The Measurement of the Construct of Dominance and its Relationship to Nonverbal Behavior

Summary

The following essay briefly outlines some problems involved in the manner in which the construct of dominance has traditionally been assessed for human S s. It is argued that previous studies which have relied on a single paper-and-pencil measure as the sole means of dominance assessment are open to question because of the problematical response characteristics of the most frequently administered scales. In the study described below, 62 male undergraduates were administered the Bernreuter Personality Inventory, the Gough 60 Point Dominance Scale, and the California Psychological Inventory, and then they participated in an experimental procedure designed to assess their relative dominance as manifested in eye contact behaviors. The results indicate that hypothesis-testing outcomes across previous studies may be differentially dependent upon the particular measure of dominance which was used. It is recommended that future researchers attempt to map multiple verbal methods of dominance assessment against a variety of theoretically relevant nonverbal behaviors.