Power: Concepts and Constructs

Before we examine what exactly power motivation might be and how it is commonly conceptualized, we need to have a clear understanding of the phenomena thought to be constitutive of power and the contexts in which they come to bear. Social sciences such as sociology and political science are primarily concerned with the static state of existing power relationships and the role that these relationships play in maintaining and consolidating specific hierarchies. Behavioral sciences such as psychology tend to be more interested in the dynamic process of the exercise of power, its individual determinants and concomitant conditions. Sociobiology focuses on the relationship between power, status, and resources and the ultimate biological goal of maximizing reproductive fitness, the theory being that organisms with access to power, status, and influence have (or had) an adaptive advantage over organisms without the benefit of these resources.

Power – and the inequality of its distribution among individuals, social groups, animal societies, and nations – is a multifarious social phenomenon that, like few others, has been the object of explanations, justifications, and objections since time immemorial. In almost all cultures of the world, it is common to describe members of one's group in terms of “dominance”/“submission” and, in so doing, to implicitly acknowledge that group relations are determined by an underlying dimension of power and dominance (Kenrick, Li, & Butner, 2003).