The aim of the study was to compare the validity of two versions of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) for implicit power motive measurement. In the first IAT version we used natural antonyms “power” and “non-Power” and in the second IAT more equally desirable categories “dominance” and “cooperation”. The study was conducted on a sample of psychology students (N=73). In addition to the data on two IATs, we collected self-ratings on an explicit measure of power motive, two measures of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and peer-ratings of dominance. Though both IAT versions showed satisfactory reliability, the IAT “dominance-cooperation” seemed as a more valid measure of implicit power motive. Compared to the IAT “power-nonPower” which had no significant correlations with the other measures used, the IAT “dominance-cooperation” had significant and moderately high correlations with both the self-ratings and the ratings of dominance and the two measures of intrinsic motivation.

Implicit Association Test, power motive, implicit motives, explicit motives