Theories in Social Psychology, 2nd Edition

10 Interdependence in Social Interaction

Ann C. Rumble

Our daily lives are consumed with human interactions: we interact at work, school, home, and when out in public. The interactions we have with others shape our social world and are critical to our well-being. Never has this been more apparent than the COVID-19 pandemic, when we were isolated from others, and we lost some, if not all, of our daily interactions with others. But fortunately, we learned new ways to interact in order to regain some of those missing interactions. We learned to have dinner parties and game nights via video conferencing; some learned to teach or take classes online or shifted to working virtually (Amenabar, 2020; Kuyat, 2020; Payne, 2020; Reilly, 2020). As we experienced a shift in the modality, what did not shift was how interdependent we are on one another. Interdependence describes the nature of our interactions, how we depend on one another to achieve goals and maintain relationships (Kelley & Thibaut, 1978; Thibaut & Kelley, 1959). And so, we learned to coordinate while having discussions via video conferencing and to cooperate/collaborate in virtual environments. We also became more aware of the importance of cooperation/coordination, not just to interpersonal relationships, but at the local, national, and global level to stave off virus transmission rates (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, 2020).

Interdependence is at the heart of most human interactions; it is our dependence ...