Social Power and Culture

Abstract

Social power is a fundamental concept in social relationships. Social power is defined as a potential capacity to change other's state by providing or withholding resources or administering punishments. It exists in many kinds of everyday relationships (e.g., teacher-student and peers). Power affects not only targets but also the agents who use it. Having power or lacking power affects people's emotions, cognitions and behaviors. The Approach/Inhibition theory of power states that elevated power is associated with increased rewards and freedom and thereby activates approach-related tendencies. On the other hands, reduced power is associated with increased threat, punishment, and social constraints and thereby activates inhibition-related tendencies. In this theory, approach system links attention to rewards, positive emotions, automatic cognitions and disinhibited behaviors. Inhibition system, on the contrary, links attention to threats, negative emotions, controlled cognitions and inhibited behaviors. Another point of interest is whether or not power has the same effect across cultures. Power is originally a relational variable, and interpersonal relationships seem different across cultures (e.g., collectivism-individualism). In my opinion, cultural differences related to power have two aspects: (a) people's sensitivity to power is different across cultures, and (b) power maybe relates to a different goal in Western and Eastern cultures. Some empirical data and plans for future research in social psychology are proposed.