Individuation and relatedness: not opposing but distinct and complementary

In this article, the author aims to contribute to a better understanding of the association between relational and individuational self-orientations and the roles they play in the self-system. The author highlights the controversial assumptions regarding the opposite or distinct nature of the orientations' association and explores how they relate to each other and to some self- and family-related variables by a questionnaire study. On the basis of the Balanced Integration-Differentiation model (E. O. Imamoglu, 1998), relatedness and individuation were hypothesized to refer to distinct and complementary self-orientations; the former was expected to be associated more with affect-related variables (i.e., perceived parental love-acceptance, self- and family satisfaction), whereas the latter was expected to be associated more with intrinsic-motivational variables (i.e., need for cognition and negatively with perceived parental control). University students (N = 274) from Turkey participated in the study. Results indicated that (a) individuation and relatedness were not negatively correlated; (b) perceived parental love-acceptance predicted relatedness both directly and indirectly through the mediation of self- and family satisfaction, whereas perceived parental control predicted (negatively) individuation indirectly through the mediation of need for cognition, a strong predictor of individuation; and (c) being both related and individuated appeared to be associated with optimal psychological functioning, the implications of which are discussed.