Perception of power in conflict situations.

Obtained judgments from 288 undergraduates regarding the power of the participants in a series of conflictual circumstances where an adversary threatened a target. These situations manipulated 4 independent variables: (a) the adversary's capacity to damage the target's interests, (b) the adversary's probability of actually attacking, (c) the target's ability to block the impending attack, and (d) the target's capacity to retaliate. Results show that all of the independent variables affected the Ss' judgments of the adversary's power, while damage, blockage, and retaliation affected judgments of the target's power. Differences in the predictive equations for judgments of adversary power and target power were noted, and a theoretical model was formulated to explain these differences. This model, cast in terms of the patterns of control exercised over valued outcomes, sharpened the focus on remaining issues in power perception. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)