Abstract: Power is an old phenomenon for human, but is a new research topic for social psychologist. Recently, many intriguing studies of power from the perspective of social cognition have been proposed by social psychologist. The theories and studies showed that power consciously or unconsciously influence the social cognition, emotion and social behavior of people regardless of whether it was assigned or primed. Power had not only corrupting effects but also neutral and positive consequences. The article analyzed the trends of the power research, such as paying more attention to social cognition, fundamental cognition and brain mechanism of power than before.

Key words: power, power-as-control model, an approach/inhibition theory of power, the abstraction hypothesis, goal-directed behavior, the situated focus theory of power