身份认同动机：概念、测量与心理效应

身份认同动机（identity motive,简称身份动机）是引导个体进行身份建构、寻求特定的自我概念与自我评价的心理需要,主要包括自尊、效能、连续、意义、独特、归属六种动机。近十年的研究表明,不同的身份动机在身份的建构、维持、防御与改变等过程中协同发挥作用,而且动机的满足可以增强幸福感和心理适应。未来研究应进一步检验动机维度、考察发展规律、开发实验范式、探究神经机制。     

Attachment, self-esteem, worldviews, and terror management: evidence for a tripartite security system

On the basis of prior work integrating attachment theory and terror management theory, the authors propose a model of a tripartite security system consisting of dynamically interrelated attachment, self-esteem, and worldview processes. Four studies are presented that, combined with existing evidence, support the prediction derived from the model that threats to one component of the security system result in compensatory defensive activation of other components. Further, the authors predicted and found that individual differences in attachment style moderate the defenses. In Studies 1 and 2, attachment threats motivated worldview defense among anxiously attached participants and motivated self-enhancement (especially among avoidant participants), effects similar to those caused by mortality salience. In Studies 3 and 4, a worldview threat and a self-esteem threat caused attachment-related proximity seeking among fearful participants and avoidance of proximity among dismissing participants. The authors' model provides an overarching framework within which to study attachment, self-esteem, and worldviews.     

Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review

Terror management theory (TMT; J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski, & S. Solomon, 1986) posits that people are motivated to pursue positive self-evaluations because self-esteem provides a buffer against the omnipresent potential for anxiety engendered by the uniquely human awareness of mortality. Empirical evidence relevant to the theory is reviewed showing that high levels of self-esteem reduce anxiety and anxiety-related defensive behavior, reminders of one's mortality increase self-esteem striving and defense of self-esteem against threats in a variety of domains, high levels of self-esteem eliminate the effect of reminders of mortality on both self-esteem striving and the accessibility of death-related thoughts, and convincing people of the existence of an afterlife eliminates the effect of mortality salience on self-esteem striving. TMT is compared with other explanations for why people need self-esteem, and a critique of the most prominent of these, sociometer theory, is provided.     

A test of whether attributions provide for self-enhancement or self-defense

It is well known that people often make attributions in a way that is favorable to their self-concepts (see R. L. Collins, 1996, for a review). However, it is less clear whether the primary effect is to enhance self-esteem or to defend against the possible loss of self-esteem. The authors performed an experiment to test these possibilities against each other. In a completely between-participants design, participants recalled either a positive behavior or a negative behavior that was performed by themselves or others. They then judged the positivity or negativity of the behavior and made trait attributions about the actor (i.e., himself, herself, or others). The results indicated that although judgments and trait attributions for positive behaviors were similar for the self and for others, judgments and trait attributions for negative behaviors were less negative for the self than they were for others. The authors interpreted these and other findings as supporting a defensive strategy rather than an enhancive strategy.     

Defensiveness versus remediation: self-theories and modes of self-esteem maintenance

How people maintain and repair their self-esteem has been a topic of widespread interest. In this article, the authors ask, What determines whether people will use direct, remedial actions, or defensive actions? In three studies, they tested the hypothesis that a belief in fixed intelligence (entity theory) would produce defensiveness, whereas a belief in improvable intelligence (incremental theory) would foster remediation. In each study, participants assigned to the entity condition opted for defensive self-esteem repair (downward comparison in Studies 1 and 3; a tutorial on already mastered material in Study 2), but those in the incremental condition opted for self-improvement (upward comparison in Studies 1 and 3; a tutorial on unmastered material in Study 2). Experiment 3 also linked these strategies to self-esteem repair; remedial strategies were the most effective in recovering lost self-esteem for those in the incremental condition, whereas defensive strategies were most effective for those in the entity condition.     

