Structuring hierarchy concepts: Evaluating measures of power, status, dominance, and prestige on the basis of an integrative model and systematic literature review.

Abstract

Research on social hierarchy is flourishing. Often, researchers employ self- or peer-report measures to assess variables such as power or dominance. One drawback of studies in this line of research is that researchers use different scales to measure the same constructs and different researchers use the same scale but aim to measure different constructs. Moreover, hierarchy concepts have been used interchangeably and terms have been used for a specific variable but operationalized with a measure that taps into another construct. This practice leads to problems such as the jingle-jangle fallacy. As these fallacies occur at the construct and the measurement levels, we first delineate an Integrative Model of Social Hierarchy Concepts and provide definitions of different hierarchy concepts (power, status, dominance, prestige, motives regarding these variables) to establish conceptual consensus. Based on a systematic literature search, we then present 67 validated scales that aim to measure these constructs. Additionally, we discuss other measurement approaches beyond self-reports (e.g., indirect tests, language features). For a selected subset of scales, we conducted an empirical study to provide additional analyses on reliability, model fit, and exploratory factor analyses to detect similarities and differences between scales. Eventually, we derive recommendations on which scales and measures to use for assessing which hierarchy variable and how to advance measurement practices in this domain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).