Effectiveness of Power Strategies in Interpersonal Conflict among Japanese Students

Abstract

This study was an attempt to examine the effectiveness of four different types of power strategies based on Falbo & Peplau'S model (1980), which assumed directness and bilaterality dimensions. Two hundred and twenty-eight Japanese students read 12 hypothetical conflict situations. In each situation, an actor used one of the four types of strategies with a target person for one of three different issues. The subjects were asked to read each story as if they were the targets of the strategies, rate their affective and evaluative responses to each strategy, and indicate the extent to which they would accept it. An analysis of variance of the acceptance showed that the direct strategies were accepted by the subjects more than by the indirect ones and that the bilateral strategies were accepted more than the unilateral ones, with the direct-bilateral type being most effective. Regression analyses further suggested that the effectiveness of strategies was determined by the subjects' affective and evaluative responses: The effective strategies evoked less unpleasant and less fearful affects, and they were evaluated as more sociable than the ineffective ones. The effectiveness of strategies was found to be almost independent of the issue, although the issue weakly moderated the effectiveness.