摘要
过去一直认为,自尊是人类普遍的需要,是泛文化的。但是,近十多年来,这一观点受到严重挑战。其主要理由是许多跨文化的研究显示集体主义文化下个体的自尊显著低于西方,少有自我促进的迹象。但是,几乎所有这样的证据都是来自自陈式测量。自陈式测量难以避免自我展现(Self-presentation)或社会期许(Soc ial Desirab il-ity)的影响,并且严重依赖于个体的自我报告,本研究采用新的能够防止社会期许的影响并能触及无意识的内隐测量———阈下评价性启动(Sub lim inal Evaluative Prim ing)程序,对中国大学生的自尊进行了研究。结果发现中国大学生对自我持有显著的积极、肯定的评价,中国人存在内隐自尊。这表明,集体主义文化下的个体的自尊需要是存在的,只是以内隐的方式表现或在自我展现的影响最小化后表现出来。这一发现和自尊的泛文化论是一致的。
Introduction
The long-held view that self-esteem is pancuhural has been challenged in the past decade. One of the main reasons is the repeatedly revealed low self-esteem among people from collectivistic culture. With regard to the causes of low self-esteem in collectivistic culture, two arguments have been proposed. One argues that people in collectivistic culture do not have the need to pursue self-esteem or have a weaker need than westerners due to interde- pendent culture （Heine, Lehman, Markus, Kitayama, 1999）. The other acknowledges the cultural differences in self-esteem, but they do not think that people in Eastern culture lack the need of self-esteem and it is modesty that leads to Easterner~ low self-esteem because Eastern culture values modesty very much （Brown, 2003 ）. However, almost all related evidence was based on explicit self-report measures that are sensitive to social desirability and unable to tap implicit processes. The present research aims to examine whether people in collectivistic culture exhibit self-esteem while self-presentation is minimized and while implicit self-esteem is allowed to manifest by using subliminal evaluative priming procedure that is totally free of self-presentation （ Nosek, 2002 ）. The expectation is that when effects of self-representation are removed, Easterners would exhibit self-esteem implicitly.
Method
123 college students from East China Normal University in Shanghai participated in the experiments as volunteers. A 2 （ priming type ： I vs. he/she） × 2 （ target valence ： positive vs. negative） × 2 （ target type ： attributes vs. non-attributes） within-subjects design was employed. All participants completed the computerized tasks in separated cubicles on computer with a refreshment frequency of 72Hz. They were presented a pre-mask stimulus for 56ms （4 frame） first, then priming stimulus for 52 ms, then post-mask stimulus for 56ms, and finally the target stimulus. The participants were required to respond to the positive and negative target stimuli with key E＇and I＇respectively as soon as possible with the least errors. The dependent variable was reaction time. 3 cases were discarded after preliminary data analysis due to high error rates （higher than 20% ）.
Results
Repeated measure ANOVA revealed a significant two-way interaction between priming type and target valence, F（1,119） =24.16, p 〈0. 001. Students responded faster to positive targets than to negative ones when primed with ‘I’t（1,119）=6. 92,p = 〈 0. 001, M1 = 534.59, M2 = 516.64. However, when primed with ‘ he/she＇ students responded at the similar speed to positive and negative targets, t（1,110） = -1.08, p =0.28, M1 =531.79, M2 = 535.32 . These findings suggest that Chinese college students possess self-esteem at implicit level. The three-way interaction was not significant, F（1,119） = 2.50, p 〉0.05, which indicated Chinese college students associated self with positive stimuli implicitly no matter the stimuli were attributes or not, providing convergent evidence that self- esteem is alive among Chinese. In summary, the results demonstrated that Chinese college students exhibited self- esteem when self-presentation was minimized and implicit self-evaluation was allowed to manifest.
Conclusion
By employing subliminal evaluative priming procedure that is free of self-presentation, the present research provides compelling evidence that people＇s self-esteem in the collectivism culture manifest pronouncedly at implicit level when self-presentation is minimized, supporting that self-esteem is pancultural.
出处
《心理学报》
CSSCI
CSCD
北大核心
2006年第6期902-909,共8页
Acta Psychologica Sinica
关键词
自尊
内隐自尊
自我展现
社会期许
阈下情感启动
self-esteem, implicit self-esteem, self-presentation, social desirability, subliminal affective priming.
