自尊的认知神经机制

自尊是个体对自己总体的情感性评价。自尊有助于促进个体的心理健康,帮助个体应对威胁,具有重要的适应价值。近年来随着社会认知神经科学的兴起,关于自尊的认知神经机制的研究日益增多,主要涉及三个方面:1)自尊与大脑的结构(如海马体积、前扣带回等区域的灰质体积)和功能(静息态下的默认网络活动以及脑区之间的功能联结性)存在一定的关联;2)自尊调节大脑对威胁的反应,与高自尊个体相比,低自尊个体面对威胁时产生更强的防御性反应,自尊通过影响个体面对威胁时的大脑活动帮助个体更好地应对威胁;3)自我评价过程涉及大脑前额叶、眶额叶、扣带回等多个脑区,自尊调节个体在自我评价过程中的大脑活动。总之,自尊作为个体重要的人格特质,与大脑的结构、功能以及活动状态等都具有一定的关系;这些发现在一定程度上揭示了自尊的神经机制,加深了对自尊及其功能的理解。     

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。     

自我肯定研究述评

自我肯定是指通过肯定与威胁信息无关领域的自我价值,来维持自我整体性,从而降低防御反应。它可以通过完成自我价值观量表、描述重要的个人价值等方式来进行实验操纵。经过自我肯定的个体能更加客观、公正地处理威胁自我认同和群体认同的信息,促进个体的成长。这些作用可能是通过系统地思考说服信息的中央路径的认知加工来实现的。在未来的研究中,对个体最重要价值威胁情况下的自我肯定效应、自我肯定效应的多种机制的共同作用、自我肯定效应与群体肯定效应的区分以及自我与群体肯定效应的跨文化比较等方面还有待进一步的研究。     

自我肯定方式降低高威胁后的消极情绪

通过两个研究考察肯定内部核心品质和肯定外部成就两种不同自我肯定方式对威胁后个体的影响。研究1发现,无论高威胁还是低威胁情境下,选择内部自我肯定的被试均显著多于选择外部自我肯定的被试。研究2发现,内部自我肯定能够在边缘显著水平上降低高威胁感知被试的自我消极情绪,并能够显著降低高威胁感知被试的一般消极情绪,而外部自我肯定不能达到相似效果。上述结果表明,无论在高威胁还是低威胁情境下,个体都更倾向于选择内部自我肯定;与外部自我肯定相比,内部自我肯定对降低个体高威胁情境下的消极情绪有积极作用。     

“别人家的孩子”vs.平庸的自己：社会比较对独特性寻求行为的影响

人们在自我评价中普遍存在着优于平均值效应, 而上行社会比较会打破这一自我评价偏差, 引发后续的补偿性消费行为。通过5个实验, 依次论证上行比较(vs.下行比较)会提升个体对独特产品选项的偏好(实验1); 其心理机制在于上行比较降低了而非下行比较提升了个体的自我独特性感知, 从而促使个体出于补偿的目的而寻求独特性(实验2a、2b和2c); 上述效应适用于经济状况这一特定比较维度, 并且在感知经济流动性的调节作用下得到强化或削弱(实验3)。研究结论对于推动社会比较和独特性寻求行为相关领域的理论进展, 指导长尾市场中企业的营销策略、帮助个体缓解上行比较的威胁均有着积极的启示价值。     

自我概念威胁以及与重要他人的比较共同削弱自我面孔优势效应

内隐积极联想理论(implicit positive association, IPA)认为自我面孔识别以及与之伴随的自我意识激发了自我概念的积极属性, 促进了对自我面孔的识别优势, 因此通过自我概念威胁可以削弱自我面孔识别的优势效应。本研究旨在探讨自我概念威胁以及与重要他人的比较对自我面孔优势效应的共同影响。实验一为自我-朋友对比实验, 10对同性好友(20名被试)在接受完自我概念威胁启动或者非威胁性启动后对自我面孔和朋友面孔进行朝向的判断, 结果发现非威胁性启动后, 自我面孔的优势效应依然存在, 而在自我概念威胁启动后, 自我面孔优势效应消失。实验二为自我-陌生人对比实验, 另外20名被试在接受完自我概念威胁启动或者非威胁性启动后, 对自我面孔和陌生人面孔进行朝向的判断, 结果发现, 无论是自我概念威胁启动还是非威胁性启动后, 自我面孔识别优势效应都依然存在。两个实验的结果均主要体现在用左手进行反应的时候。结果表明：自我概念威胁以及与重要他人的比较共同削弱自我面孔优势效应; 而左手效应的发生似乎表明了大脑右半球对自我面孔识别的主导和调节作用。     

