title: Authenticity and Relationship Satisfaction: Two Distinct Ways of Directing Power to Self-Esteem.
abstract: Possessing power contributes to high self-esteem, but how power enhances self-esteem is still unknown. As power is associated with both self-oriented goals and social-responsibility goals, we proposed that power predicts self-esteem through two positive personal and interpersonal results: authenticity and relationship satisfaction. Three studies were carried out with a total of 505 Chinese participants, including college students and adults, who completed surveys that assessed personal power, self-esteem, authenticity, relationship satisfaction, communal orientation, and social desirability. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that power, authenticity, and relationship satisfaction each uniquely contributed to self-esteem. More importantly, multiple mediation analysis showed that authenticity and relationship satisfaction both mediated the effects of power on self-esteem, even when controlling for participants' communal orientation and social desirability. Our findings demonstrate that authenticity and relationship satisfaction represent two key mechanisms by which power is associated with self-esteem.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
authors.forename: Yi Nan
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012649:Self Concept; D012928:Social Desirability; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult