Alpha Culture Power

During this simulation you can see that power plays in important role especially in the Alpha culture. According to French and Raven, there are “five different types of power” (Power Theory, pp3). The five types of power are, Referent, Legitimate, Expert, Reward, and Coercive. The Alpha culture as dominate legitimate and referent power that be seen immediately. In the Alpha culture the males are a dominate figure. One can see this through referent and legitimate power as the Alpha males are always the leader in game play. Another example of Alpha male power is their ability to escort an outsider out of the room if they are disrespectful. The Alpha males use their power to protect the woman in its own culture. The idea of expert power can be seen in both cultures during the games of each

culture.

Expert power is having expertise in the area (Power Theory, pp6). In the Beta culture, everyone in that culture had expert power when playing their card came over anyone who came into the culture. The same goes for the Alpha culture. Reward power can also be seen in both the Alpha and Beta cultures. In many situations one can have reward power by having the ability to punish and reward others. In the Beta culture this is seen from the points that a Beta receives for having the entire sequence of cards, 1-7. The Betas card game was like a business so thinking of in that way, the one that was able to trade and sell “cards” received the reward of being financially stable. In the Alpha culture, during their game if someone would win you would receive a chip. Though the Alphas didn’t care how many chips one had, it was still a reward of knowing how well you were doing. Of all the powers, coercive was a hard one to identify within the Bafa, Bafa simulation. Where it could be seen is the power the males of Alpha had to kick out and escort people of others that came in uninvited or acted as a threat

toward the culture.
My experience at Bafa, Bafa I felt both in power and powerless. When I was in my own culture, the Alphas, I was comfortable and felt in control of my surroundings. When I went over to the Betas though, I felt completely powerless. I felt powerless because their rules and customs were different than those of us Alphas. During this experience, I didn’t show much difference from when I felt powerless to when I was in power but others did. In some situations many people were happy and confident when they had power. The males, on the Alpha side, had a since of pride because they were the ‘top dogs’ in the Alpha culture. Before going over to the other culture, many were scared and nervous because they knew before going in they wouldn’t have much power. As one entered the other culture many became even more powerless because they were getting frustrated with not knowing what was going on.