Power (Psychology)

More than 30 states currently implement some form of outcomes or performancebased funding for public two-year and/or four-year institutions of higher education. Thirteen of these states have public Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Every state’s higher education governance and power relationships are a unique compilation of internal and external entities such as the governor, governing boards, policymakers, higher education staff and advisors, and the institution’s administration, faculty, students, and alumni. Each entity holds power over the HBCU or its state policy context.

The current studies examined the interplay of dominance and power in their effects on various forms of prosociality, along with potential mechanisms that may account for their differential effects. Study 1 found that dominance and power had opposing effects on general prosocial tendencies, with dominance negatively relating to and power positively relating to general prosociality. Study 2 found the negative effects of dominance to be consistent both for general and relationship-specific prosociality. The effects of power were not replicated for the outcomes shared with Study 1, but other positive associations were found between power and prosocial propensities. Indirect effects in studies 1 and 2 supported the potential mediating role of other focus in explaining the differential effects of dominance and power. Study 3 utilized an experimental design to directly examine the potential mediating role of other-focus, by manipulating independent versus interdependent self-construals. Significant interactions between power and condition supported the notion that power positively affects prosociality by increasing other-focus. In the interdependent condition, power significantly predicted perspective-taking, whereas in the independent condition, the effect of power on perspective-taking was not significant. Study 4 involved collecting dyadic data from romantic partners, but did not find any significant partner effects. In line with the other studies, dominance was negatively associated with self-reported supportive tendencies as well as self-reported perceptions of a partner’s supportive behaviors.

Like Salt for Bread is a sixteen poem creative thesis that explores the razorwire
balance of power and vulnerability. In some poems, the relationship seems
clearly defined by an aggressor or catalyst that threatens emotional and
sometimes physical violence. In the others, the balance shifts from the speaker to
another, alternates between one speaker and another, or even alters within the
speaker's consciousness. Regardless, each poem examines a moment that is not a
measure of time but a force that tends toward rotation- changes that occur
around the axes of authority and control. The resulting torque exposes
assumptions about long-standing myths, personal and popular.