脆弱高自尊在自我威胁后的归因与情绪转换

对89名大学生被试在自我威胁条件下的归因与情绪模式进行了实验室研究。结果发现:(1)自我威胁条件下,脆弱高自尊个体会产生即刻的强烈羞愧情绪,之后通过外归因将这种向内的羞愧转换为向外的高敌意;(2)低自尊个体在自我威胁条件下,也会产生即刻的强烈羞愧感,但其外归因和敌意情绪均保持在较低水平,未出现归因与情绪转换。研究结果支持自我威胁后的归因与情绪转换假设。     

个体如何以消费行为应对自我威胁?基于导向-路径整合模型的分析

自我威胁无处不在, 以消费应对自我威胁是个体采取的重要方式。但由于自我概念的多维性、应对威胁过程中认知、情感、情绪等多因素的介入, 以及威胁源和应对行为的交叉性等原因, 当前的研究呈现出结论分散、不连贯, 甚至矛盾的情形。基于导向-路径的整合模型回顾了消费行为领域自我威胁研究的动态, 归纳出个体的多种自我威胁应对策略, 揭示了不同应对策略间的多层次交叉补偿机理, 以及自我威胁与消费行为间的多重关联方式, 并揭示出个体通过产品的全价值系统和自身的全感知系统进行自我威胁应对。基于导向-路径整合模型有助于对消费行为领域自我威胁应对研究形成整体连贯的认知, 揭示其内在规律, 并有助于理解当前环境(新冠肺炎疫情)下的个体消费行为。     

自我框架、风险认知和风险选择

对行为决策中“框架效应”(Framing Effect)的研究进行了拓展：探讨了自我框架对风险决策的影响及其机制。面对运用图示方法表示的管理,健康,及投资方面的风险决策问题,参与者自主地选择对方案的描述（自我框架）。研究有四个主要发现：1）自我框架对风险选择的效应部分显著,而且对风险选择的影响方向因情境的不同而不同;2）机会威胁认知是自我框架效应的一个中介变量;3）自我框架在情绪语气上的差异对风险决策有显著影响：决策者对一个备选方案（确定性或风险性方案）相对于另一个备选方案的自我描述的情绪语气越积极正面,这个方案被选择的可能性越大;4）决策者的机会-威胁认知是这一自我框架效应的部分中介变量。也就是说,对备选方案的自我描述语气作为一种对决策信息的编码影响了风险（机会和威胁）认知,进而影响决策者的风险偏好和选择     

自主支持对自我损耗的影响:活力对能量的补偿作用

人们进行自我控制的原因可能会影响自我控制能量的损耗程度.感到被迫进行自我控制的个体比自主进行自我控制的个体需要更多的能量.研究采用Stroop作为最初的自我控制任务,通过比较自主支持与压力控制情境下进行自我控制的被试在任务前后工作记忆容量的变化,考察自我控制情境对自我损耗效应的影响.结果发现:(1)自主支持情境下的被试比压力控制情境下的被试更不容易产生自我损耗效应,且这种差异与被试的情绪变化、动机和自信都没有关系.(2)自主支持对自我损耗的影响是以主观活力的变异为中介的,且最初自我控制任务的损耗程度对这一中介效应具有调节作用.感知到的自主支持会增加被试的主观活力,从而补偿自我损耗中消耗的能量,导致随后任务绩效的提高.     

