Lecture 9. Control and Personality. Professor Ian Robertson

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1 Lecture 9 Control and Personality Professor Ian Robertson

2 SEE KELTNER ET AL PSYCH REVIEW (FROM LECTURE 8)

3 Why does Power increase behavioural activation? Power is correlated with increased resources. Powerful individuals live in environments with abundant rewards including: financial resources, physical comforts, beauty, and health social resources, such as flattery, esteem, attraction, and praise. The experience of power involves the awareness that one can act at will without interference or serious social consequences. Acting within reward-rich environments and being unconstrained by others evaluations or the consequences of one s actions, people with elevated power should be disposed to elevated levels of approach related affect, cognition, and behaviour.

4 Why does Lower Power increase behavioural inhibition? Less powerful individuals have less access to material, social, and cultural resources and more subject to social threats and punishments. Hence more sensitive to the evaluations and potential constraints of others eg: less powerful individuals are more likely to be victims of aggression. childhood bullying is directed at low-status children (Whitney & Smith, 1993) racism and discrimination against minority groups in violence against women (Sanday, 1981) in violent crime perpetrated against members of lower classes Acting in environments with increased punishment, threat, and the lack of resources and being aware of social constraints, people with reduced power should be disposed to higher levels of inhibition related emotions, thought and action

5 Proposition 1: Elevated Power Increases the Experience and Expression of Positive Affect

6 Proposition 2: Reduced Power Increases the Experience and Expression of Negative Affect

7 Proposition 3: Elevated Power Increases the Sensitivity to Rewards

8 Proposition 3: Elevated Power Increases the Sensitivity to Rewards Proposition 5: Elevated Power Increases the Tendency to Construe Others as a Means to One s Own Ends Proposition 6: Reduced Power Increases the Tendency to View the Self as a Means to Others Ends

9 Proposition 7: Elevated Power Increases the Automaticity of Social Cognition

10 Negotiation: high-power disputants tend to be less aware of their opponents underlying interests than are low -power disputants, who are more likely to discover integrative solutions that benefit both parties Power differences may account for the tendency for men to be slightly less accurate than women in judging expressive behaviour Power may explain why younger siblings, who experience reduced power vis-a`-vis older siblings, outperform their older siblings on theory-of-mind tasks, which assess the ability to imagine the intentions and beliefs of others Keltner et al

11 Proposition 8: Reduced Power Increases Controlled Social Cognition

12 Proposition 9: Elevated Power Increases the Likelihood of Approach-Related Behaviour Proposition 10: Reduced Power Increases Behavioural Inhibition Proposition 11: Elevated Power Increases the Consistency and Coherence of Social Behavior

13 Explicit and Implicit Motivation McClelland et al 1989 (Psychological Review, 96, ) Explicit versus implicit motivational systems Explicit - self-attributed motives and goals that people verbally ascribe to themselves- give rise to controlled forms of behaviour. Implicit motivational system represents individuals implicit motives that operate outside of people s conscious awareness These orient, select and energize spontaneous forms of behaviour. McClelland argued that implicit motives are mediated by brain areas subserving motivation and the autonomic nervous system eg hormone release. Stanton and Schultheiss Journal of Research in Personality 43 (2009)

15 Need for Power N Power assessed by content-coding imaginative stories written in response to picture cues Called the Picture Story Exercise (PSE) Trained coder codes the stories for power imagery Thematic content are coded for n Power in participants PSE stories strong and forceful actions that have impact over others, controlling others, influencing or persuading others, offering unsolicited help or advice impressing others fame, prestige, reputation actions that elicit a strong emotional response in others

16 Pairs competed on reaction timed tasks Winning or losing was fixed. N Power assesssed Cortisol measured Losing (open circles) more stressful for high power need Winning (closed circles) more stressful for low power need.

17 Power was primed by word search task which included words related to power

19 Hormones and Behavior 36, (1999) Personal versus Social Power Those high in p Power satisfy their need for impact in assertive ways Those high in s Power try to have impact through prosocial behavior, and a strong socialized power motive acts as a check on personalized power concerns

20 Imagining winning contest: effects on testosterone Higher the P power, higher the rise in testosterone after imagining winning contest But NOT in those who also had S power motivations

21 Actually winning or losing contest: effects on testosterone

Individuals high in npower Stronger bilateral activation in response to anger faces in the anterior caudate and the anterior insula, Suggests more primed to recruit behavioral routines to cope with

23 Individuals high in npower Stronger bilateral activation in response to anger faces in the anterior caudate and the anterior insula, Suggests more primed to recruit behavioral routines to cope with the dominance challenge of encountering a threatening anger face - also may have experienced stronger bodily Copyright restrictions responses may apply. to it Schultheiss, O. C. et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci : ; doi: /scan/nsn030

25 Dominance in Women animal studies have demonstrated that hormone estradiol can positively influence dominance behavior or the motivation to attain dominance in females of several mammalian species researchers have proposed that estradiol might have a more direct connection to dominance in women

27 Women's estradiol responses to a dominance contest were influenced by the interaction of n Power and contest outcome: estradiol increased in power-motivated winners but decreased in power-motivated losers. For power-motivated winners, elevated levels of estradiol were still present the day after the contest. n Power and estradiol did not correlate with self-reported dominance and correlated negatively with self-reported aggression. Selfreported dominance and aggression did not predict estradiol changes as a function of contest outcome.

28 high levels of n Power linked to sexual activity (McClelland, 1975; Winter, 1973), and this finding holds both for men and for women Rising levels of estradiol have also been found to be associated with behavioral indicators of mate pursuit and increased sexual activity in women The difference between single women and women engaged in close relationships may suggest that in single women, n Power is closely aligned with estradiol's role in attracting a sexual partner (cf., Grammer et al., 2004), but that this link is less important for women who have already found a partner

IMPROVING INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS. Facilitator: Ms. Vu Viet Hang (M.Ed)

IMPROVING INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS Facilitator: Ms. Vu Viet Hang (M.Ed) Communication Climate The emotional feelings that are present when people interact with one another Communication climates are