A new study from the University of California - Berkeley reports that powerful people are better at bonding with people and not getting hurt or angry when rebuffed or rejected by others. The conclusion of the UC Berkeley study found that powerful authority figures deal better with mild rejection. It seems to fit the old adage that powerful people are nicer to strangers than people with no power or less savings. The exception would be a tyrant with power but no compassion for those with less authority to plan their goals.
What makes bosses deal better with mild rejection, the fact that they can't be fired as quickly as those with little or no power on the job (or in the home)? Researchers presented the results of their latest research at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, which ran from January 17- 19th, 2013.
The results of the study concluded that partners who perceived themselves as less powerful were less positive during the videotaped discussion when working on a solution with their mate. By comparison, the more dominant partners acted more upbeat and worked harder at connecting and getting their mates on their side. What can this predict for the senior couple married more than 40 or 50 years where one partner has less desire to connect when the other partner acts more dominant? And can it apply the same result to an employment situation as well where employees may not be married, but may have put their best decades of life into their work?
Employees often tiptoe around their bosses for fear of offending them. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows people in power have thicker skin than one might think. A UC Berkeley study has found that people in authority positions – whether at home or in the workplace - are quicker to recover from mild rejection, and will seek out social bonding opportunities even if they've been rebuffed.
"Powerful people appear to be better at dealing with the slings and arrows of social life, they're more buffered from the negative feelings that rejection typically elicits," said Maya Kuehn, a doctoral student in psychology at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study, according to the January 18, 2013 press release, Powerful people better at shaking off rebuffs, bonding with others. She presented her findings on January 18, 2013 at the annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in New Orleans.
Could it also be true that an adult child who feels his or her head of the household parent is so powerful, important, or controlling of the household money is most likely to sign his middle name as 'boss' or a similar noun? And later on, vow to be an entrepreneur rather than work for a big institution like the government, unless there was a guarantee of rising up through the ranks at a reasonable rate? It's all about the dynamics of who gets to be nicer to others, the powerful or the people with no control or power over their ability to be independent? And what happens to the older person after retirement when the powerful job is over and the income stops?
Power dynamics
Kuehn and her fellow researchers conducted five experiments that examined power dynamics in workplace and in intimate relationships, focusing on how power influences responses to subtle acts of rejection. A total of 445 men and women between ages 18 and 82 participated in the study.
In one experiment, participants were assigned either high- or low-level positions in a workplace, then told they hadn't been invited to an office happy hour gathering. While low-level employees reported feeling stung by this rejection, the high-power ones were relatively unfazed and more likely to seek out other social bonding activities, such as a hiking club, to improve relations with their coworkers.
In another experiment, participants were told they would be working with someone in either a supervisory or a subordinate role. They corresponded with that person and received feedback that could be perceived as a snub or mild rejection. Those who had been assigned supervisory roles acted with indifference to perceived snubs from their underlings while subordinates took offense to comparable barbs from their bosses.
"When rejected instead of accepted, subordinates reported lower self-esteem and greater negative emotion, but supervisors did not show an adverse reaction to rejection," Kuehn said, according to the news release. A similar power dynamic played out in an experiment involving romantic partners. Couples were brought into a lab setting and videotaped discussing problem-solving tasks, such as what to do if an airplane they were on crashed in the wilderness. Before these discussions, couples had rated each other in terms of who held the most power in their real-life relationships, and how responsive their partners had been to their needs that day.
The study found that the partners who perceived themselves as less powerful were less positive during the videotaped discussion when working on a solution with their mate. By comparison, the more dominant partners acted more upbeat and worked harder at connecting and getting their mates on their side. Other co-authors of the study are UC Berkeley psychologists Serena Chen and Amie Gordon.
Guided care is proactive
Check out the research study, “A Matched-Pair Cluster-Randomized Trial of Guided Care for High-Risk Older Patients." In this other new study of interest to older adults, according to the January 17, 2013 news release, "Guided care provides better quality of care for chronically ill older adults," patients who received Guided Care, a comprehensive form of primary care for older adults with chronic health problems, rated the quality of their care much higher than patients in regular primary care, and used less home care.
Researchers also found that in a 32-month randomized controlled trial, Guided Care patients rated the quality of their care significantly higher than those in normal care, according to a study from AHRQ and the NIH/National Institute on Aging, Hartford Foundation. According to a January 17, 2013 news release, "Guided care provides better quality of care for chronically ill older adults," patients using guided care also use less home care services.
Guided Care is a model of proactive, comprehensive health care that can help primary care practices transform into patient-centered medical homes. It focuses on improving care for patients with multiple chronic health conditions. Guided Care teams include a registered nurse, two to five physicians, and other members of the office staff who work together to perform home-based assessments, create an evidence-based care guide and action plan, monitor and coach the patient monthly, coordinate the efforts of all the patient’s healthcare providers, smooth transitions between sites of care, promote patient self-management, educate and support family caregivers, and facilitate access to community resources.
Patients who received Guided Care, a comprehensive form of primary care for older adults with chronic health problems, rated the quality of their care much higher than patients in regular primary care, and used less home care, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. In an article published online by the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers found that in a 32-month randomized controlled trial, Guided Care patients rated the quality of their care significantly higher than those in normal care, and were 66 percent more likely to rate their access to telephone advice as excellent or very good. Patients also had 29 percent fewer home health care visits.
“As more practices move to a comprehensive care model, Guided Care’s team care approach can help ensure better quality care and more satisfied patients,” said Bruce Leff, MD, co-investigator of the study and professor with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, according to the news release. “In addition, the nearly one-third reduction in home care use highlights how providing comprehensive care for high-risk patients can reduce health service utilization.”
Guided care is more satisfactory with older adults
According to the study, Guided Care patients also experienced, on average, 13 percent fewer hospital re-admissions and 26 percent fewer days in skilled nursing facilities. However, only the difference in home health care episodes is statistically significant. In earlier reports, physician satisfaction was higher and family caregiver strain was lower with Guided Care.
The multi-site, randomized controlled trial of Guided Care involving 49 physicians, 904 older patients and 319 family members recently concluded in eight locations in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. The three-year study was funded by a public-private partnership of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute on Aging, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States, Johns Hopkins HealthCare, and the Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care.
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