Personality Test: The Affiliative Tendency (or Affiliation, Sociability) Test & Software

Affiliative Tendency Defined
Affiliative persons are friendly, sociable, helpful, skillful in dealing with people, and open about their feelings. They make good companions because they are pleasant and agreeable. Others feel comfortable with them and like them.

Scale Description
The Affiliative Tendency Scale is a measure of individual differences in affiliation, friendliness, or sociability. The version being used (Mehrabian, 1994b) was developed by Mehrabian (1976). It contains 26 items and subjects report the degree of their agreement or disagreement with each item using a 9-point agreement-disagreement scale.

Affiliation Scale Software
Software for administering, scoring, and interpreting the Affiliative Tendency Scale is available. It runs on the Windows operating system and provides (a) total score, equivalent percentile score, equivalent z-score, and interpretation of these scores for each person tested and (b) a database of all three scores (total, percentile, z-score) for all individuals tested. The software is extremely easy to use and is password protected so that the Administrator can control access to the database of results. In this way, individuals being tested cannot have access to the results, unless the Administrator chooses to report such results to them.

Sample Items
Test Features
Validity Data:
Reliability and validity data for the Affiliative Tendency Scale (MAFF) were reported by Mehrabian (1994a). Experimental work, reviewed by Mehrabian (1976, 1994a), can be summarized as follows: Persons with higher Affiliative Tendency Scale scores, compared with those with lower scores, are more likely to:

Considerable additional reliability and validity information on the Abbreviated Affiliative Tendency Scale were provided by Mehrabian (2000). In particular, findings showed the Abbreviated MAFF to be a positive correlate of emotional success (i.e., general emotional well-being), relationship success (i.e., healthy and happy inter-personal relationships), and overall life success (Mehrabian, 2000, Table 10).

Construct validity for the Affiliative Tendency Scale was also supplied by Mehrabian (1997) from a theoretical analysis of traits that are approximately related to affiliation and sociability (i.e., sensitivity to rejection, empathy, dependency, conformity, popularity, loneliness, and shyness).

References:
Mehrabian, A. (1976). Questionnaire measures of affiliative tendency and sensitivity to rejection. Psychological Reports, 38, 199-209.

Mehrabian, A. (1994a). Evidence bearing on the Affiliative Tendency (MAFF) and Sensitivity to Rejection (MSR) scales. Current Psychology, 13,, 97-116.

Mehrabian, A. (1994b). Manual for the Affiliative Tendency Scale (MAFF). (Available from Albert Mehrabian, 1130 Alta Mesa Road, Monterey, CA, USA 93940).

Mehrabian, A. (1997). Analysis of affiliation-related traits in terms of the PAD Temperament Model. Journal of Psychology, 131, 101-117.

Mehrabian, A. (2000). Beyond IQ: Broad-based measurement of individual success potential or "emotional intelligence." Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 126, 133-239.

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