Abstract
In this paper, we examine the relationship between the implicit power motive (nPow) and power stress in primary school children under the additional consideration of moderating effects of the implicit affiliation–intimacy motive (nAff–Int), activity inhibition (AI), and trait extraversion/surgency. The attitude towards a bossy non-player character (NPC) in a video game was used as an indicator of power stress. Eighty-four German children (39 female) in the age of 6 through 7 years (M = 6.83, SD = 0.44) participated. As hypothesized, children high in nPow reported a less favorable attitude towards the bossy NPC. Furthermore, we found significant interactions of nPow with both nAff–Int and trait extraversion/surgency: Children high in nPow particularly reported a less favorable attitude towards the bossy NPC if they were also low in nAff–Int or high in extraversion/surgency. In contrast to our hypotheses, we found no significant interaction of nPow and AI. The implications of these results for implicit motive theory and power stress research in children are discussed.
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Notes
An interesting aside is that none of the behavioral data was significantly associated with nPow, even in a regression analysis with ability to handle the controller as a covariate (N = 94, admonitions p = .29, ß = − .11; teleportations p = .25, ß = − .12; game duration p = .56, ß = − .06). These findings will be addressed again in the discussion.
In a rerun of the analyses, we included all 16 children that were excluded based on missing ratings of their ability to handle the game controller by assigning them the sample mean value on this variable (sample mean = 2.99; N = 100). As a result of this tentative approach, the main effect of nPow in the first model (p = .07, ß = − .18) and the interaction effect of nPow and extraversion/surgency in the third model (p = .07, ß = − .18) became insignificant. However, Bing et al. (2007) emphasize that so-called marginally significant interaction effects between implicit and explicit personality components also make a valuable contribution to the development of a more comprehensive framework of personality. All other findings did not change substantially.
nPow significantly correlated with age (r = .22, p = .04). Hence, we reran all analyses with nPow controlled for age. This did not substantially change findings reported in text. Moreover, age did not correlate with the attitude towards the NPC, thus we did not include it as an additional covariate.
An exploratory analysis of the three-way interaction of nPow, nAff–Int, and extraversion/surgency, F(12, 71) = 3.02, p < .01, showed that it was not a significant predictor (p = .08, ß = .22) of the attitude towards the NPC.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to all parents and children who participated in the study. We would also like to thank all student assistants (Inga Dzionsko, Valentin Emslander, Helen Leistikow, and Vera Pfeifer) involved in data collection and Fabian Fischer, Sabine Huschke, Tobias Rühl, Daniel Schreiber, and Joscha Wülk who programmed the video game.
Funding
This research was supported by a Grant of the German Research Foundation (DFG, HO 2435/10-1).
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Spengler, B., Hofer, J. & Busch, H. A video game-based investigation of power stress moderators in children. Motiv Emot 44, 345–355 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-019-09790-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-019-09790-w