The power motive and affective response to assertiveness

Abstract

Hypothesizing that persons high in power motivation experience cardiovascular stress in circumstances that simultaneously arouse and thwart the power need, McClelland (1976, 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.