The focusing effect of self-evaluation threat in coaction and social comparison

This article contends that the presence of a coactor leads to a focusing effect whenever this presence represents a threat or a potential threat to self-evaluation. Experiment 1 showed that attentional focusing appears in the presence of an actual (in the case of upward comparison) or potential (in the case of mere coaction) threat to self-evaluation but not in its absence (in the case of downward comparison). Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed that the presence of a coactor affects focusing because the coactor represents a potential threat and showed that introducing a threat in downward comparison can produce a focusing effect. Experiment 4 showed that removing the threat in upward comparison decreases the focusing effect. Experiment 5 confirmed that the effects observed in upward comparison are due to attentional focusing and not to an increase in effort. Contributions to social facilitation, social comparison, and attention research are discussed.     

Social comparison activity under threat: downward evaluation and upward contacts

Social comparison processes include the desire to affiliate with others, the desire for information about others, and explicit self-evaluation against others. Previously these types of comparison activity and their corresponding measures have been treated as interchangeable. We present evidence that in certain groups under threat, these comparison activities diverge, with explicit self-evaluation made against a less fortunate target (downward evaluation), but information and affiliation sought out from more fortunate others (upward contacts). These effects occur because downward evaluation and upward contacts appear to serve different needs, the former ameliorating self-esteem and the latter enabling a person to improve his or her situation and simultaneously increase motivation and hope. Implications for the concept, measurement, and theory of social comparison are discussed.     

Some affective consequences of social comparison and reflection processes: the pain and pleasure of being close

A self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model of social behavior was described. According to the comparison process, when another outperforms the self on a task high in relevance to the self, the closer the other the greater the threat to self-evaluation. According to the reflection process, when another outperforms the self on a task low in relevance to the self, the closer the other the greater the promise of augmentation to self-evaluation. Affect was assumed to reflect threats and promises to self-evaluation. In three studies, subjects were given feedback about own performance and the performance of a close (friend) and distant (stranger) other on tasks that were either low in self-relevance (Study 2) or that varied in self-relevance (Studies 1 and 3). In Study 1 (N = 31), subjects' performance on simple and complex tasks after each feedback trial served as a measure of arousal. Being outperformed by a close other resulted in greater arousal than being outperformed by a distant other. In Study 2 (N = 30), evaluative ratings of words unrelated to task performance served as an indirect measure of affect. Results indicated that when relevance is low, more positive affect is associated with a friend's outperforming the self than either a friend's performing at a level equal to the self or being outperformed by a stranger. In Study 3 (N = 31), subjects received feedback while their facial expressions were monitored. Pleasantness of expression was an interactive function of relevance of task, relative performance, and closeness of comparison other. The results of all three studies were interpreted as being generally consistent with the SEM model.     

“So You Wanna Be a Pop Star?”: Schadenfreude Following Another's Misfortune on TV

In this experiment we demonstrate that low self-evaluation individuals experience more schadenfreude following an unfavorable performance of a contestant on a TV show after receiving negative feedback on a self-relevant task, as compared with those who received positive feedback. Moreover, we show that high self-evaluation individuals do not differ in their experience of schadenfreude as a function of feedback. These findings corroborate our argument that in a “double whammy” condition (i.e., low self-evaluation and induced self-threat), individuals will be more motivated to restore their self-worth and, consequently, experience more pleasure at the misfortunes of others.     

Reducing defensive distancing: Self-affirmation and risk regulation in response to relationship threats

The risk regulation model proposes that people with low self-esteem, but not those with high self-esteem, react to relationship-based self-threats by defensively distancing from their partner. In the present study, we hypothesized that a self-affirmation manipulation, by restoring self-worth and integrity for people with low self-esteem, would attenuate this defensive distancing behavior. Participants were exposed to either a relationship-based self-threat or no such threat, and then completed a self-affirmation or a control task. As predicted, when presented with a self-threat, individuals with low self-esteem distanced from their partner. This effect was attenuated if they were given the opportunity to self-affirm. By contrast, the threat and self-affirmation manipulations had no effect for those with high self-esteem. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for risk regulation theory and self-affirmation theory.     

