Introduction
Resource control theory (Hawley 1999) counters traditional views that prosocial behavior is adaptive and that coercive/aggressive behavior is maladaptive, positing instead that both sets of behaviors have the same underlying goal: the acquisition and control of social and material resources. People who enact prosocial strategies are likely to be viewed favorably by others and, by extension, are likely to gain access to resources. People who enact coercive/aggressive strategies are likely to be rejected by others, paying a high price socially for resource acquisition, that is, unless they have social skills that compensate for and augment coercive/aggressive resource control strategies. Such people are referred to as “bistrategic” controllers. They will be most successful in controlling resources and being viewed as dominant in their social groups (Hawley 2014).
Resource Control Strategies
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References
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Shorey, H.S., Dzurec, L.C. (2016). Resource Control Theory. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1261-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1261-1
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