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Power and the Social Self

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The Social Developmental Construction of Violence and Intergroup Conflict

Abstract

This chapter presents a comprehensive, scholarly review on the effects of power on powerholders’ social judgments and behavior. Power is with no doubt a key concept that characterizes asymmetric social relations. The chapter does not only bring together the most important approaches to the understanding of what it means to be in a powerful position, but also proposes a very clear conclusion namely that power amplifies the active self of the powerholder, a self that is understood as situated and linked to the social context. Implications of this conclusion resonate that power may magnify problematic self-aspects such as tendencies to preserve ones power and to pay less attention to other’s needs compared to one’s own—tendencies that contribute to the maintenance and aggravation of social inequality beyond of what is acceptable. Yet what is magnified by power depends on what dominates in the person and in the contextualized situation, including the possible inclusion of others in the self and the possible endorsement of ideologies promoting equality.

To Maria Benedicta Monteiro,

as a dear friend, and for her pioneering contributions

to social psychology in Portugal and beyond.

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  1. University College of London, London, UK

    Ana Guinote & Alice Cai

  2. Leardership Knowledge Center, Nova School of Business and Economics, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Guinote

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    Jorge Vala

  2. CIS -IUL, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal

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  3. CIS -IUL, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal

    Maria Manuela Calheiros

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Guinote, A., Cai, A. (2016). Power and the Social Self. In: Vala, J., Waldzus, S., Calheiros, M. (eds) The Social Developmental Construction of Violence and Intergroup Conflict . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42727-0_1

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