Effects of Power on Multitasking Tendency and Ability

338 Pages·2014·1.72 MB·English

Social Power and the Pursuit of Multiple Goals:
Effects of Power on Multitasking
Tendency and Ability

Alice Ran Cai

Experimental Psychology
University College London, UK

Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Ana Guinote

Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
University College London, December 2014
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Signed Declaration

I, Alice Ran Cai, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my
own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm
that this has been indicated in the thesis.
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Abstract
Social power, or the ability to control resources and influence others’
outcomes, has been found to facilitate successful attainment of single goals by
increasing attentional focus and the ability to inhibit irrelevant information.
However, the relationship between power and multiple-goal pursuit has not yet been
investigated. The current thesis first examined whether power influences strategies
during multiple-goal pursuit. It was hypothesized that powerful individuals are more
inclined to single-task (attend to tasks in a sequential manner) and powerless
individuals tend to multitask (attend to tasks simultaneously or switch rapidly
between them) when faced with multiple demands. Six studies were conducted and
showed (in general) a effect of power on multitasking and prioritization tendencies.
Specifically, reported tendency for multitasking and number of switches planned
between various tasks decreased as a function of power (Chapter 2). This negative
relationship between power and multitasking tendency was replicated by measuring
how many times participants actually switched between multiple goals during goal
striving (Chapter 3). Moreover, power was also found to increase prioritization
tendency. Second, the thesis investigated the relationship between power and
multitasking ability (Chapter 4). It was predicted that powerless participants will
show lower multitasking ability than control and powerful participants. Three
experiments found that powerless (compared to control and powerful) participants
displayed lower performance in dual-tasking and task-switching paradigms, and
reported lower abilities in the management of multiple-goals. However, the effect of
power on multitasking ability may depend on the multitasking context. These results
were found using experimentally manipulated power, individual differences in
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power, and real-world power roles. Potential mediating factors of power such as
mood, confidence, anxiety, rumination, and motivation were also measured. Overall,
the thesis established an ironic effect of power as powerless individuals had a higher
multitasking tendency but underperformed during demanding multitasking
situations.
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List of Figures and Tables

Table 2.1. Means and Standard Deviations for Number of Switches and Tasks in
Experiment 2 ........................................................................................................... 109
Table 2.2. Means and SDs for Scenario Ratings in Experiment 3 ......................... 117
Table 3.1. Means and SDs for Number of Switches and Total Items Answered in
Experiment 4 ........................................................................................................... 131
Figure 3.1: Mean number of questions answered for the three tasks in Experiment 4
................................................................................................................................. 133
Figure 3.2: The effect of power on number of switches mediated by prioritization in
Experiment 4 ........................................................................................................... 135
Figure 3.3: Mean RTs (seconds per question) for the three tasks as a function of
power in Experiment 4 ............................................................................................ 137
Figure 3.4: Mean RTs across word-type as a function of power in Experiment 4 140
Table 3.2. Means and Standard Deviations for Number of Switches in Experiment 5
................................................................................................................................. 151
Figure 3.5: Mean number of questions answered for the three tasks as a function of
power in Experiment 5. ........................................................................................... 153
Figure 3.6: The effect of power on number of switches mediated by prioritizationi
in Experiment 5. ...................................................................................................... 155
Figure 3.7. Mean RTs (seconds per question) for the three tasks as a function of
power in Experiment 5 ............................................................................................ 157
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Table 3.4. Means and Standard Deviations for Prioritization and Engagement in
Experiment 6 ........................................................................................................... 166
Figure 3.8: Mean confidence score for athletic and financial as a function of power
in Experiment 6. ...................................................................................................... 168
Figure 3.9: The effect of power on goal prioritization mediated by difference in
confidence (Panel A) and overall confidence (Panel B) in Experiment 6. ............. 171
Figure 4.1: Example of a sequence of events in a trial of Experiment 7. .............. 184
Figure 4.2: Mean RTs across tasks and modalities as a function of power in
Experiment 7. .......................................................................................................... 187
Figure 4.3: Mean ERs across tasks and modality as a function of power in
Experiment 7. .......................................................................................................... 189
Figure 4.4: Example of a sequence of events in a trial of Experiment 8. .............. 193
Figure 4.5: Mean RTs for repeat and switch trials as a function of power in
Experiment 8 ........................................................................................................... 195
Figure 4.6: Mean ERs for repeat and switch trials as a function of power in
Experiment 8. .......................................................................................................... 197
Figure 4.7: Example of a sequence of events in a trial of Experiment 9. .............. 203
Figure 4.8: Example of a possible control (CBA) sequence and a possible inhibition
(ABA) sequence in Experiment 9 ........................................................................... 204
Figure 4.9: Mean RTs for repeat trials (AA) and the three types of switch trials
(ABA, CBA, BBA) as a function of power in Experiment 9. ................................. 206
Figure 4.10: Mean ERs for repeat trials (AA) and the three types of switch trials
(ABA, CBA, BBA) as a function of power in Experiment 9 .................................. 208
Figure 5.1: Relationship between power, attention, and multitasking. .................. 229
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Table of Content

