The power motive and affective response to assertiveness

Hypothesizing that persons high in power motivation experience cardiovascular stress in circumstances that simultaneously arouse and thwart the power need, McClelland, 1976, McClelland, 1982 formulated the concept of power stress. An experiment explored the reactions of college men high and low in power motivation to a hypothetical candidate for appointment to a research position at a biotech company. We measured need for power using (Winter’s, 1973) Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) measure. Half the participants viewed a videotape of an interview in which an actor portrayed himself as highly assertive. The other half saw the actor portray himself as moderately but not excessively compliant. Participants high in power motivation exhibited high electromyographic responsivity from the brow supercilli (frown muscles) when exposed to the assertive candidate, higher than participants low in power motivation and higher than all participants who viewed the compliant candidate (p < .05). Scores on the Affective Attitudes Scale (Crites, Fabrigar, & Petty, 1994) assumed the same pattern (p < .01). We interpret these findings as consistent with McClelland’s formulation of the power-stress concept and suggest possible relevance to observations that one might apply to power-motivated political figures.     

Dimensions of need for power: Personalized vs. socialized power in female and male managers

Sex differences in two dimensions of need for Power—Socialized Power (s Pwr) and Personalized Power (p Pwr)—were examined for a sample of 124 managerial women and men. Correlations with job satisfaction were analyzed as well as the ability of two versions of the thematic apperception test (TAT) to measure both s Pwr and p Pwr. Results show that female managers are higher than male managers in the “desirable” s Pwr need and the same in the “less desirable” p Pwr. Socialized Power correlates significantly with job satisfaction for the males, but not for the females. Personalized Power shows no significant correlation for either gender. Both versions of the TAT are interchangeable and scores are comparable for s Pwr and p Pwr.     

Further investigation of the relationship between expressed social fear and assertiveness

Recently, Morgan (1974) investigated the relationship between expressed social fear and assertiveness. As hypothesized, Morgan found a statistically significant relationship between social fear as measured by ten items from the Fear Survey Schedule-III (FSS-III) (Wolpe and Lang, 1964) and assertiveness as measured by the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS) (Rathus, 1973b). The observed relationship, however, was of little predictive importance, as noted by Morgan, in that the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients accounted at most for less than 6 per cent of the variance. This finding raises questions concerning traditional views of assertiveness (e.g. Salter, 1949; Wolpe 1958; Wolpe and Lazarus, 1966) which have hypothesized that an individual is “inhibited from the performance of ‘normal’ behavior because of neurotic fear” (Wolpe, 1973, p. 81).The literature concerning the relationship between assertive behavior and social fear is meager. Goldstein, Serber and Piaget (1970) have reported two illustrative case studies in which anger expressiveness induced through assertiveness training resulted in the clinically assessed reduction of social fear. Rathus (1973a) has reported the results of an empirical investigation of assertiveness training which might, as suggested by Morgan, lend indirect support for the hypothesized relationship. Using undergraduate female subjects, Rathus found that an assertive training group not only scored higher on a measure of assertiveness—the RAS—at post-testing than either the placebo or the no-treatment groups, but the training group also reported a nonsignificant tendency of being less fearful than the other two groups of social criticism and social incompetence, as measured by the Temple Fear Survey (Braun and Reynolds, 1969).Weinman et at. (1972) administered the Fear Survey Schedule-II (FSS-II) (Geer, 1965) to a sample of hospitalized patients diagnosed as schizophrenic. The FSS-II consists of 51 fear items, 13 or 25.9% of which can be considered to be interpersonal in nature. All three treatment conditions—socioenvironmental, desensitization, and relaxation therapy—resulted in a significant decrease in reported fear (p < 0.001).Bates and Zimmennan (1971) during the initial stages of constructing their Constriction Scale (CS) administered the CS and the FSS-II. The term ‘constriction’, incidentally, was used by the authors to “denote non-assertion” (p. 100). Unlike the RAS, a high score on the CS denotes low assertiveness. Correlation coefficients for the CS with the FSS-II of 0.32 for the male sample and 0.13 for the female sample were obtained. The male coefficient was significant at the 0.05 level. These findings may be confounded, as in the case of Weinman et al. (1972), by the inclusion of fear items on the FSS-II unrelated to interpersonal behavior, such as Thunderstorms' and ‘Hypodermic needles’.Morgan (1974) attacked the problem more directly. Drawing on several factor analytic studies of various fear schedules, Morgan constructed a 10-item Social Fear Scale (SFS) from the FSS-III. Using a large, undergraduate sample (n = 261), Morgan reported correlation coefficients for the RAS with SFS of-0.17 for the male sample, ?0.20 for the female sample, and ?0.24 for the sample as a whole.Whereas the magnitude of the correlation coefficients reported by Bates and Zimmerman (1971) may have been attenuated by the inclusion of items unrelated to social situations, Morgan's results may have been attenuated by the tapping of only limited aspects of social fear. Morgan reported that in the construction of the SFS, “The items selected were those which most consistently loaded heavily on ‘social fear’ factors and did not load heavily on other factors” (1974, p. 255). Inspection of FSS-III items not included in the SFS, however, indicated that several had been excluded which may be conceptualized as relevant to assertive behavior, such as ‘Speaking in public’, ‘Feeling angry’, and ‘People in authority’.It is suggested that an expanded SFS which would include all items from the FSS-III conceptually compatible with assertiveness might result in findings of greater predictive value. One purpose of this study is the replication of the Morgan (1974) study. In addition, however, a more comprehensive SFS and another measure of assertiveness will be used to further investigate the relationship between assertiveness and social fear. It is hypothesized that the expanded SFS will correlate inversely with both self-report measures of assertiveness to a degree significantly greater than the correlations of the two measures with the original SFS.     

