–18.
48.
WilliamsonG. M.SchulzR. (1990). Relationship orientation, quality of prior relationship, and distress among caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. Psychology and Aging, 5, 502–509.
49.
ZhangZ.ZyphurM. J.PreacherK. J. (2009). Testing multilevel mediation using hierarchical linear models: Problems and solutions. Organizational Research Methods, 12, 695–719.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