Abstract ...................................................................................................................... 3
List of Figures and Tables ........................................................................................ 5
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. 11
Chapter 1: ................................................................................................................ 12
1.1 Preface ........................................................................................................... 13
1.2 Social Power .................................................................................................. 17
1.2.1 The Experimental Study of Power .................................................. 17
1.2.2 The Power Mind-Set and Theories of Power .................................. 22
1.3 Power and Attention Allocation .................................................................... 27
1.3.1 Power and Information Seeking ...................................................... 29
1.3.2 Power and Goal Pursuit ................................................................... 35
1.4 Summary and Limitations of Power Research .............................................. 51
1.5 Multiple Goals ............................................................................................... 54
1.5.1 Polychronicity ................................................................................. 57
1.5.2 Goal Accessibility, Inhibition, and Multitasking ............................ 60
1.5.3 Discretionary Switching and Prioritization ..................................... 65
1.5.4 Phases of Goal Pursuit ..................................................................... 68
1.5.5 Summary and Limitations ............................................................... 71
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1.6 Multitasking Ability ...................................................................................... 73
1.6.1 Task-Switching Ability ................................................................... 76
1.6.2 Dual-Tasking Ability ....................................................................... 79
1.6.3 Summary and Limitations of Multitasking Literature ..................... 89
1.7 Summary and Aims of the Present Thesis ..................................................... 89
1.7.1 Aims and Hypotheses ...................................................................... 89
1.7.2 Overview of Studies ........................................................................ 95
Chapter 2: ................................................................................................................ 99
2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 100
2.2 Experiment 1: Power and multitasking preference ..................................... 101
2.3 Experiment 2: Planning between assigned and self-generated tasks ........... 103
2.4 Experiment 3: Hypothetical scenarios and scheduling work day ................ 111
2.5 Summary and conclusions ........................................................................... 118
Chapter 3: .............................................................................................................. 120
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 121
3.2 Experiment 4: Multitasking behavior and goal accessibility ...................... 122
3.3 Experiment 5: Multitasking behavior with varied task difficulties ............. 143
3.4 Experiment 6: Goal prioritization using hypothetical scenarios ................. 158
3.5 Summary and conclusions ........................................................................... 173
Chapter 4: .............................................................................................................. 177
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 178
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4.2 Experiment 7: Dual-task ability................................................................... 180
4.3 Experiment 8: Task-switching ability ......................................................... 190
4.4 Experiment 9: Backward inhibition............................................................. 198
4.5 Experiment 10: Self-reported multitasking ability ...................................... 213
4.6 Summary and conclusions ........................................................................... 217
Chapter 5: .............................................................................................................. 218
5.1 Overview of findings ................................................................................... 219
5.1.1 Multitasking Intention and Behavior............................................. 219
5.1.2 Multitasking Ability ...................................................................... 223
5.2 Possible Mechanisms................................................................................... 226
5.3 Implications of the Present Results ............................................................. 231
5.3.1 Theoretical Implications ................................................................ 231
5.3.2 Practical implications .................................................................... 237
5.4 Strengths, Limitations, and Future Directions ............................................. 243
5.4.1 Confounds of Power ...................................................................... 243
5.4.2 Directionality of the Effects of Power ........................................... 248
5.4.3 Power Manipulation ...................................................................... 251
5.4.4 Multitasking Paradigm .................................................................. 257
5.5 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 262
References .............................................................................................................. 263
Appendix ................................................................................................................ 327
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Appendix 1: Power manipulation used in Experiment 2 ......................................... 327
Appendix 2: Instructions for Experiment 2 ............................................................. 329
Appendix 3: Power manipulation used in Experiments 3-4 and 6-9 ....................... 331
Appendix 4: Questionnaire used in Experiment 3 .................................................. 332
Appendix 5: Example instructions for Experiments 4 and 5 .................................. 335
Appendix 6: Power manipulation used in Experiment 5 ......................................... 337
Appendix 7: Scenario used in Experiment 6 ........................................................... 338

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