The Dyadic Power-Social Influence Model

Abstract

Imagine a couple, Johnny and Tara, both of whom love each other and are in a happy, committed relationship. Johnny is a strikingly attractive man with a lot of resources and many potential dating options if he chose to pursue them. Tara is similarly attractive, but has fewer resources and more limited options for possible alternative partners. According to traditional conceptualizations of power (see Galinksy, Rucker, & Magee, 2015; Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2003), Johnny has greater power in the relationship than Tara does. Consistent with his level of power, Johnny usually gets his way when he and Tara make decisions on issues that are important to him, but Tara still makes a good percentage of the decisions in their relationship, and Johnny occasionally steps back to let Tara “get her away” when certain decisions need to be made. Why doesn’t Johnny make most or all of the decisions in their relationship? Why does he defer to Tara when certain decisions are made, and even make no attempt to influence her at times? The reasons center on the critical fact that, unlike strangers or individuals in highly structured roles (e.g., coworkers), Johnny and Tara are voluntarily involved in a close relationship in which power and the use of influence strategies and tactics must be enacted in an appropriate and judicious way in order for both of them to remain happy and for their relationship to remain stable. Models of power within close relationships, therefore, are likely to be different than those developed for other types of relationships. In this chapter, we overview the dyadic powersocial influence model (DPSIM; Simpson et al., 2015), which suggests how the use of different influence strategies/tactics, situated within the unique power dynamics that exist between relationship partners, should be related to different types of personal and relational outcomes. We also highlight some of the situational factors that may affect the use of certain influence strategies/tactics by relationship partners who have higher versus lower power and then discuss recent dyadic power studies that have tested predictions relevant to the DPSIM model. We conclude by pointing out several promising directions in which future research on power in close relationships might head. 5