A Comparative Study On The Cognitive Characteristics Of Power Between Children And Adults In Different Distribution Situations

Individuals' understanding of power is an important part of social cognition and has an irreplaceable adaptive role in it.Power refers to the individual's advantageous unequal control over social resources in organization.Cognitive power refers to the individual's ability to recognize the power and power characteristics in social situations.In the basic social distribution situation,it is of great significance to effectively guide the individuality of social power and to promote the group effective regulation of social power through examining the social cognition and social judgment of different kinds of power.Current study was to explore the characteristics and contrast differences of cognitive power in the context of various social distribution situations.This study first elaborated on the concepts,development characteristics,research paradigms,and the theory of influence factors of cognition of power and distributive fairness as well as related research results,and on this basis put forward the general idea of the study.This study is divided into three studies.The first study was to compare the level of cognition of power in the context of classic distribution paradigm.This study simulated the basic distribution scenarios of social and economic life,and the basic characteristics to explore the influence factors of cognition of social power cognition at different ages.groups were explored.It included three experimentsThe first experiment of the first study took 66 children at 7-9 and 116 adults to explore the characteristics and influence factors of cognition of power under the situation of dictator game(DG).The results showed that:(1)Children aged 7-9 correctly judged the power in the dictator's game and approach the adult performance.(2)The practical methods of distributive right affected adults' power perception.Compared with fair performance of distributive right,adults had a better understanding of power under the unfair performance of distributive power.(3)Distribution type affected children's cognition of power.Compared to labour distribution,children had a better understanding of power in the context of resource distribution.(4)The interaction between age and distribution type on cognition of power was significant.In the context of labour distribution,adults' scores of conceptualizing power cognition score was significantly higher than that of children.(5)The main effect of gender was significant,and females had a better performance on the cognition of power than men.The second experiment of the first study took 66 children at 7-9 and 116 adults to explore the characteristics and influence factors of cognition of power under the situation of ultimatum game(DG).The results showed that:(1)Children aged 7-9 had no significant tendency to weigh the power meanwhile adults used clue of the performance of decision-making power to weigh the power in the context of the ultimatum game.Adults tended to identify the owner of distribution power as power holder when second party accepted allocative plan,and tended to identify the owner of decision making power as power holder when second party refused allocative plan.(2)The main effect of decision-making method was significant.(3)The interaction between age and distribution type on cognition of power was significant.In the context of resource allocation,children were more likely to identify the owner of decision-making power as power holder than adults.(4)The interaction between age and behave of distributive power on cognition of power was significant.When first party distributed fairly,children were more inclined to deem the owner of decision-making power as power holder.(5)The interaction between age,gender and decision-making power was significant.When second party accepted allocative plan,adult males were more inclined to perceive the owner of distributive power as power holder than boys.However,when second party refused allocative plan,adult males were more inclined to perceive the owner of decision-making power as power holder than boys.The third experiment of the first study took 66 children at 7-9 and 116 adults to explore the characteristics and influence factors of cognition of power under the situation of third-party punishment game(TPG).The results showed that:(1)individuals tended to cognize third party with supervisory power&decision-making power as power holder in the context of third-party punishment game.(2)Distribution type affected scores of allocative power.Individuals were more inclined to perceive third party as power holder in the context of labor distribution than the resource distribution.(3)The interaction between gender and performance of third party was significant.The second study was to compare the level of cognition of power in the context of trilateral game.This study simulated common scenes of power game in social and economic communities and operated experimental procedures to separate purer variables of distributive power,decision-making power and supervisory power to explore elementary traits and influence factors of cognition of power in different age groups.It included two experiments.The first experiment of the second study took 66 children aged 7-9 and 116 adults to explore the connotation and influence factors of cognition of power under the situation of self designed trilateral game.The results showed that:(1)The judgment tendency of supervisory power had the consistency of age,except in the context of expressing decision-making power with rejection.(2)Distribution type affected scores of distributive power.Individuals were more inclined to perceive the owner of distributive power as power holder in the context of labour distribution than resource distribution.(3)Performances of decision-making power affected scores of distributive power and decision-making power.Scores of decision-making power were gotten more in the context of second party refusal than the context of second party acceptance.Scores of supervisory power were gotten more in the context of second party acceptance than the context of second party refusal.(4)Performances of supervisory power affected the scores of distributive power and supervisory power.Scores of distributive power were more in the context of third-party compensation proposal than the context of third-party punishment proposal.Scores of supervisory power were more in the context of third-party punishment proposal than the context of third-party compensation proposal.(5)Age difference in the scores of distributive power was significant.Adults were more likely than children to choose the owner of distributive power as power holder in the context of third-party compensation proposal.The second experiment of the second study took 64 children aged 7-9 and 112 adults to supplementarily research the characteristics of power cognition in the context of decision-making power with different valences in the situation of self designed fair distribution game 1.The results showed that:(1)children aged 7-9 behaved like adults in the fair distribution game.(2)In the context of third party accepting fair distribution,individuals tended to cognize the owner of distributive power as power holder.In the context of third party refusing fair distribution,individuals tended to cognize the owner of decision-making power as power holder.The third study was to compare the influence of situational factors on cognition of power in different age groups.It Investigated the influence of voting order and distribution result in the social distribution context on bystanders' cognition of power.It included two experiments.The first experiment of the third study took 64 children aged 7-9 and 112 adults to explore the influence of sequential effects on cognition of power under the situation of self designed voting game.The results were as follows:(1)Individuals tended to cognize the owner of distributive power as power holder in the context of voting game.(2)Sequential effect significantly affected the individual's power judgment,and latter voter was more likely to be judged as power holder than former voter.(3)There was significant age difference in sequential effect,and adults showed more sequential effects in power judgment than children.The second experiment of the third study took 64 children aged 7-9 and 112 adults to explore the influence of distribution results on cognition of power under the situation of self designed fair distribution game 2.The results were as follows:(1)Whether distribution result was consistent with third party decision or not,children behaved like adults when they made power judgments under the situation of fair distribution game.(2)Distribution result affected individual's power judgment.When third party refused distribution plan successfully,individuals had no significant difference in the judgment of power holder between first party and third party.When third party refused distribution plan abortively,individuals tended to consider that first party with distribution power was the authorized party.(3)Compared with the labor distribution situation,individuals tended to consider third party as power holder more frequently in the context of resource allocation than in the context of labour allocation.Finally,based on the investigation of several elementary distribution scenarios commonly seen in social and economic life,this study further explored the cognitive characteristics of cross-context consistency of these three types of power.General conclusions were drawn as follows:(1)Children aged 7-9 had been able to conceptualize social power and make social power judgments in different distribution situations and behaved likely to adult.(2)Distribution type had different effects on individuals' social power cognition in different distribution scenarios.(3)Performances of distributive power affected cognition of social power.(4)There was a rejection effect in the process of cognition and judgment of social power.Individuals tended to make social power judgment that the one who rejected scheme was the power holder in the social context.(5)There was a punitive effect in the process of cognition and judgment of social power.Penalty attribute was a more prominent trait of power than compensation attribute.(6)There is a sequential effect in the process of cognition and judgment of social power.When decision power performances of two parties were consistent,the latter voter was more likely to be identified as power holder than the former.