The Likelihood of Use of Social Power Strategies by School Psychologists When Consulting With Teachers

Abstract

The Interpersonal Power Inventory (IPI) has been applied previously to investigate school psychologists engaged in problem-solving consultation with teachers concerning students having various learning and adjustment problems. Relevant prior findings include (a) consultants and teachers both perceive soft power strategies as more effective than harsh power strategies when consultants are attempting to influence teachers who are described as initially reluctant to comply with requests, and (b) compared with male consultants, female consultants view soft power strategies as more effective. Moving away from judgments of perceived effectiveness, this study investigated the likelihood of use of specific power strategies by school psychologists when consulting with teachers. It was hypothesized that (a) psychologists overall would report a greater likelihood of using soft versus harsh power strategies, (b) female psychologists would report a greater likelihood of using soft power strategies than male psychologists, and (c) psychologists overall would report a greater likelihood of using direct informational, positive expert, and positive referent power versus the remaining eight power strategies measured by the IPI. A U.S. sample of 352 school psychologists (71% female) completed a version of the IPI modified to examine likelihood of use. The first hypothesis received strong support; the second, no support; and the third, moderate support.