Navigating Interdependent Social Situations

Interdependence is a fundamental characteristic of social situations. Yet, in everyday life,
people rarely have direct knowledge about how their own and others’ decisions influence
desired outcomes. The chapter discusses two models of objective differences in
interdependent situations and then outlines three theoretical approaches to
understanding how people form interdependence perceptions: an experiential learning
approach, a mental templates approach, and functional interdependence theory. It then
reviews recent innovations in the measurement of interdependence perceptions across
situationsIt describes how these theoretical approaches and measures can be used to
investigate (a) the cues that people use to infer interdependence, (b) the common forms
of interdependence people experience in their daily lives, (c) the importance of future
interdependence and biased inferences, and (d) the role of personality in shaping
interdependence perceptions. It concludes with discussing how recent research on
interdependence perceptions can be integrated with existing empirical findings on
taxonomies of psychological situations.