Perceptions of assertiveness by high- and low-assertive female college students

The interpersonal effects of assertive and unassertive behavior on females who scored high and low in self-reported assertion were examined. Subjects from each of the two assertion categories individually interacted with a female confederate trained to act either assertively or unassertively in a structured manner. In analyzing the subjects' impressions of the confederate, no significant differences between high and low assertives on the dimensions of competence, task attraction, social attraction, likability, and desirability were found. Assertive responding appeared less salient to the observer assertee in more naturalistic conditions and its social impact seemed more attenuated when the assertive responding took on a relatively mild form that posed little or no direct social or personal risk to the receiver of the assertive behavior.     

The power motive, n power, and fear of weakness

Among 85 male undergraduates, high need for power as measured by the 1968 Winter scoring system is shown to relate to high drinking frequency (p less than .01), high alcohol consumption (p less than .05), and taking the first drink at age 16 or less (p less than .05); to the Disinhibition ("Swinger") factor on Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale (p less than .05) to poor academic performance (p less than .05); and to generate a regression equation with the California Psychological Inventory that suggests qualities of personal disorderliness and intellectual aggression. These findings, considered in terms of power motive theory, are seen as replicating earlier evidence that high n Power is maladaptie, voyeuristic and power avoidant.     

Conformity behavior of Afrikaans- and English-speaking adolescents in South Africa.

The conformity behaviors of 50 Afrikaans- and 48 English-speaking early adolescents (ages 12 to 14 years) were measured by a modified Asch experiment and then compared. The effects of sex, self-concept (measured by the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale) and certain personality factors (measured by the High School Personality Questionnaire) were also examined. No significant differences between the conformity scores of the two groups were found, but boys and girls significantly differed with regard to their conformity scores. Although subjects with low self-concept scores did not have higher conformity scores than those with high self-concept scores, a significant difference between the self-concept scores of Afrikaans- and English-speaking adolescents was demonstrated. Low but significant correlations were found between personality factors (A, J, and Q2) and conformity scores.     

Comparative self-concept variances of school children in two English-speaking West African nations

This study examined the self-concepts of elementary school children in Grades 2, 4, 6, and 8, from two West African nations, Ghana and Gambia. Measures of self-concept in the areas of physical maturity, peer relations, academic success, and school adaptiveness were obtained from 195 Ghanaian and 156 Gambian students. The mean scores of the students were subjected to a series of three-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs). The independent variables were sex, grade level, and nationality. The overall analyses revealed grade level as the most potent variable in the self-concept development of both groups, whereas the sex variable indicated interaction with grade level only in Gambian children. The self-esteem of the children in both nations in the areas of physical maturity, peer relations, and academic success was relatively high and stable. Self-concept developmental patterns showed differences across grade levels in the four self-concept areas being tested.     

Substantive differences in the assertiveness of low-income African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian women

A sample of 115 low-income African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian women participated in 6 assertiveness role plays. A content analysis of their responses indicated that there are substantive differences in terms of what constitutes passive, assertive, and aggressive responses. The findings suggest that there are basic conceptual differences across the groups regarding connections and obligations to others. Differences in perceptions of assertiveness point to the culturally specific nature of assertiveness. Functionally, each group of women was able to stand up for themselves, yet boundaries between appropriate and inappropriate responding were placed somewhat differently across groups, depending on the situation.     

The need for power,brain norepinephrine turnover,and memory

Subjects were classified according to whether they were high or low in the need for Power and high or low in gain in 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), a putative index of brain norepinephrine (NE) turnover, after engaging in some tasks that involved memory for story content. Subjects who were high inn Power and in the index of brain NE turnover showed better recall of power-related facts than subjects low on both these characteristics, confirming an earlier finding, which suggests that the need for Power is subserved by a noradrenergic reward system in the brain.     

