Re: [Futurework] Why men succeed at work

[Barry]

I suspect the desire for power (either positive or negative power) is a function of one’s personality and as such is determined, like intelligence is determined, by the interplay of genetic and environmental influences. This may actually be easier to see in the case of intelligence. It seems clear from the available research that our genetic endowment determines the kind of hardware we have to work with (brain complexity and speed of processing information – to an extent – and the relative size of some areas of the brain). But, it also seems clear from available research that how the brain – how the individual – develops over time and what talents and abilities are developed to their fullest potential (and which remain nascent) is determined by both the local environment and by the larger social environment.

By way of example, suppose a child is born with an unusually well developed left temporal lobe. This provides the child with a large innate mathematical ability. If the child is born into an environment that encourages him/her to explore and develop this innate ability, s/he will excel in math-oriented areas. The result may be akin to Albert Einstein. On the other hand, if that child is born into an environment that does not value mathematical _expression_, but rather encourages other talents, then other abilities will emerge and become fully developed (e.g., musical abilities). The result is more likely to be someone along the lines of Handel.


Other environmental factors (e.g., lead paint on the walls where and when the child is growing up or physical or emotional abuse) can work to subvert normal physical development of the brain and produce adults of diminished capabilities. Sometimes this is not an overwhelming obstacle – if the environment also encourages development of undamaged capacities. Other times, the damage may be too great or the environment may not support other areas of development, giving rise to profound developmental problems.

Environmental influences can be either overwhelming, as in the case of lead paint chips, or so subtle as to be almost imperceptible, as in the case of parental praise for some activities but not for others. The smaller, more imperceptible environmental influences also have a direct and indirect effect on the development of the brain (and of personality) that over time are as profound as the overwhelming influences in our development.

Finally, some effects appear to be unidirectional. Early exposure and exploration of music and artistic efforts aid the development of logic and mathematical reasoning, but no studies have indicated the reverse – studying logic, mathematics, and the sciences does nothing to develop our innate musical or artistic capacities. So, from a developmental perspective, Ray is correct when he says that aesthetics underlies other areas.

To return to the question of the desire for power over others, I believe this is one _expression_ of an individual’s personality. There is a number of well-documented feedback mechanisms involved in human development – particularly the development of personality. All have to do with the interactions individuals have with their environment.

One of these interactions is Reactive transactions. Different individuals react to a given stimulus in different ways. This is due both to differences in their genetically determined biology (which is a major determinant of temperament in babies) and to differences in their prior learning experiences in the world. As a result, one individual finds sky-diving, for example, to be truly exhilarating while another finds it to be utterly terrifying.

A second type of interaction leads to Evocative transactions, in which different aspects of an individual’s developing personality evokes different responses from other individuals. The easy baby, for example, who is almost always generally happy and care-free, effectively encourages others to interact with him/her by rewarding our efforts at interaction with a smile or with other happy-baby noises. The difficult baby, on the other hand, who is likely to fret or cry whenever we interact with him/her frequently punishes our efforts to interact. The end result is that the difficult baby grows up in a very different environment from that of the easy baby – the two babies are treated differently by their caretakers, even if they are raised in the same household by the same set of parents.

A third type of interaction gives rise to Proactive transactions. We select others to become our friends who are similar to us in some key aspects of our personality and emphasize our shared interests with those others. We avoid others who do not share key aspects of personality with us. Likewise, we tend to select ourselves into those situations in which we can comfortably display favored aspects of ourselves and avoid situations that call for the display of less favored aspects of our personalities.

There are other types of interactions that also have an effect, but they can be ignored for the moment. The reward structures that we encounter as we grow up also have a major effect. (I’m thinking here of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.) We get more of the behaviors that result in rewards (either direct or vicarious) and less of the behaviors that result in no rewards. Over time, this results in major shifts in our behavioral patterns that, in turn, guides and directs the establishment of our personality.

The question, then, becomes whether it is possible to engineer a society in which people are rewarded for non-capitalist and/or non-power seeking (referring specifically to negative forms of power) behaviors. And, if so, what would such a reward structure look like? To explore this question, we would need to look carefully at how children are raised in Western society as well as at larger societal mechanisms (such as workplaces and governments). One fruitful place to start such an enquiry is with the Dunedin (NZ) Longitudinal Studies.

Anyone care to comment?




Barry

R. B. Stennett
DWS Consulting, Inc.
P.O. Box 49106
Athens, GA 30604