Terror Management and Personality: Variations in the Psychological Defense Against the Awareness of Mortality

Drawing on terror management theory (TMT), we discuss the psychological motivations that shape personality at two levels: the characteristically human personality common to us all and the individual differences that distinguish some people from others. TMT posits that the motivation to protect the self against deep-rooted fears about mortality drives people to maintain meaningful, reliable conceptions of reality and positive evaluations of themselves, two broad tendencies that form the foundation of every person’s personality. We review studies showing that mortality reminders increase efforts to bolster cultural sources of meaning and self-esteem in similar ways across individuals and cultures. TMT also posits that individual differences in personality partly reflect the different sources of meaning and self-esteem that people invest in to assuage mortality fears. We review evidence that individual differences predict the degree and direction of people’s defensive responses to mortality reminders. Directions for future research are discussed.     

A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: an extension of terror management theory

Distinct defensive processes are activated by conscious and nonconscious but accessible thoughts of death. Proximal defenses, which entail suppressing death-related thoughts or pushing the problem of death into the distant future by denying one's vulnerability, are rational, threat-focused, and activated when thoughts of death are in current focal attention. Distal terror management defenses, which entail maintaining self-esteem and faith in one's cultural worldview, function to control the potential for anxiety that results from knowing that death is inevitable. These defenses are experiential, are not related to the problem of death in any semantic or logical way, and are increasingly activated as the accessibility of death-related thoughts increases, up to the point at which such thoughts enter consciousness and proximal threat-focused defenses are initiated. Experimental evidence for this analysis is presented.     

Trait Self-esteem Moderates Decreases in Self-control Following Rejection: An Information-processing Account

In the current paper, the authors posit that trait self-esteem moderates the relationship between social rejection and decrements in self-control, propose an information-processing account of trait self-esteem's moderating influence and discuss three tests of this theory. The authors measured trait self-esteem, experimentally manipulated social rejection and assessed subsequent self-control in Studies 1 and 2. Additionally, Study 3 framed a self-control task as diagnostic of social skills to examine motivational influences. Together, the results reveal that rejection impairs self-control, but only among low self-esteem individuals. Moreover, this decrement in self-control only emerged when the task had no social implications-suggesting that low self-esteem individuals exert effort on tasks of social value and are otherwise preoccupied with belonging needs when completing nonsocial tasks.     

Defensive self-esteem impacts attention, attitude strength, and self-affirmation processes

Individuals with defensive self-esteem score low on implicit measures of self-esteem (ISE) and high on explicit measures of self-esteem (ESE). Although there is some evidence about the consequences of defensive self-esteem, much of it is indirect and open to alternative explanations. Here, we offer direct and novel evidence regarding the implications of defensive self-esteem. Using a standard visual attention paradigm, Study 1 revealed that defensive self-esteem is associated with enhanced attention to defensiveness-related words. Building upon these results, Study 2 found that defensive self-esteem individuals reported particularly strong attitudes, across different operationalizations of attitude strength as well as different attitude objects. Study 3 examined the sensitivity of defensive self-esteem individuals to self-affirmation effects. The results revealed that self-affirmation was particularly effective for defensive self-esteem individuals in reducing actual-ideal self-discrepancies. Overall, the results provide novel and firm evidence that the combination of simultaneously low ISE and high ESE elicits defensiveness.     

Cultural influences on terror management: Independent and interdependent self-esteem as anxiety buffers

Terror management theory (TMT) proposes that self-esteem serves as a defense against the fear of death. Previous research has suggested that independent self-esteem is more salient in individualist cultures, whereas interdependent self-esteem is more salient in collectivist cultures. Thus, we hypothesized that in collectivist cultures, independent self-esteem would play a lesser role and interdependent self-esteem a greater role in terror management, compared to individualist cultures. The results support this prediction. In Study 1, personal self-esteem was negatively associated with death anxiety in samples from a Western (Austria) and Eastern (China) culture. However, both self-liking and self-competence were negatively associated with death anxiety among Austrian participants, but only self-liking (and not self-competence) was so among Chinese participants. Surprisingly, collective self-esteem was not significantly correlated with death anxiety. Yet, Study 2 showed that among Chinese participants, relational self-esteem was negatively associated with death anxiety. Study 3 examined the roles of relational versus personal self-esteem in moderating the effects of mortality salience on worldview defense. Among Chinese participants, relational rather than personal self-esteem increased the defense of worldviews centered on collectivist-Chinese values following mortality salience (Study 3a). In contrast, among Austrian participants, personal rather than relational self-esteem attenuated the effect of mortality salience on the defense of individualist-Austrian worldviews (Study 3b). Self-esteem serves a terror management function in both collectivist and individualist cultures; however, the differences between cultural worldviews determine the type of self-esteem that is more relevant to terror management processes.     

