Self-guides, autobiographical memory, and anxiety and dysphoria: toward a cognitive model of vulnerability to emotional distress.

Several aspects of a cognitive model of vulnerability to emotional disorders based on self-discrepancy theory were tested. Anxious, dysphoric, anxious/dysphoric, and control subjects participated in 3 studies over a 4-month period: screening, assessment of self-guides and self-discrepancies, and an autobiographical memory task in which different types of retrieval cues (including self-guides) were presented and subjects reported childhood memories as they came to mind. Actual:ideal discrepancy was associated with persistent dysphoria, whereas actual:ought discrepancy was associated with persistent anxiety. Self-guide cues resulted in more efficient retrieval and greater unintended negative emotional content than comparable cue types. The groups were differentiated only by negative affect content in response to self-guide cues.     

Self-guide framing and persuasion: responsibly increasing message processing to ideal levels

The current research examines the effect that framing persuasive messages in terms of self-guides (ideal vs. ought) has on the attitudes and cognitive responses of individuals with chronic ideal versus ought self-guides. The strength of participants' ideal and ought self-guides and the magnitude of participants' ideal and ought self-discrepancies were measured using a computerized reaction time program. One week later, participants read a persuasive message about a fictional breakfast product, framed in terms of either ideals or oughts. Matching framing to stronger self-guide led to enhanced message processing activity, especially among individuals who were low in need for cognition. Individuals who read messages framed to match their stronger self-guides paid more attention to argument quality, as reflected in their attitudes and cognitive responses. Messages with self-guide framing that matched individuals' stronger self-discrepancies did not have this effect on processing.     

Discrepant Self-Views and Young Women's Sexual and Emotional Adjustment

Young women in the United States receive conflicting messages about being sexually moral versus sexually desirable. Drawing from self-discrepancy theory, we hypothesized that women's internalization of messages about morality and desirability influence their ought and ideal self-guides for sexuality, respectively. Further, we expected that women who viewed their actual selves as significantly less positive/more negative than their self-guides would endorse greater sexual and emotional problems. In Study 1, never-married undergraduate women (N = 242) completed measures of sexual self-views, ought self-guides, and sexual adjustment. In Study 2, another sample (N = 170) also completed measures of ideal self-guides, depression, and anxiety. Participants were predominantly Caucasian and from upper middle-class backgrounds. Both negative actual:ought and actual:ideal discrepancies were associated with poorer sexual adjustment. Negative actual:ought discrepancies were associated with anxiety but not depression, whereas negative actual:ideal discrepancies were associated with both anxiety and depression. Self-discrepancy theory is a useful framework for understanding how self-standards for sexual morality versus desirability are associated with young women's emotional and sexual adjustment.     

Memory of elapsed time and feeling of time discrepancy

In dating past events, one sometimes recalls inaccurate dates and tends to estimate recent events too remotely and remote events too recently (telescoping). On the other hand, even when one knows the exact dates of events, subjective time could be elastic and often different from objective time. This Feeling of Time Discrepancy between objective and subjective elapsed times was examined with two autobiographical events. Results showed that (1) subjects reported a discrepancy even if the exact dates of events were known and (2) the discrepancy for entrance into university was higher than that for graduation from high school, even when they happened at almost same time. The results are discussed in terms of "location" and "distance" theories, Kemp's 1999 associative model of dating, and Conway's 2000 self-memory system. Autobiographical memory may be organized in terms of present self-concept with our past fitted to the present self-concept. However, if autobiographical memory changes greatly, we cannot share autobiographical memory with other people. We may be adapted to the present life by making only a sense of the subjective elapsed time of each event change with the accurate time information of the autobiographical facts held.     

大学生的自我差异与价值偏好

基于以往对自我透视和价值偏好的研究,本研究提出自我差异是引发价值偏好出现分离的原因之一。两项研究对这一假设进行了检验。结果发现：相对于害怕的可能自我,大学生在期望可能自我上体验到更大的差异;在可能自我差异激活后,理想主义价值在个体的价值系统中占据主导地位,而在当前自我差异激活后,实用主义价值占据主导地位;当下目标和当前自我同时启动时,与当下目标未启动时,两组个体对价值偏好无显著差异。     

Coping with failure: relationship with self-concept discrepancy and attributional style

