群际威胁与社会认知基本维度自我肯定对自我评价的影响

两个实验探索群际威胁情境下表达性和能动性自我肯定对个体自我评价的影响。实验一诱发群际威胁,操作表达性自我肯定,测量被试的自我评价水平。实验二与实验一采用相同的方法,诱发群际威胁,操作能动性自我肯定,之后测量自我评价水平。两个实验均发现,群际威胁组的自我评价显著低于控制组;在群际威胁情境下,表达性自我肯定组和能动性自我肯定组的自我评价显著高于无自我肯定组。研究表明,群际威胁虽然是群体水平的感知,但会对个体水平的自我评价产生消极影响,通过社会认知基本维度进行自我肯定能有效缓解群际威胁对自我评价的消极影响。自我肯定对群际威胁与自我评价之间关系的作用机制还需要进一步探讨。

Effects of Affirming Two Fundamental Dimensions on Self-Evaluation under Intergroup Threat

People perceive intergroup threat when their out-group occupies more resources. Such threat can cause negative cognition and behavior to both out-group and individual. An example of the negative results is a bad performance in a math test under stereotype threat. One valid strategy to buffer the negative effect is self-affirmation. Research on self-affirmation has found that the negative impact of threat can be reduced by affirming a specific value or personality, for self-affirmation is a good way to integrate self. Based on the stress and coping theory, people need to appraise their own resource to cope with stress. As two basic dimensions in self-judgment and self-evaluation, agency and communion are two important aspects of self resources related to capacity and social relationship, which are important resources to cope with the stress from intergroup threat. In light of these considerations, we wish to explore whether affirming self by agency and communion resources will enhance self-evaluation under intergroup threat in two studies. A total number of 67 undergraduates and graduates took part in Study 1. They were assigned to 3 groups(threat with self-affirmation; threat without self-affirmation; control). Participants were first asked to read a web-page and then to fill a manipulation check by an emotion scale. The web-page in threat condition was about 985 schools occupied more resources and the web-page in no threat condition was about the April Fool's Day. After that, subjects in self-affirmation condition answered a 3-item self-affirmation questionnaire while those in control group filled 3 items about diet situation in 24 hours. Finally, all subjects completed the Personal Evaluation Inventory to measure their self-evaluation. Study 2 included 70 undergraduates and graduates as subjects, which employed the same method and materials with Study 1 except for the self-affirmation questionnaire. The two studies leaded to the same results. When there were no self-affirmation, an independent sample t test comparing self-evaluation of threat and no threat condition has significant difference, the self-evaluation of the former was lower than the latter, t(39) study1=-2.86, t(41)study2=-2.87, p<.05. Under threat, independent sample t test in two studies both had a significant difference. Self-evaluation of agency and communion self-affirmation conditions were higher than no self-affirmation condition, t(43)study1=2.84, t(48)study2=2.17, p<.05. The self-evaluation in the threat with self-affirmation condition had no difference with no threat or self-affirmation condition. The results in both studies show that intergroup threat can impair self-evaluation, and both agency and communion affirmation are valid to buffer the impairment on self. To sum up, these findings extend the intergroup theory. At the level of group interaction, intergroup threat can have negative impact on out-group cognition; nevertheless, self-cognition can be impaired on the level of individual process. The results support that the two fundamental dimensions can be the resources to cope with threat, and affirming communion and agency traits can enhance the self-evaluation. However, how self-affirmation works on the relationship between intergroup threat and self-evaluation remains to be explored in future.