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Unmitigated Communion

Unmitigated communion is frequently correlated with psychological problem

Unmitigated communion refers to focusing on others by excluding an individual’s self . Unmitigated communion is portrayed as a way of concerning others excessively and placing other human beings’ needs or wants before his or her own . Unmitigated communion also correlated with unusual behaviourand psychological problem

Background and History

Unmitigated communion was first introduced by Bakan in the year 1966 . It was originated from a couple of foundational behaviour, communion and agency (Jin, Yperen, Sanderman, and Hagedoom, 2010). Bakan defined communion as a focus on relationship or interrelation with others and a focus that more characterises women compare to men in the culture whereas agency indicates the focus on an individual’s self . It is believed that communion is referred to as a measure of psychological felinity . However, it is claimed that now communion is perceived to reflect an aspect of female gender-related traits, a communal orientation . Bakan (1996) had never explicitly pinpointed the construct of unmitigated communion . Nevertheless, Bakan believed that high levels of communion could be mitigated by a personal sense of agency . Thus, the agency in the unmitigated communion is absolutely absent . Unmitigated communion is different than the ‘communion’ as unmitigated communion is the exaggerated version of communion ((Jin, Yperen, Sanderman, and Hagedoom, 2010) . In addition, communion is associated with the belief that other individuals are valuable, while unmitigated is not affiliated with any good or bad view of others

Roles of Unmitigated Communion

Over involvement with others

One main characteristic of unmitigated of communion would be involved in other people’s problem unreasonably and treat the issues as its own (Jin, Yperen, Sanderman, and Hagedoom, 2010). Additionally, high unmitigated communion individuals would tend to feel responsible for helping others and frequently have thoughts about other individuals’ problems . There are three ways to explain the over involvement with others.

Caretaking

An analysis revealed that unmitigated communion is more strongly correlated to support provision compares to communion . Therefore, individuals with high unmitigated communion would tend to have a “helping behaviour” in an extreme way. In a study about adjustment to heart, disease, couples who scored a relatively high in unmitigated communion would be more likely to be overprotective with the other partner . In addition, according to a study of college students and adults, unmitigated communion is associated with self-reports of interpersonal problems such as intrusive, overly nurturant, as well as self-sacrificing

Imbalanced Relationship

There is a number of reasons behind how individuals with high unmitigated communion would feel uncomfortable receiving support from others and prefer to have an imbalanced relationship. One reason is that individuals with unmitigated communion assume that not receiving any help from others could control over the relationship among friends . Individuals characterised by unmitigated communion do not expect that others would support as they are afraid that others would not respond to the needs . Therefore, unmitigated communion individuals would be more likely to drop the expectations to minimise any disappointment .  Unmitigated communion also feels that their problem should not burden others to avoid damage in the relationship

Motives for helping

Although unmitigated communion and communion are similar as they are correlated with providing support and related to empathy, the motives are entirely different. Individuals with high communion would tend to help out others genuinely . However, individuals who scored high on unmitigated communion would be more likely to help others in order to improve their self worth in front of others

Neglect of the Self

The higher an individual score on unmitigated communion, the stronger the feeling of responsibility for others (Jin, Yperen, Sanderman, and Hagedoom, 2010). Thus, it would be less likely for them to prioritise themselves (Jin, Yperen, Sanderman, and Hagedoom, 2010). It is claimed that there is a correlation between unmitigated communion and self-neglect’s indicators which includes being exploitable, difficulties in declaring one’s needs, hindering self-effacement from keeping away from conflict with others (Jin, Yperen,  Sanderman, and Hagedoom, 2010).

Externalised Self-Evaluation

Externalised self-evaluation is defined \as basing an individual’s self-evaluation on what other people think (Jack and Dill, 1992). Jin, Yperen, Sanderman, and Hagedoom (2010) believed that the mixture of both externalised self-evaluation and the belief of negative opinion from others would lead to low self-esteem as well as subsequent depressive symptoms.

Gender

Gender in the theory of unmitigated communion

In 1966, Bakan claimed that there are two modes of existence, which includes agency and communion . Self-enhancement and self –assertion would be correlated with the agency, whereas society or group cooperation would be related to communion . It is believed that individual with the unmitigated agency would tend to isolate themselves from others, while unmitigated communion would exclude themselves for others . From the gender perspectives, it is claimed that males would tend to be ‘agentic’ than females . The existence of sex variance in communal and agentic could trigger conflicts between male and female . For instance, the majority of female complained that they could not communicate their inner feelings with their partners, while most of the males complained that their partners are too emotional .

Implication and relation to other factors

Relation to Well-Being

One implication that could be affected by unmitigated communion is psychological and physical well being. For instance, psychological distress might arise due to interpersonal behaviours, over involvement with others and self-neglect . Moreover, the over involvement with others would also lead to some problems that could lead to more severe distress . The negative view of self could also lead to physical issues .

Relation to Disturbed Eating Disorder in Adolescents

One reason for how both unmitigated communion and eating disorder are linked is because unmitigated communion could lead to low self-esteem .  Hence, the adolescent would be pressured to look more fit and skinny in front of their peers . During adolescence, individuals with high unmitigated communion would tend to have overly other-focused behaviour; thus self-image from other people’s perspective is tremendously essential .

Relation to Economic Costs in Distributive and Integrative Bargaining

Unmitigated communion is related to the economic cost in distributive and integrative bargaining. This is because unmitigated communion might apply in the business environment during economic negotiations as it involves self-concern and relationship . The objective of distributive bargaining is to gain a big portion of a certain pie of value, whereas the goal of integrative bargaining is to increase the size of the pie. In order to understand the consequence of unmitigated communion in negotiation, two conflict situations which includes distributive and integrative should be distinguished . Distributive conflict is a few and simple issues that occur during negotiation . While, integrative conflict is the issue that occurs in a complex business relationship

From the perspective of distributive bargaining, individuals with high unmitigated communion would be more likely to agree on low monetary outcomes during business negotiations . Besides, joint gains cannot be maximised in the integrative negotiation as relationship matter of unmitigated communion would hinder the negotiator