ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the nature of power as a personality construct—first by understanding what power is, and then applying this working conceptualization to the area of personality. The four power variables an be conceptualized as dimensions of personal power. Individuals can be compared to one another along dimensions ranging from low to high levels of power motivation, manifest power, potential power, and subjective power. The Personal Control factor appears to be closer to J. B. Rotter notion of internal-external control and the meaning of subjective power, since the emphasis is on the person's evaluation of his own power rather than, as implied by the Control Ideology factor, a cultural belief about self-initiative. Rotter, as part of his social learning theory, has developed the concept of internal- versus external control, of reinforcement. Individual differences in a generalized expectancy of internal-external control are measured by a forced-choice questionnaire referred to as the Internal-External Control Scale.