In the relationship of attributional style and self-concept discrepancy with coping behavior among 10th-grade Hong Kong Chinese students, 3 significant canonical variate pairs were identified. The total criterion redundancy showed that self-concept discrepancy and attributional style predicted about 20% of the variance of coping behavior. The 1st variate pair indicated that students with small self-concept discrepancy and low-depressive attributional style tended to cope with failure by planful problem solving and by positive reappraisal. The 2nd variate pair showed that students, particularly girls, with small self-concept discrepancy in verbal ability and same-sex peer relations tended to cope with failure by seeking social support. The last variate pair showed that students with great self-concept discrepancy in same-sex peer relations and parent relations tended to cope with failure by avoiding or escaping. The 3 canonical variate pairs also suggested a new taxonomy for coping behavior: mobilization of internal coping resources, mobilization of external coping resources, and the inability to mobilize any coping resources.     

Ideals,oughts, and self-regulation: Are there qualitatively distinct self-guides?

Self-regulation, the ability to regulate one's emotions and behavior with respect to important goals, is an important function. While a number of different self-regulatory models exist, self-discrepancy theory (SDT: Higgins, 1987, 1989a, 1989b) is the only model which proposes that there are distinct self-guides, the ideal and the ought self. Discrepancies or congruencies between the actual self and each type of self-guide is proposed to result in unique emotional and behavioral consequences. Some recent research findings have failed to demonstrate these unique consequences, causing the proposed distinction between the self-guides to be questioned in the literature. This paper suggests that this conclusion is based on the assumption that these effects must occur in every case. We argue that SDT does not propose that unique relationships between discrepancies and either emotions or behavior always occur; rather, it specifies moderators of these relationships. A review of recent research examining the effects of these moderators highlights not only that, indeed, such moderating effects are found, but also in some cases the moderating effect is different for relationships between emotions and the two types of discrepancies. It is concluded that these two different types of evidence, namely, the existence of moderator variables and their differential effects on ideal and ought self-regulation, provide compelling support for the distinct nature of the ideal and the ought self-guides.     

Cognitive dissonance as a function of self-esteem and logical inconsistency

An experiment was conducted to test the importance of self-esteem in the arousal of cognitive dissonance. Recently, Aronson (1969) suggested that the reason an attitude-discrepant speech can arouse dissonance is that it is an indecent act committed by an individual who likes to think of himself as a good and decent person. Looking at counterattitudinal behavior as a discrepancy with one's self-concept rather than as a logical discrepancy between behavioral and attitudinal cognitions differs from Festinger and Carlsnuth's (1959) original notion In the experiment reported, subjects volunteered to take a personality inventory and received either neutral, very favorable, or very unfavorable feedback In this way, subjects' level of self-esteem was raised or lowered Following this procedure, subjects were induced to record a speech that was known to be discrepant with their private beliefs. They were offered either a small or a large inducement for their statements. It was predicted that, regardless of their level of self-esteem, subjects would manifest the inverse relationship between incentive magnitude and attitude change predicted by dissonance theory The major analysis of the results, and the concomitant internal analysis, generally supported the prediction With one qualification, the results were held to be consistent with Festinger and Carlsmith's version of dissonance arousal and inconsistent with the self-esteem analysis     

Self-consciousness,role discrepancy,and depressive affect

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that depressive affect is a joint function of private self-consciousness and the extent to which an individual's self-concept is discrepant from the requirements of a significant role. In the first study, the role of college student was empirically defined using a technique developed by Burke and Tully (1977). As predicted, the discrepancy between this role definition and subjects' self-ratings was a more significant predictor of depressive affect among high than low private self-conscious individuals. In the second study, measurements were taken at two time periods that were spaced six weeks apart. In a replication of the results of Study 1, the discrepancy between the role definition and subjects' self-ratings was a more significant predictor of depressive affect at Time 1 among high than low self-conscious individuals. In addition, discrepancy at Time 1 was a significant predictor of depression at Time 2 among high but not low self-conscious individuals. On the other hand, depression at Time 1 was unrelated to discrepancy at Time 2 among high self-conscious subjects. On the basis of these results, it is concluded that high private self-consciousness combined with role-identity discrepancy is associated with increased risk of depression. Finally, additional analyses suggested that depression may itself function to increase subsequent self-consciousness.     

