Running head: COM 203 PAPER 1

COM 203: Third Paper, Compliance Gaining

Jillian Walinski

Bryant University

December 10, 2019

COM 203 PAPER 2

Compliance Gaining

Compliance Gaining

Compliance gaining involves attempting to influence other people’s behavior.

Compliance gaining is based upon relational influence and persuading. It mostly focuses on the

person that is trying to influence someone else. There are goals of relational influence which

usually have a direct relation to behavior. Relational influence goals are more so the main goals

of compliance gaining, but there are also secondary goals. The goals of relational influence

include gaining assistance, giving advice, sharing activities, changing orientations, changing

relationships, obtaining permission, and enforcing rights and obligations. The secondary goals

of compliance gaining focus more on the way people go about trying to influence others. These

goals include identity goals, interaction goals, resource goals, and arousal goals.

Compliance gaining also possesses strategies on how to influence others. These

strategies include rewarding activities, punishing activities, expertise activities, activation of

impersonal commitments, and activation of personal commitments. When it comes to influential

strategies, the person that is trying to influence someone else may use contextual influences.

Contextual influences are different tactics used to influence someone. Each tactic has a different

perspective on how to approach a situation. These tactics include dominance, intimacy,

resistance, relational consequences, personal benefit, rights, and apprehension. Dominance is

based on the balance of power within a relationship. Some types of power include reward

power, coercive power, expert power, legitimate power, and referent power. If the potential

influencer holds the power in a relationship, they will be more likely to influence someone.

Intimacy is based on the relational closeness or connectedness within a relationship. Resistance

is based on whether or not you believe the person that you are trying to influence will resist your
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influence or not. Relational consequences are based on possible outcomes that may arise due to

the compliance gaining strategy. Personal benefit is based on what the influencer could

potentially gain from the situation. Rights are based on whether or not the desired outcome is

justified. Lastly, apprehension is based on the nerves or anxiety that arise from a situation.

Example of Compliance Gaining

In the movie, Crazy Rich Asians, Rachel Chu travels to Singapore with her boyfriend,

Nick Young, to attend Nick’s best friend’s wedding. Upon arrival to Singapore, Rachel

discovers that Nick is part of one of the most well-known and wealthiest families in Asia.

Rachel is thrown into the mix and has a difficult time fitting in. When Nick introduces Rachel to

his mother, Eleanor, she is unimpressed. In one scene of the movie, Eleanor catches Rachel

alone to tell her about the importance of the Young family’s values. Eleanor also makes it a

point to tell Rachel that she will never be enough for Nick or their family.

Connections

In the scene described above, Eleanor is trying to intimidate Rachel. Eleanor doesn’t see

Rachel as a good fit for her family and she doesn’t think Rachel is good enough for her son,

Nick, so she is hoping to scare her off. Eleanor is using compliance gaining to attempt to

influence Rachel to leave Nick out of fear. Specifically, Eleanor is using dominance in this

situation. Eleanor has the upper hand in her relationship with Rachel because Rachel is the

girlfriend of her son. Rachel is searching for approval from Nick’s mother which gives Eleanor

more power. In this situation, Eleanor may be demonstrating two of the five power bases. One

of them is reward power. This may be occurring between Rachel and Eleanor because Eleanor

possesses the ability to provide approval or disapproval to Rachel. The other option is legitimate
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power. This may be occurring between Rachel and Eleanor because not only does Eleanor hold

the role of mother, but she is also the mother of Rachel’s significant other, which adds another

layer to the role.

Critique

Compliance gaining goes into a lot of depth. It discusses different strategies that can be

used to influence, end goals or objectives that cause someone to influence another person, what

strategies work better in certain situations, and how the person being influenced may react or

process their decision. I think compliance gaining is accurate and very detailed and I do not have

any suggestions for this concept.