ABSTRACT
This chapter describes four forms and three levels into which power exertion is frequently divided. Four fairly distinct forms of social power often identified by sociologists are force, dominance, authority, and attraction. Force can be exerted in three different ways, utilitarian, coercive, and persuasive force. Dominance is a form of social power that results from the performance of established roles or functions. Authority involves the right to issue directives to others who must accept them. Three common bases of the appeal that underlies attraction power are cognitive identification with, affective feelings toward, and attribution of charisma to an individual. The process of power exertion can also be categorized into several levels, as determined by its scope. These levels are sometimes referred to as the three “dimensions” of power, but that term is not fully appropriate for this set of categories.
