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CHAPTER
8
POWER, INFLUENCE, AND DECISION-MAKING IN FAMILIES
This chapter examines the concept of power, its transactional and systematic nature,
and how it applies to family interactions. Topics discussed include the nature of
power; power bases, processes, and outcomes; the development of family power; and
the communication of power in families. The chapter also explains the concepts of
KEY TERMS
Accommodation decision-making process
Bilateral influence strategy Consensus decision-making process
De facto decision-making process Direct influence strategy
Indirect influence strategy Power bases
Power outcomes Power processes
Unilateral influence strategy
ASSIGNMENTS/EXERCISES
1. Couple Power Patterns Discussion and Debate
Ask students to defend a couple type of power pattern (father- or husband-dominated,
2. Influence Strategies Debate and Skits
Ask students to list the various influence strategies named in the chapter, and to
identify which strategies they perceive to be the most effective, relying on their own
3. Purchasing Decisions Role-Play
Invite students to role-play family conversations about purchasing decisions. Assign
students to play various family members trying to persuade each other to make a
5. Personal Family Decision Journaling
If they are living at home, have students over a period of one week, make a list of
decisions made in their family. At the end of the week, have them classify these
6. Decision-Making Interviews
Ask students to interview members of different types of families to determine how
decision- making occurs. Students may wish to develop a form categorizing relevant
issues: (1) importance of topic, (2) rules for talking about topic, (3) family roles which
7. Health Issues Discussion
Ask students to consider Tucker and Mueller’s health-related influence strategies and
reflect (in a journal or in class) upon the following:
ǦWhich strategies do they consider most effective and/or least effective and
why? This answer may be based upon either their observations of their parents
or another familiar married couple.
8. Honey Do: Influence Strategies in Marriage
Ask students to interview a husband and wife separately, asking them independently of
one another which influence strategies they use when they’re trying to get their spouse
to do something their own way. Then the student should analyze the responses based
upon the following questions:
ǦTo what extent do their responses align with research findings on gender
differences in influence strategy preferences?
9. Discussion on Nagging
By show of hands, ask students to indicate whether nagging is a behavior condoned in
their family or not. For those whose families allow nagging: Is it effective? Are their
rules controlling who’s allowed to nag and who isn’t? What are the gender
10. Because I Said So?
Ask students to reflect upon the ways their parents gained their compliance as a young
child versus an adolescent versus a young adult. In what ways did the influence
MEDIA ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Decision-Making and Role Negotiation in Adoptive Families
In Galvin’s (2006) commentary on adoptive families, she notes that adoptive and birth
parents engage in complex decision-making at various points of the adoption process.
2. Power Analysis
Using a fictional family, have students analyze the resources of power, giving
examples of each of the five types: normative, economic, affective, personal and