Motivation, affect, and hemispheric asymmetry: Power versus affiliation.

Abstract

In 4 experiments, the authors examined to what extent information related to different social needs (i.e., power vs. affiliation) is associated with hemispheric laterality. Response latencies to a lateralized dot-probe task following lateralized pictures or verbal labels that were associated with positive or negative episodes related to power, affiliation, or achievement revealed clear-cut laterality effects. These effects were a function of need content rather than of valence: Power-related stimuli were associated with right visual field (left hemisphere) superiority, whereas affiliation-related stimuli were associated with left visual field (right hemisphere) superiority. Additional results demonstrated that in contrast to power, affiliation primes were associated with better discrimination between coherent word triads (e.g., goat, pass, and green, all related to mountain) and noncoherent triads, a remote associate task known to activate areas of the right hemisphere.

The embodied self: Making a fist enhances men’s power-related self-conceptions

“…The physical force afforded by making a fist is more closely related to the core of the power motive, which consists of attaining social influence, than to the core of the achievement motive, which consists of meeting a certain standard. Furthermore, numerous studies support the independence of power and achievement motives (Kazén & Kuhl, 2005;Koole, 2004;Kuhl & Kazén, 2008;Schultheiss, 2008). We thus did not expect effects of making a fist on the self-concept in the domains of achievement or affiliation.…”

Giving or taking: the role of dispositional power motivation and positive affect in profit maximization

“…This interpretation is consistent with findings related to hemispheric lateralization. Specifically, cues that are explicitly related to power or positive affect (including power-related emotions such as anger) are associated with an activation of the left hemisphere (Davidson, 1993;Harmon-Jones & Allen, 2002;Kuhl & Kazén, 2008;Quirin, Hardung, Kazén, & Kuhl, 2008). Interestingly, this hemisphere seems to be specialized on linear thinking in terms of means-end relationships (Levy & Trevarthen, 1976), whereas the right hemisphere is related to a more creative cognitive style operating within extended experiential networks (Bowden et al, 2005).…”

Explicit and implicit affiliation motives predict verbal and nonverbal social behavior in sports competition

“…Sufficient internal consis tency and retest reliability for the OMT has previously been re ported (Scheffer, Kuhl, & Eichstaedt, 2003). The implicit affiliation scale of the OMT, for example, was shown to be positively linked to friendly customer orientation (Scheffer, Eichstaedt, Chasiotis, & Kuhl, 2007), the age of the first close relationship (Scheffer, 2001), and right hemispheric activity (Kuhl & Kaz en, 2008).…”