Shifting social identities as a strategy for deflecting threatening social comparisons

Results of three studies suggest that the multifaceted nature of identity provides a strategic basis for reducing the threat involved in upward social comparisons. After performing worse than a comparison standard, people may strategically emphasize aspects of their identity that differentiate them from the standard, thereby making the standard less relevant for self-evaluation. On the basis of previous research showing that persons low in self-esteem are less likely to make effective use of self-protection strategies, we hypothesized that this strategy of deflecting the threat involved in upward comparison (i.e., decreasing perceived comparability by emphasizing an unshared social identity) would be used primarily by persons who are characteristically high in self-esteem. This pattern was confirmed in three studies. Moreover, use of the strategy was associated with relatively more positive affect following threatening upward comparisons.     

My head says yes but my heart says no: cognitive and affective attraction as a function of similarity to the ideal self

The authors hypothesized that similarity to the ideal self (IS) simultaneously generates attraction and repulsion. Attraction research has suggested that a person likes individuals who are similar to his or her IS. Social comparison research has suggested that upward social comparison threatens self-evaluation. In Experiment 1, attraction to a partner increased and then decreased as the partner became more similar to and then surpassed the participant's IS. In Experiment 2, the cognitive and affective components of attraction increased and decreased, respectively, as the partner approached and surpassed the participant's IS to the extent that the dimension of comparison was meaningful and participants andicipated meeting their partner. Similarity to the IS generates opposing cognitive and affective reactions when the self-evaluative threat of upward comparison intensifies.     

Social comparison and adjustment to breast cancer: an experimental examination of upward affiliation and downward evaluation.

In a study designed to evaluate the divergence of social comparison activities under health threat, breast cancer patients (n = 94) were assigned randomly to listen to an audiotaped interview in which the target's psychological adjustment and disease prognosis were manipulated to reflect good, poor, and unspecified psychological and physical health status. Results supported hypotheses regarding downward self-evaluative and upward affiliative comparison activity, as well as predictions regarding the influences of comparison dimension. With regard to desire for affiliation, participants demonstrated a greater desire for information and emotional support from the well-adjusted target than from the poorly adjusted target. Self-evaluation of adjustment and prognosis varied as a function of target characteristics, although a pervasive tendency toward downward comparison in self-evaluation also was noted.     

Effects of objective feedback and "single other" or "average other" social comparison feedback on performance judgments and helping behavior

In two studies, participants received positive or negative feedback about their performance on a verbal task and then provided hints to another person on a subsequent, different task. It was expected that participants would give more helpful hints after positive than after negative feedback but that this would be more apparent when the feedback was based on performance comparisons with the "average participant" than on comparisons with another person or an objective standard. This effect was expected to be mediated by judgments of one's performance on the first task. These predictions were supported. Participants seemed aware of the effect of feedback on their hint choices, and their hint choices did not alter their affect levels. Also, participants receiving comparative (single or aggregated target) feedback exhibited changes in self-ascribed importance of the performance domain. Implications for social comparison theory and self-evaluation maintenance theory are discussed.     

The Contingencies of Interpersonal Acceptance: When Romantic Relationships Function as a Self-Affirmational Resource

Existing research suggests that people with high, but not low, self-esteem use their dating partners' love and acceptance as a resource for self-affirmation when faced with personal shortcomings. The present research examines the role that perceived contingencies of acceptance play in mediating these effects. In Experiment 1, we activated either conditional or unconditional working models and then gave experimental participants failure feedback on an intelligence test. In Experiment 2, we activated thoughts of rejection (or control thoughts) and then gave experimental participants feedback suggesting that their romantic partners would discover their secret sides. Experiment 1 revealed that low and high self-esteem women both embellished their partners' love and acceptance to compensate for self-doubt when the unconditional audience was primed. When rejection was primed in Experiment 2, however, high self-esteem men reacted to the self-threat by doubting their partners' love. These findings suggest that people with low self-esteem may not typically use their relationships to self-affirm because contingencies linking failure to rejection and acceptance to success are chronically accessible in their interpersonal schemas.