The Implicit Need for Power, Attentional Orienting, and Associated Processes of Stimulus-Driven Learning

Implicit motives are nonconsciously operating motivational dispositions that serve the attainment of specific classes of incentives and the avoidance of specific classes of disincentives by orienting, selecting, and energizing behavior (Atkinson, 1957; McClelland, 1987; Schultheiss & Köllner, 2014; Schultheiss & Köllner, 2021). Although this conceptualization is widely accepted in implicit motive research (eg., Hofer et al., 2006; Köllner et al., 2019; Schüler et al., 2013; Schultheiss, 2008; Wang et al., 2011; Winter et al., 1998), empirical evidence for an orienting function is sparse (Schultheiss & Hale, 2007). Besides indirect pointers to an interplay of implicit motives and the attentional system (Atkinson & Walker, 1956; Donhauser et al., 2015; Vongas & Al Hajj, 2017; Wang et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2011), to my best knowledge, there is only one published paper by Schultheiss and Hale (2007) that precedes my work and has examined directly whether implicit motives predict attentional orienting during the confrontation with motive-specific (dis-)incentives. This is surprising, as current theories on the motive-modulated acquisition of behavior have identified proficiency in the allocation of attentional resources as a core component of the integrated competence to reach reward and avoid punishment (see Schultheiss, 2008; Schultheiss & Köllner, 2014; Schultheiss & Köllner, 2021). Within the scope of this dissertation thesis, I extended research on the orienting function of the implicit need for power (nPower), the capacity to derive pleasure from having a physical, mental, or emotional impact on others, while experiencing the impact of others on oneself as aversive (Schultheiss, Wirth, et al., 2005; Veroff & Veroff, 1972; Winter, 1973). Chapter I provides an introduction to several key concepts of motivation, attention, and learning with the aim to check the assumption of a functional relationship between nPower, attentional orienting, and processes of stimulus-driven learning for plausibility. In Chapters II and III, I present empirical evidence gained from four eye tracking experiments in two studies (total N = 484, before exclusions). Because both chapters are written with regard to a publication as original articles in peer-reviewed journals, they are endowed with separate, more focused introductory sections. Chapter II investigates the association of nPower with attentional orienting and thus, elaborates on whether nPower has an orienting function at all. An updated version of the chapter was published as original article (Janson et al., 2022). Chapter III revolves around scaling effects of nPower on the Pavlovian and instrumental learning of biases in attentional orienting and therefore, examines whether the behavioral expression of nPower’s orienting function is shaped by processes of stimulus-driven learning (see Weiss, 2014). Chapter IV discusses the findings from previous chapters in the light of existing research and points to limitations as well as future directions of the research covered in the thesis.