Understanding the Vital Human Quest for Self-Esteem

ABSTRACT— Authors have long noted the human penchant for self-esteem. Experimental research has revealed that this desire for self-esteem has wide-ranging effects on cognition, emotion, and behavior. Terror management theory explains that this desire for self-esteem results from a fundamental need for psychological security, which is engendered by humans' awareness of their own vulnerability and mortality. A large body of evidence has supported this explanation. Specifically, substantial lines of research have shown that self-esteem buffers anxiety and reduces defenses against death and that reminders of mortality increase efforts to defend and bolster self-esteem. Complementary findings have helped clarify the role of culture in self-esteem striving and the ways in which people can vary in their level, stability, and sources of self-esteem. I conclude by briefly considering how this contemporary knowledge regarding the quest for self-esteem informs current events and daily life.     

恐惧管理研究:新热点、质疑与争论

恐惧管理理论(Terror Management Theory,简称TMT)认为,死亡恐惧为人类发展提出了新的适应性问题,多重机制因此进化而来以维护心理平衡。大量的实证研究验证了TMT的基本假设,但在解释死亡突显效应背后的动机上还存在争议。该文首先介绍了由文化世界观、自尊及亲密关系组成的三重防御系统,之后重点评述了批评者从认知闭合、意义维持、联结动机以及控制等视角对死亡突显效应背后真实动机做出的新的阐释,最后指出未来研究应当尝试将死亡觉知的必然性与不确定性所引发的不同效应分离开来。     

Is the Meaning of Life Also the Meaning of Death? A Terror Management Perspective Reply

The human quality of self-awareness makes individuals aware of their inventible death. How does this knowledge influence meaning in life and is influenced by it? Four studies examined the association between meaning in life and awareness of death, through a Terror Management Theory perspective. Study 1 assessed the effects of a mortality reminder on self-reports of meaning in life, while exploring the moderating role of self-esteem. The findings indicate a trend in which after a mortality salience induction, high self-esteem individuals tend to view their lives as more meaningful. Studies 2 and 3 examined the effect of thinking about the meaning of life on death-thought accessibility, and found it to be higher in both the mortality and meaning salience conditions, as compared to a control condition. Study 4 sought to discover whether reminders of one’s meaning in life would yield cultural worldview validation, and indeed revealed a more severe perception of social transgressions following both mortality and meaning salience. Findings highlight the understanding that meaning in life is a basic existential concept closely related to awareness of death’s inevitability.     

Do people need self-esteem? Comment on Pyszczynski et al. (2004)

In spite of impressive empirical evidence consistent with aspects of terror management theory (TMT) reviewed by T. Pyszczynski, J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, J. Arndt, and J. Schimel (2004), several fundamental assumptions of the theory remain untested or lack support. Specifically, Pyszczynski et al. (2004) have not demonstrated that (a) people need self-esteem, (b) pursuing self-esteem is an effective means for reducing anxiety, (c) pursuing self-esteem helps people achieve their important goals, (d) having or pursuing self-esteem is the only way to deal with anxiety to achieve important goals, or (e) death is the real issue driving the pursuit of self-esteem. The authors suggest there is a different paradigm for thinking about death, one in which awareness of one's mortality serves as a precious reminder of the limited time one has to accomplish one's most important goals. All of these questions can be addressed with empirical research.     