Combining cues while avoiding perceptual conflicts

A common assumption in cue combination models is that small discrepancies between cues are due to the limited resolution of the individual cues. Whenever this assumption holds, information from the separate cues can best be combined to give a single, more accurate estimate of the property of interest. We examined whether information about the discrepancy itself is lost when this is done. In our experiments, subjects were required to combine cues to match certain properties while avoiding perceptual conflicts. In part 1, they combined expansion and change in disparity to estimate motion in depth; and in part 2, they combined perspective and binocular disparities to estimate slant. We compared the pattern in the way that subjects set the two cues with the patterns predicted by models of cue combination with and without a loss of information about the discrepancy. From this comparison we conclude that little information about the discrepancies between cues is lost when the cues are combined.     

Factors affecting judgements of how much another likes us: A signal detection approach

Investigated the effects of subjects' self-concept and the attractiveness of the other on subjects' estimates of how much the other liked them. The use of a signal detection paradigm allowed the measurement of both the criteria and discriminability of subjects' decisions. Eighty mule and 80 female subjects participated in a computer match where they received either somewhat positive or somewhat negative feedback from their match. Besides sex and type of feedback, the factorial design included dating self-concept (high vs. low) and other-attractiveness (high vs. low). Results indicate that high dating self-concept subjects had a lower criterion than low dating self-concept subjects for saying that another liked them (p < .0l), and that the former group was superior to the latter at discriminating between the two types of feedback (p < .03). Also, males were more willing to say that the attractive match liked them than that the unattractive match liked them, while among females the direction of these differences reversed (p < .03). fie results were explained in terms of differential attention to pay-off matrices and prior odds.     

Dissociating proportion congruent and conflict adaptation effects in a Simon–Stroop procedure

Proportion congruent and conflict adaptation are two well known effects associated with cognitive control. A critical open question is whether they reflect the same or separate cognitive control mechanisms. In this experiment, in a training phase we introduced a proportion congruency manipulation for one conflict type (i.e. Simon), whereas in pre-training and post-training phases two conflict types (e.g. Simon and Spatial Stroop) were displayed with the same incongruent-to-congruent ratio. The results supported the sustained nature of the proportion congruent effect, as it transferred from the training to the post-training phase. Furthermore, this transfer generalized to both conflict types. By contrast, the conflict adaptation effect was specific to conflict type, as it was only observed when the same conflict type (either Simon or Stroop) was presented on two consecutive trials (no effect was observed on conflict type alternation trials). Results are interpreted as supporting the reactive and proactive control mechanisms distinction.     

合作还是冲突?组合代言中代言人关系类型对广告效果的影响

在营销实践中,多位代言人同时出现在一则广告中的组合代言广告日益增多,却很少有研究关注。本文探究了组合代言中代言人关系类型(合作型组合代言vs.冲突型组合代言)对广告效果的影响。研究发现,相对于合作型组合代言,冲突型组合代言会产生更好的广告效果;这种作用是通过消费者感知到的广告生动性所中介的;消费者的情感强度可以调节这种作用,对于情感强度较高的消费者,冲突型组合代言能产生更好的广告效果,而对于情感强度较低的消费者没有显著影响;此外,代言人之间的差异程度也可以起到调节作用,即当消费者对组合代言中代言人们的评价相差较小时,冲突型组合代言能提升广告效果,当对代言人们的评价相差较大时,则没有显著的促进作用。文章还对这些发现的理论贡献、营销启示和未来研究方向进行了讨论。     

The possessive self as a barrier to conflict resolution: effects of mere ownership, process accountability, and self-concept clarity on competitive cognitions and behavior

The authors propose that people have difficulty managing conflict because they quickly develop ownership of arguments and positions they use in the dispute, that these arguments and positions become part of their (extended) self-concept, and that any opposition or counterargumentation therefore becomes an ego-threat. Four studies reveal that individuals value arguments and beliefs more when these are associated with the self and that anticipated or real opposition triggers ego-defensive cognition and behavior, including competitive communication, retaliatory responses, negative perceptions of the partner, and attitude polarization. These effects were weaker when epistemic needs were raised through process accountability or when individuals had high rather than low self-concept clarity. The authors conclude that because people develop ownership of arguments and make these part of their self-concept, conflict is difficult to manage and bound to escalate.     

