Group Dynamics: Chap 8: Power

Conformity in response to the commands of an authority figure

Even when doing something immoral

Pounding Feedback 65% fully obey

Voice Feedback 62% fully obeyed

Heart Condition 65% fully obeyed

Experimenter is close by and is prestigious

Victim is depersonalized and at a distance

No role model for defiance

Victim Proximity: teacher and Learner in same room -40%

Touch Proximity: teacher pushes Learners hand when two electrodes -30%

Close Surveillance: experiment gave telephone orders -40%

Victim depersonalization

Normative influence

Accountability

Informative influence

Legitimacy of authority

Self justification

When a situation is ambiguous, unfamiliar, and upsetting

People look to an expert for guidance

Reward power

Coercive power

Legitimate power

Referent power

Expert power

Informational power

One's control over the distribution of rewards

Both personal and impersonal

Ability to punish or threaten others for not complying

More likely to use reward than coercive power

Those who are appointed or elected to positions of authority

Obey because they accept the Norms of the group

Power based on Admiration, Charisma, and Attractiveness for the power holder

Powerholder possesses Superior skills and abilities

People who can Control Access to Information

That others must have to Accomplish their Goals

Biased information

Designed to influence public attitude

To suit the purpose of the author

Strategies to influence others to gain objective or advantage over others

Soft (indirect) and hard (Direct)

Rational and non-rational

Unilateral and bilateral

Using relationship between the Influencer and a Target

E.g. collaboration and socializing

Use of Coercion or impersonal Rewards

E.g. Bullying and Punishing

Emphasizes Reasoning, Logic, and Good Judgment

E.g. bargaining and persuasion

Rely on Emotionality and Misinformation

E.g. ingratiation and humor

Enacted without the cooperation of the target of influence

E.g. demands

Give-and-take on the part of both the influencer and Target

E.g. persuasion and discussion

Influencing others without their awareness

Asking someone to perform a small request

Then asking for a larger request

People will act in ways that are consistent with their initial comment

A stable and ordered pattern of individual variation

In Prestige, Status, and Authority among members

E.g. military ranking and job position

The desire to influence or direct behavior of others

Testosterone is associated with dominance

Also aggression if they're low incomed

Tendency to accept and prefer social inequalities

Combines with a general preference for hierarchical social structures

People accept dominance from others

That exhibit Specific Status Characteristics (task competence)

And Diffused Status Characteristics (General qualities)

Group members unfairly allowed irrelevant characteristics to influence prestige

Predict certain behaviors evoke behaviors from others

Positive behavior evokes positive behaviors

Negative behavior evokes negative behaviors

Dominant behaviors evokes submissive behaviors and vice versa

When members in an organized status hierarchy experience reduced autonomy

Unable to resist authorities orders

Tendency to explain people's behavior in terms of personality traits

Thereby under estimating the power of social influence

Group situation is powerful

We construct a social worlds

Suggest that power is psychologically and behaviorally activating

Lack of power leads to inhibiting