Oral Dependence and Dependent Behavior

Abstract

Eighty undergraduates were asked to solve a series of difficult puzzles, with the instructions that they could ask for help as often as necessary. Half the subjects had an experimenter of the same sex and half of the opposite sex. The subjects were categorized as high or low dependent based on the percentage of oral dependent responses they gave on the Rorschach test. The results indicated that while the male subjects generally performed as predicted (with high oral dependent males asking for help more than low oral dependent males), the opposite results were obtained for females. Additional analyses suggested that what has been called oral dependence consists of at least two factors that relate in different ways to other variables.

When low self-esteem encourages behaviors that risk rejection to increase interdependence: The role of relational self-construal.

“…For example, people diagnosed with dependent personality disorder tend to have low self-esteem (Overholser, 1992) and tend to consider their close relationships to be very important— i.e., may have high relational self-construal (Pincus & Gurtman, 1995). Consistent with the idea that this combination of low self-esteem and high relational self-construal should predict a greater likelihood of engaging in behaviors that increase intimacy, individuals with dependent personality disorder often engage in behaviors intended to increase intimacy (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), such as complying with requests (e.g., Lowe, Edmundson, & Widiger, 2009), asking for assistance (Shilkret & Masling, 1981), seeking more physical contact with a partner (Hollender, Luborsky, & Harvey, 1970; Sroufe, Fox, & Pancake, 1983), and avoiding physical distance with a partner (Birtchnell, 1988). Similarly, research on Lee's (1973) love styles demonstrates that individuals high in mania, the love style characterized by an intense preoccupation with relationships— i.e., high relational self-construal, also tend to have low self-esteem (Mallandain & Davies, 1994) and, compared to individuals low in mania, report investing more in their relationships (Morrow, Clark, & Brock, 1995) and feeling more emotionally dependent on their partners (Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Palarea, Cohen, & Rohling, 2000).…”

The effectiveness of sources of support in career decision-making: A two-year follow-up

“…For example, a positive association was found between dependence on others and help-seeking (Bornstein, 1992;Bornstein, Krukonis, Manning, Mastrosimone, & Rossner, 1993;Shilkret & Masling, 1981). Highly dependent individuals seek more help when facing a problem than those who are less dependent.…”

Explicit Rejection of an Implicit Dichotomy: Integrating Two Approaches to Assessing Dependency

“…Despite some questionable psychometric properties, the construct validity of the ROD has been generally good. As reviewed by Bornstein (1996a), the ROD has significantly predicted relevant behavioral criteria including help seeking (Shilkret & Masling, 1981), compliance (Bornstein & Masling, 1985), and sensitivity to interpersonal cues (Masling, Johnson, & Saturansky, 1974). ROD scores have been linked to relevant types of psychopathology such as depression (O'Neill & Bornstein, 1991) and alcoholism (Bertrand & Masling, 1969).…”