An Empirical Test of Rodman's Theory of Resources in Cultural Context

Retrospective data were gathered from 1056 college students to test several of the propositions in Rodman 's theory that norms and resources operate in a cultural context in influencing the relative power of spouses. It was found that the normative dimension accounted for considerable variance in conjugal power and that relative resources accounted for very little. The data did not support Rodman's speculation that resources are more strongly related to power when norms about authority are more equalitarian than patriarchal. In fact, the trends were in the opposite direction. In addition, no support was found for the proposition that the range of tolerable behavior interacts with authority and resources in influencing relative power.