Sociotropy

Sociotropy is a personality trait characterized by excessive investment in interpersonal relationships and usually studied in the field of social psychology. Sociotropy is a personality trait characterized by excessive investment in interpersonal relationships and usually studied in the field of social psychology. People with sociotropy tend to have a strong need for social acceptance, which causes them to be overly nurturant towards people who they do not have close relationships with. Sociotropy can be seen as the opposite of autonomy, because those with sociotropy are concerned with interpersonal relationships, whereas those with autonomy are more concerned with independence and do not care so much for others. Sociotropy has been correlated with feminine sex-role orientation in many research experiments. Sociotropy is notable in that it interacts with interpersonal stress or traumatic experience to influence subsequent depression. The Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale (SAS) was introduced by Aaron T. Beck as a means of assessing two cognitive-personality constructs hypothesized as risk factors in depression. The scale focuses on the two personality traits of Sociotropy (social dependency) and Autonomy (satisfying independency). The development of the SAS was gathered through patient self-reports and patient records collected from therapists. Using psychometrics, from the sample of 378 psychiatric patients questions were placed into a two-factor structure where the final pool of items was 60-109. From there each 30 items generated three factors for sociotropy: Concern About Disapproval, Attachment/Cocern About Separation, and Pleasing Others; and three for autonomy: Individualistic or Autonomous Achievement, Mobility/Freedom from Control of Others, and Preference for Solitude. The SAS has 60 items rated on a 5-point scale (ranging from 0 to 4). Scores are then totaled separately on each dimension. The scale has been modified since its development. The current SAS decomposes Sociotropy into two factors (neediness and connectedness). Neediness is associated with the symptoms of depression—and connectedness is a sensitivity towards others, and associated with valuing relationships.