The Structure of Parental Bonding in South African Students

The Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI: Parker, Tupling & Brown, 1979) offers a practical way of conceptualizing parental experiences. In the present study, PBI scores of 522 students from a South African university were factor analyzed, yielding a three-factor structure for the maternal-PBI subscale. However, the paternal-PBI data were interpretable only for a four-factor solution. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted and Kendler's (1996) three-factor model offered the best-fit to the maternal-PBI data. The regression analyses on depression versus PBI factors of warmth, protectiveness and authoritarianism showed that higher parenting-style scores of maternal authoritarianism and paternal warmth increased the subjective experience of depression, and paternal protectiveness predicted a decrease of depression reports.     

The Need for Power and Fear of Assertiveness in English-Speaking South African Female Graduates

The present study demonstrated that Winter's (1973) power arousal procedure and scoring system for the need for power, which were developed in the United States, are valid for English-speaking South African female graduates. Subjects in whom the need for power had been aroused by a prerecorded inspirational speech (n = 20) had significantly higher n Power scores than matched nonaroused subjects (n = 20), T ²(8, 31) = 56.17, p ≤ .01. Further, it was argued that the fear of assertiveness is a component of the need for power, and a scoring system for measuring this motive was suggested. Fear of assertiveness was shown to correlate significantly with various behavioral and dispositional measures of assertiveness, relating especially to a dependency pattern of behavior.     

Sexuality and power on South African game farms; reflections on positionality and emotions in ethnographic research

The taboo around researchers' sexualities and sexual experiences in ethnographic field work persists. We found that our sexuality, alongside physical and emotional experiences, were pivotal to how we shaped research relations and processes. This evokes questions around how we reflect on our positionalities and the knowledge we generate. We argue that ethnographic accounts are strengthened by inclusive reflexivity, that acknowledges sex and sexuality. This article presents empirical material from field experiences on South African game farms. These spaces tend to represent a particular image of wilderness, constructed according to patriarchal and racist hierarchies, which heighten contestations over belonging. As such they become spaces of violence, seduction, and power, and we found ourselves (neither minds nor bodies) unable to detach from these spatial and emotional dynamics. Our strategies for ‘being in the field’ came to evolve around negotiations of power, sex and complicity. The emotional dynamics made us feel confused, bewildered and sometimes scared. We seek to share our experiences and feelings, and to contribute to discussion on the role of sexuality in ethnographic research, and the epistemological, methodological and practical advantages of reflecting on the ways we engage in the field.     

The ethics of selection quotas in South African sport1

This article explores and unpacks the public debate on the ethics of applying selection quotas to South African international sport sides to achieve transformation, with special attention to cricket and rugby, the Proteas and Springboks respectively. I claim that for quotas to be morally called for, the racial transformation they are in service of must be morally required. Following an earlier article of mine on the subject of transformation in South African sport, I briefly reject two manifestations of the goal of having the sides’ racial demographics match those of the country as a whole, and proceed to defend and develop two different transformational requirements: the ending of ongoing racial bias and the provision of equality of opportunity. I argue that while there may be a place for alternative forms of affirmative selection, the case for rigid quotas is marginal at best. While I do not argue for the claim here, it neither follows from this, nor do I believe, that the use of quotas is morally wrong. I argue only that the case for them is not particularly strong and depends, particularly, on the extent to which ongoing racial bias in selection persists.     

Integration and Social Identity of Foreign African Professionals in South African Organisations

This study explored integration and social identity of foreign African nationals in the South African workplace. The study also explored the implications of the Employment Equity Act of 2006 as interpreted by foreign African nationals within the contexts of integration and social identity. The study interviewed eight men and two women working in South Africa. The average age of the participants was 37 years. Data on integration and social identity of African professionals working in South Africa were collected through interviews and the data were analysed qualitatively. The findings of the study were that the South African labour legislation on employment equity was perceived as discriminatory to foreign African nationals. The professional foreign African workers perceived less xenophobia and racism directed at them that could be experienced by others in nonprofessional positions.     

Personal need for structure and creative performance: the moderating influence of fear of invalidity

Previous research has suggested that personal need for structure (PNS) is negatively related to creative performance. In this article, it is argued that this relation, in fact, depends on another personality variable: personal fear of invalidity (PFI). When PFI is high, PNS should indeed be negatively associated with creativity. However, PNS should be positively associated with creativity when PFI is low, because this combination enables people to take a structured approach to creative tasks and this can be helpful to overcome their reliance on conventional and accessible task strategies. In four studies, this hypothesis is tested using different measures of creative performance. The expected interaction effect is found for measures of ideational fluency and measures of originality but not for measures of flexibility. Moreover, it is shown that the interaction effect between PNS and PFI is mediated by perseverance within thought categories.     

The meaning of work for South African women: A phenomenological study

This study sought to gain an in-depth understanding of the meaning that women attribute to their work in the South African context. The six women informants were 27–32 years old, all with tertiary education, in senior positions, without children. Data on the meaning of work for South African women were collected using semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that the meaning of work for South African women changes when they experience work autonomy. Working women also report having a sense of identity and self-worth, meeting instrumental needs, achieving social relatedness, and being of service to others. The meaning of work also comes from intrinsic satisfaction, a sense of power and authority.