社会排斥的研究范式与理论模型

社会排斥是一种普遍现象, 对个体和社会有很大影响, 具多种表现形式。常见研究范式有拒绝范式、放逐范式、孤独终老范式及其他范式。其理论模型有需要-威胁的时间模型、多元动机模型及情绪麻木和自我控制失败说。当前研究在社会排斥对基本需要、情绪和自尊有何影响上存在争议。未来需谨慎使用研究范式, 明确研究对象, 提高研究的生态效度, 寻找社会排斥出现的原因, 探索有效的干预措施, 在中国文化背景下开展社会排斥研究。     

防御性自尊大学生注意偏向对记忆偏向的影响

摘 要 为考查防御性自尊大学生注意偏向对记忆偏向的影响,本研究将被试分为训练组和控制组,训练组接受注意偏向训练,之后完成记忆任务。记忆任务中呈现中性和攻击性词汇,要求被试对词汇进行自由回忆。结果发现,控制组对攻击性信息存在着记忆偏向,而训练组对攻击性信息的记忆偏向消失。注意偏向训练可以即时性地改变防御性自尊大学生对攻击性信息的注意偏向,注意偏向可能是特质一致性记忆的原因之一。     

Fluid compensation following threats to self-concept clarity

We examined defensive responses to self-clarity threats, finding that self-uncertain participants gave larger rewards to a social hero, but larger punishments to a social transgressor, than self-certain participants (Study 1). To examine whether there are individual differences in defensiveness to meaning threats, we included moderators, showing that high self-esteem individuals (HSE) thinking about self-inconsistencies gave more polarized evaluations of someone criticizing vs. complimenting their ingroup than self-consistent HSEs (Study 2). We found similar responses to a relational self-clarity threat, among individuals for whom relationships are self-defining (Study 3). Results held controlling for the impact of the self-clarity manipulations on self-esteem. This research is compatible with the meaning maintenance model, which stipulates that various meaning threats elicit fluid compensatory efforts designed to restore general feelings of meaningfulness. We discuss limitations and future directions.     

组织心理所有权与工作态度和工作行为的关系

介绍了心理所有权的理论基础,整合了组织心理所有权的基本内涵及其构念,阐述了组织心理所有权与工作态度及工作行为之间的关系：①对组织的心理所有权与员工态度以及工作行为之间具有积极的关系;②心理所有权有助于解释员工的工作责任及其行为;③心理所有权对员工绩效的预测价值还有待进一步验证。并指出当前研究中存在的问题以及未来发展趋势     

Types of high self-esteem and prejudice: how implicit self-esteem relates to ethnic discrimination among high explicit self-esteem individuals

There is increasing recognition that high self-esteem is heterogeneous. Recent research suggests that individuals who report having high self-esteem (i.e., have high explicit self-esteem) behave more defensively to the extent that they have relatively low implicit self-esteem. The current studies test whether individuals with high explicit self-esteem are more likely to discriminate ethnically, as a defensive technique, to the extent that they have relatively low implicit self-esteem. The results support this prediction. Among participants with high explicit self-esteem, all of whom were threatened by negative performance feedback, those with relatively low implicit self-esteem recommended a more severe punishment for a Native, but not a White, student who started a fist-fight. In Study 2, this pattern was not apparent for participants with relatively low explicit self-esteem.     

Evaluating Sources of Ego-Threatening Feedback: Self-Esteem and Narcissism Effects

High self-esteem individuals in previous studies have tended to deny the credibility of negative evaluators. The present research examined possible explanations for this finding and compared the effects of self-esteem and narcissism on evaluations of negative feedback sources. Following bogus negative feedback, self-esteem predicted negative evaluations of a nonperson feedback source and positive affect, as expected from consistency theory; narcissism predicted negative evaluations of a person feedback source and hostile affect, as expected from threat-derogation and narcissism theory. Results indicate the importance of distinguishing between healthy and defensive self-esteem in understanding responses to negative feedback.