Ownership as interpersonal dominance

Rudmin, Floyd W.

Bibliographic data

Book

Document type:: Book

Collection:: POP - Possession, Ownership, Property

Title:: Ownership as interpersonal dominance: a history and three studies of the social psychology of property

Author:: Rudmin, Floyd W.

Year of publication:: 1988

Language:: English

Subject:: Besitz Eigentum Sozialpsychologie

Topic:: C - Psychology

Shelfmark:: C/R916 O9

Access:: Free access

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.48671/pop.AC14489044

‘26 organization. Although Aristotle (Barker, 1952) claimed that owning entails instinctive pleasures of seif-love and benevolence, it was again not until the seventeenth century that Hobbes (1650/1839) and Malebranche (1674/1963) described instinctive passions of superiority over others as being manifest in the acquisition of property. Others in this tradition were Kant (1798/1974), Stewart (1820), Schneider (1880), and Freud (1930). The salience of interpersonal dominance motives in possessiveness led child psychologists (e.g. Isaacs, 1933; Lattke, 1935) as well as psychiatrists (e.g. Adler, 1927/1968; Horney, 1937) to criticize the instinct theory of property. However, ethologists (e.g. Ardrey, 1966; Strayer & Strayer, 1976), child psychologists (e.g. Buehler, 1927; Furby, 1980), and social psychologists (e.g. Edney, 1974) came to describe property as a manifestation of innate tendencies for dominance hierarchies and territorial control. The third historically extant explanation of property is that the possession and ownership of property are prerequisites for altruistic sharing. Although this began with Aristotle (Barker, 1952), the place of dominance motivation in possession and sharing was not articulated until the nineteenth century (e.g. Nietzsche, 1885/1973; Wundt, 1901). Child development research has focused on possession and sharing as manifestations or strategies of leadership dominance (e.g. Charlesworth & LaFreniere, 1983; Camras, 1984; Furby, 1978c; Merec, 1949). The fourth historically extant explanation of property is that it is based on knowing. The domination of others by means of possession based on knowing was first described by Aristotle (Barker, 1952) in his justification of slavery and later developed by Nietzsche (1885/1973), Sartre (1943/1956) and Eigen (1973). In a more cognitive vain, Titchener (1911) and Laborit (1978) have described how familiarity can lead to defensive, territorial behavior. The fifth psychological explanation of property apparent in historical review is that property serves communicative functions, especially that of displaying superior status. Again, Aristotle (Barker, 1952) may have first suggested this, but it was not until the seventeenth century that Malebranche (1674/1963) explicitly theorized that a reputation of having property ieads to control over others. Those in the social economic tradition such as Adam Smith (Riesman, 1976), Spencer (1879/1893), and Veblen (1899/1912) argued that property serves to synilbaizs and display prestige and social dominance. Research in achievement motivation (e.g. Jackson, Ahmed & Heaps, 1976; McClelland, 1975) has shown small but positive correlations between status and proprietary traits. Consumer psychologists (e.g. Belk, 1985a,b)

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