Controlling shared resources: Effects of dependency, self-criticism, and threats to self-worth

How we exert control over shared resources is critical to understanding how we get along with others. Few studies have attempted to investigate how dependent and self-critical individuals actively influence the quality of their interpersonal environments. We examined the influence of two depressive personality styles, dependency and self-criticism, on how individuals exert and relinquish control over shared resources following events that threaten status, such as being outperformed by another, as well as events that may bolster status but also threaten interpersonal relatedness, such as outperforming a friend. Forty pairs of female college friends participated in a 2 × 2 between-factor laboratory experiment. Participants were allowed to believe firstly that they outperformed a close friend or were outperformed by a close friend and secondly that friends generally agreed or disagreed with them. Results showed that events, like being outperformed by a friend or outperforming a close friend influenced both mood and feelings of superiority. Results also showed that when interpersonal relatedness was threatened, dependent women maintained interpersonal relatedness by adopting the responses of less competent friends, by relinquishing control over shared resources, and by minimizing disagreement. In contrast, self-critical women promoted status by actively controlling a shared resource, even at the expense of a close friend, regardless of the status or behaviour of that friend.