ABSTRACT
Power and dominance are concerned with separating, differentiating and, to a degree, spacing functions. There are a number of different but related aspects to the social dynamics of power-competitiveness and the hierarchichal organisation of interpersonal relations. Harper (1985, p.33) discriminates between power, dominance and status in the following way:
While power and dominance are undeniably highly overlapping phenomena, power does not necessarily imply dominance as in the case of the "Gentle Giant" or the "benevolent despot". Power is generally considered the ability to influence others to do what one wants. Dominance, however, probably always involves some component manifestation of power, especially as it is based on the coercive, expert, legitimate, and referent aspects of power... Finally, status refers to the position assigned or accorded a person in a hierarchy by other members of that social organization. Again, while status, dominance, and power are all strongly correlated, there are exceptions such as in the instance of a titular king or queen who may have great status without any power or dominance except in perhaps a social sense. Thus, status is at least the appearance of power.
