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          Differentiating the Construct of Dependency:
     Rude and Burnham's Neediness and Connectedness Factors
    David C. Zuroff     D. S. Moskowitz     Richard Koestner
                       McGill University
                                





Extended version of a poster presented at the August, 1996 meeting of the American
Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.                             

				Abstract   
Rude and Burnham (1995) used factor analysis to identify "neediness" and
"connectedness" subfactors of dependency within the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire
(Blatt, D'Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976).  Study 1 replicated those subfactors in a large sample of
college students.  Study 2 found that neediness was more strongly related than connectedness
to depression, neuroticism, and insecure attachment.  Study 3 found that neediness was related
to submissiveness according to both self-report and event-contingent recording of
interpersonal behavior.  Connectedness was positively related to self-reported warmth.  Study
4 used event-contingent recording and demonstrated that neediness was negatively related to
pleasantness and power during social interactions, whereas connectedness was positively
related to intimacy.  The four studies showed that neediness had many more maladaptive
correlates than did connectedness.  Vulnerability research may yield stronger and more
consistent results if the construct of dependency is replaced with the more differentiated
constructs of neediness and connectedness.  

	Differentiating the Construct of Dependency: Rude and Burnham's Neediness and
                      Connectedness Factors     

	Dependency has for years been discussed as a vulnerability factor for depression.  Two
independent groups of investigators have recently proposed distinctions between more and
less mature forms of dependency.  Rude and Burnham (1995) used factor analysis to identify
"neediness" and "connectedness" subfactors within a pool of dependency items drawn from
the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ: Blatt, D'Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976).  Using a
different statistical technique, Blatt, Zohar, Quinlan, Zuroff, and Mongrain (1995) identified
subsets of DEQ items that they characterized as assessing "dependence" and "relatedness." 
Both groups of investigators found that measures of dysphoria were more strongly related to
the less mature form of dependency and suggested that relations between the standard DEQ
Dependency scale and measures of maladjustment might be attenuated by its blending of
more and less mature forms of dependency.
     Rude and Burnham's (1995) procedure has the desirable characteristic of yielding
statistically independent measures of neediness and connectedness, but the stability of their
factor-analytically derived scales remains to be demonstrated.  The studies reported here
extend Rude and Burnham's (1995) work in two ways.  First, we replicate Rude and
Burnham's (1995) results in a large, independent sample.  Second, we examine the construct
validity of the resulting neediness and connectedness scales.
Study 1: Replicating the Factors
     Rude and Burnham (1995) selected 29 DEQ items which were heavily weighted in the
factor scoring system for Dependency.  They then conducted a principal factors analysis
within a sample (N= 431) of males and females using squared multiple correlations to
estimate communalities.  Two factors were retained and subjected to varimax rotation.  We
applied the same data analytic strategy to the large sample (N = 1152) of male and female
undergraduates described in Zuroff, Quinlan, & Blatt (1990).  Inspection of the item loadings
indicated that the factors were measuring the same variables across the two samples.  Items
with high loadings on the neediness factor referred to fears of being alone or abandoned (e.g.,
"I become frightened when I feel alone") and feelings of being unable or unwilling to
function independently (e.g., "Without support from others who are close to me, I would be
helpless" and "I feel uncomfortable when I am given important responsibilities.").  Items with
high loadings on the connectedness factor referred to valuing relationships (e.g., "I would feel
like I was losing an important part of myself if I lost a very close friend") and anxiety about
hurting or offending others (e.g., "I worry a lot about offending or hurting someone who is
close to me.").  Items loading on connectedness demonstrate greater psychological maturity,
because they evidence an appreciation of other people's feelings and needs and a concern with
relationships rather than with need gratification.

