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What Is Power?

What Is Power?. Power is relational. Individuals with power derive it from their social relationships. Other individuals assent, overtly or covertly, to its use. Power is based on resources. The amount of power you judge yourself or another to have is based on the resources you each control.

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What Is Power?

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  1. What Is Power? • Power is relational. • Individuals with power derive it from their social relationships. • Other individuals assent, overtly or covertly, to its use. • Power is based on resources. • The amount of power you judge yourself or another to have is based on the resources you each control. • This also determines the extent to which either one of you feels dependent in the relationship.

  2. Types of Power • Reward power:A person controls something valued by another. • Coercive power:A person can deliver negative consequences in response to the actions of another. • Expert power:A person possesses special knowledge or skills that another person believes he or she needs.

  3. Types of Power • Legitimate power:Because of his or her position, one person can control others. • Referent power:Because of the respect accorded a person and others’ desire to be like him or her, that person is able to convince others to do as he or she wants. • Persuasive power:A person has the ability to persuade others to believe or act as he or she wants.

  4. Attitudes, Beliefs, Values • Our attitudes cause us to respond in a particular way to a given stimulus. They come from our: • Family. We acquire at least some of our attitudes from our parents. • Religion. Religion affects the attitudes of both believers and nonbelievers. • Schools. What we are taught, who teaches us, and what we read and discuss all affect our attitudes. • Economic and social class. Our economic status helps determine the social arena we frequent. • Culture. The messages our culture considers important are constantly reinforced for us.

  5. Attitudes, Beliefs, Values • We have even more beliefs than attitudes. Beliefs are the building blocks of attitudes. • While attitudes are measured on a favorable-unfavorable or good-bad continuum, beliefs are measured on a true-false or probable-improbable continuum. • Beliefs help us describe how we view reality.

  6. Attitudes, Beliefs, Values • It is important to recognize that our beliefs are not necessarily logical. Sometimes we hold them only because of what we need to believe, what we are able to believe, or what others teach us to believe. • Values are ideas about what is important in life. • Like our attitudes and beliefs, our values influence our communication with others.

  7. Strategies for Gaining Compliance • Make a direct request. • Add supporting evidence to strengthen your request. • Offer a trade-off of benefits. • Coerce the other person into complying. • Describe other benefits the person might receive by complying. • Make an indirect request using emotion-laden statements. • Aim to instill empathy for your need.

  8. Balance Theory X P O P = one person O = another person X= the subject under discussion

  9. Balance Theory X - - P O + + = a positive feeling or attitude - = a negative feeling or attitude

  10. Balance Theory X - - P O + An interpersonal relationship is balanced whenever the model contains three pluses or one plus and two minuses. This relationship is balanced.

  11. Balance Theory X + - P O + This relationship is not balanced.

  12. Balance Theory X + + P O - This relationship is not balanced, either.

  13. Cognitive Dissonance • Cognitive dissonanceis an aversive drive that propels us toward consistency. We are compelled to bring our beliefs into harmony with our actions. • Through selective exposurewe reduce dissonance by avoiding information and people likely to contradict our beliefs. • Our need for reassuranceensures we will seek out information and social support to confirm our decisions. • Minimal justification for actionsuggests that small incentives are most effective at creating dissonance and inducing attitude change.

  14. Gender and Power • Society perpetuates a view of women as less powerful. People expect men to earn more and to achieve greater status than women. • Men attempt to exert control and dominate in relationships more than women do. • Many women perceive power differently than men do and exert power based on alternative models of personal authority and reciprocal empowerment.

  15. Characteristics of low power distance cultures: Minimizing class/social differences Challenging authority figures Using power for legitimate purposes only Characteristics of high power distance cultures: Treating power as a fact of life Accepting inequalities in society Bypassing subordinates in decision making Culture and Power Distance

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