Interaction of sex role self-concept with relationship quality and relationship beliefs in married, heterosexual cohabiting, gay, and lesbian couples

The relation between sex role self-concept (masculine, feminine, undifferentiated, and androgynous) and both relationship quality and dysfunctional relationship beliefs was examined in 370 monogamous partners who represented four types of couples (married, heterosexual cohabiting, gay, and lesbian). Analyses used both the individual partner and the couple as the unit of analysis. The individual partner analyses revealed that relationship quality and relationship beliefs differed by subjects' sex role self-concept. Androgynous and feminine subjects reported higher relationship quality than masculine and undifferentiated subjects; androgynous subjects had fewer "disagreement is destructive" beliefs than feminine subjects; and androgynous subjects had fewer "partner cannot change" beliefs than undifferentiated subjects. The couple analyses revealed a relation between partners' sex role self-concept only for the heterosexual cohabiting couples. For these couples, masculine men tended to pair with feminine or undifferentiated women, and androgynous partners tended to pair together. Relative to other couples, couples in which one or both partners were androgynous or feminine reported the highest relationship quality, whereas couples in which one or both partners were undifferentiated or masculine reported the lowest relationship quality. These effects did not vary by type of couple. The study concluded that sex role self-concept is a robust factor in appraisals of relationship quality. Relative to masculine and undifferentiated individuals, androgynous and feminine individuals report greater positive relationship functioning.     

The durations of attention to alternatives and re-evaluation in choices with two and three alternatives

In two experiments on choice the durations of attention to the alternatives were measured. In experiment 1 each subject chose one from two pictures; in experiment 2 the choice was one from three pictures. In both experiments the subjects understood that they would acquire the picture that they selected. In each experiment higher and lower conflict conditions were induced by offering subjects a choice between alternatives that had been evaluated either equally or disparately. In both experiments a significant relationship appeared between duration of attention and preference order with most subjects looking longest at the alternative that was preferred. In the comparison between conditions this effect was found to be stronger under lower conflict than under higher conflict; this difference reached a significant level in experiment 2. These results are contrary to findings by Gerard (1967), and this matter is discussed. The relevance of the results to other theories is examined. Inferences were drawn from dissonance theory about re-evaluation effects after decision, and evaluation changes were measured in the experiments. After adjustment for measurement regression, the data failed to reveal a significant chronic re-evaluation effect. Contrary to dissonance theory, the re-evaluation effect was weaker in the three-alternative choice experiment than in the two-alternative choice experiment.     

自我概念与商品形象的一致性和仿制商品消费及使用的关系:作用与反作用

通过一个相关研究和一个实验研究探索自我概念与仿制商品形象的一致性与消费者对仿制商品消费意愿的关系,以及反过来个体在使用仿制商品后对其行为的影响。研究一中,呈现给被试三组同一品牌的正品和仿制商品,让被试评价,相对于正品,其自我概念与仿制商品形象一致的程度以及对仿制商品的购买意愿,结果发现被试评价其自我概念与仿制商品形象一致性程度越高,其对仿制商品的购买意愿越高;研究二中,被试被要求使用正品或仿品钢笔完成矩阵谜题任务,并根据成绩自行兑换奖励,结果发现,相比使用正品钢笔,被试使用仿制商品后更倾向于谎报成绩,表现出与仿制商品相一致的虚假欺骗属性。以上研究结果说明,自我概念的影响贯穿于消费行为始终,自我概念和仿制商品形象的一致性会促进消费行为,而对仿制商品的消费也会反过来作用于自我,使消费者的行为倾向和仿制商品的负面特征趋于一致。     

物质主义者自我概念的特点和相关理论

物质主义的经典研究分别从人格、价值观、目标和需要的角度界定和理解物质主义的相关现象。自我概念一直是贯穿物质主义研究的线索, 但直到最近研究者才试图以它为理论基点统摄与整合已有研究。相关研究表明, 物质主义者对自我的评价较低, 表现为低自尊、权变性自尊; 对自我的认识具有不一致性, 表现为自我概念不清晰、外显-内隐自尊分离、以及自我差距(理想自我与现实自我的差距)。最近出现的两个综合理论——物质主义的自我逃离理论与物质主义的认同目标追求理论提出, 物质主义是个体将物质拥有作为逃避自我的方式或满足自我认同动机的手段。这两个理论弥补了现有物质主义研究缺乏整合性理论的不足。未来研究可以通过借鉴有关自我概念的理论, 超越单纯的物质主义者自我匮乏的思路, 从而做出更大的理论贡献。