Study 2: Depression, the Big Five Personality Traits, and Insecure Attachment

     Encouraged by the similarity of the obtained factor structure to that reported by Rude
and Burnham, we applied the resulting factor scoring coefficients to a sample of 167 male
and female undergraduates described in Zuroff (1994).  Neediness and connectedness were
only slightly related, r= .17, p< .05.  Neediness and connectedness were correlated with the
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the "big five" personality variables measured using Costa
and McCrae's (1985) NEO-PI, and Collins and Read's (1990) measure of insecure attachment
in adult relationships.  The attachment scales were scored so that positive scores indicated
discomfort with depending on others, anxiety about loss of relationships, and discomfort with
emotional closeness with others.  The results are summarized in Table 1.
     It can be seen that neediness was moderately related to dysphoria (BDI), neuroticism,
and anxiety about loss.  Neediness was also related introversion and discomfort with
depending on others.  Connectedness was much less strongly related to dysphoria and
neuroticism, and it was positively related to agreeableness and conscientiousness.  The results
replicate Rude and Burnham's (1995) finding that neediness is more closely linked to
maladjustment than is connectedness.  Furthermore, they suggest that neediness and
connectedness have different implications for social behavior.
Study 3: The Interpersonal Circumplex
     Study 3 related neediness and connectedness to measures of the dominant-submissive
and agreeable-quarrelsome axes of the interpersonal circumplex, assessed using both
event-contingent recording and a self-report questionnaire.  The subjects were 119 men and
women who held paid employment.  During the 20-day recording period, participants
completed a brief form after every social interaction lasting 5 minutes (Moskowitz & Suh,
1996).  Each form listed 11-12 behaviors representing the agreeable, quarrelsome, dominant,
and submissive poles of the circumplex.  Participants indicated which behaviors they had
performed during the interaction.  Each participant's responses were aggregated over the
recording period to produce measures of the agreeable-quarrelsome and dominant-submissive
axes.  Participants also completed the IAS-R (Wiggins, Trapnell, & Phillips, 1988), a
self-report measure of the two circumplex axes.
     Neediness and connectedness were modestly but significantly correlated, r (117)= .36,
p< .001.   Correlations between neediness and connectedness and the circumplex axes are
presented in Table 2.  Neediness was related to low scores on the dominant-submissive axis
according to both self-report and behavior-based measures.  Connectedness, in contrast, was
unrelated to the dominant-submissive axis, but positively related to self-reported warmth.

Study 4: Power, Pleasantness, and Intimacy in Social Interactions

     Study 4 also used event-contingent recording of social interactions to examine the
relations of neediness and connectedness to aspects of social interactions.  Forty-eight college
students (34 female, 14 male) used a modified version of the Rochester Interaction Record to
record quantitative and qualitative features of every 10-minute or longer interaction during a
7-day period (Zuroff, Stotland, Sweetman, Craig, & Koestner, 1995).  Neediness and
connectedness were weakly related, r (46) = .25, p< .10.   Correlations were computed
between neediness and connectedness and the average number and duration of participants'
interactions, participants' average ratings of the intimacy of their interactions, their
perceptions of the degree to which they initiated and influenced their interactions (power),
and the pleasantness of their interactions.  (See Table 3.)  Individuals high on neediness
experienced social interactions as less pleasant and themselves as having less power.  In
contrast, connectedness predicted having more intimate social interactions.
Summary and Conclusions
     The studies support the utility of the distinction between more and less mature forms
of dependency proposed by Rude and Burnham (1995) and Blatt et al. (1995).  Furthermore,
the results support the construct validity of Rude and Burnham's (1995) measures. 
Individuals with high scores on neediness self-reported high levels of dysphoria, neuroticism,
introversion, insecure attachment, and submissiveness.  Needy individuals also engaged in
fewer dominant behaviors, experienced themselves as less powerful in social interactions, and
found their interactions to be less pleasant.  Individuals with high scores on connectedness
were only mildly dysphoric and only mildly insecure in their attachments.  They described
themselves as agreeable, warm, and conscientious, and had social interactions characterized by
greater intimacy.
     It is apparent that neediness had more maladaptive implications and corresponded
more closely to what is traditionally intended by the construct dependency.  The picture that
emerges for neediness is of very unhappy people who badly want to be cared for and
protected by others, but who expect to be hurt in relationships, and have adopted submissive
interpersonal styles to forestall conflict and to elicit protection and support.  The picture that
emerges for connectedness is of slightly dysphoric, slightly insecure people who have adopted
(or achieved) warm, intimate ways of relating that cement relationships by making them
valued interactional partners.
     Vulnerability researchers may find that stronger and more consistent results if they
replace the undifferentiated construct of dependency with its more and less mature forms,
neediness and connectedness.  However, it may be mistaken to view connectedness as
implying positive mental health or freedom from dysphoria.  Further research is needed to
understand the psychological costs and interpersonal dilemmas associated with connectedness.

References
Blatt, S.J., D'Afflitti, J.P., & Quinlan, D.M. (1976).  Experiences of depression in normal
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Blatt, S.J., Zohar, A.H., Quinlan, D.M., Zuroff, D.C., & Mongrain, M.  (1995). Subscales
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Collins, N.L., & Read, S.J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship
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Costa, P.T., Jr., & McCrae, R.R. (1985). The NEO Personality Inventory manual. Odessa, FL:
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          543-553.

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