ABSTRACT
Affinity seeking is “the active social—communicative process by which individuals attempt to get others to like and feel positive toward them”. Bell, Tremblay, and Buerkel-Rothfuss then created the self-report Affinity-Seeking Instrument to tap this ability. Bell, Tremblay, and Buerkel-Rothfuss provided evidence of construct and concurrent validity. First, they tested the stability of the factor structure of the Affinity-Seeking Instrument and found the same two-factor solution discovered in their first study. Buerkel-Rothfuss and Bell provided additional criterion-related validity information. This is a relatively new instrument and could use additional testing. In particular, researchers must discover the conceptual meaning of the subscales and the relationship between them. The instrument, however, appears useful for tapping an important aspect of social—communicative competence and should be related to constructs such as friendship, loneliness, and need for inclusion.
