嫉妒与幸福感因果机制:基于追踪和日记法研究

The causal mechanism between envy and subjective well-being:Based on a longitudinal study and a diary method

追求幸福是人类永恒的主题。尽管影响幸福的因素很多,但社会比较是影响个体幸福感最普遍的因素。基于社会比较理论视角,分别采用纵向追踪研究和日记法研究探讨了向上社会比较中典型情绪——嫉妒与幸福感的因果关系机制,并首次尝试建立了嫉妒与一般主观幸福感(SWB,SubjectWell-being)因子的循环假设理论模型。在研究1中,对290名参与者进行间隔1年的两次(T1和T2)追踪调查,探讨特质嫉妒与主观幸福感双因子模型之间的关系。研究结果显示:(1) T1的特质嫉妒可以显著正向预测T2的消极情感(NA, Negative Affect)和SWB因子,显著负向预测T2的积极情感(PA, Positive Affect)和生活满意度(LS, Life Satisfaction);(2) T1的一般SWB因子负向预测T2的特质嫉妒。在研究2中,进一步采用日记法对178名参与者进行了持续14天的研究,结果发现每日嫉妒仅能正向预测主观幸福感双因子中的NA。首次基于社会比较的理论视角,采用多方法学视角深入揭示了嫉妒与主观幸福感的PA、NA和LS之间的复杂因果关系机制,弥补了学术界在相关领域的不足。更重要的是,还首次自主提出了嫉妒与一般SWB因子的循环假设理论模型,对从社会比较理论视角去拓展、理解、重评SWB的社会基础提供了较新的思路。

With the rise of the Internet and the popularity of mobile phones, sharing life and flaunting happiness on Facebook and WeChat has gradually become the norm, which easily induces upward social comparison and leads to the generalization of envy. So, is there a predictive causal mechanism between envy and subjective well-being(SWB)? To the best of our knowledge, there is no in-depth study on this issue at present. Thus, based on the perspective of social comparison theory, this study used a longitudinal study and a diary method to systematically to explore the causal mechanism between dispositional envy and subjective well-being.A two-wave longitudinal study with the time interval of one year and a fourteen-day diary survey were conducted to test our hypotheses. Specifically, a sample of 307 young students participated in a two-wave study including the measurements of dispositional envy and SWB. We employed structural equation modelling techniques to assess cross-lagged effects between envy and the bi-factor structure of SWB [i.e., life satisfaction(LS), negative affect(NA), positive affect(PA) and the general SWB factor(gSWB)] in four models. On the other hand, a sample of 178 young students was selected by cluster sampling method. After a fourteen-day diary survey, we used HLM 6.08 to construct a hierarchical linear model to study the effects of daily envy on daily PA,NA and LS, and then we tested the mutual prediction between effect of daily envy and subjective well-being with amos24.0, latent growth curve model(LGCM) and structural equation model(SEM).The results of the longitudinal study showed that the dispositional envy of young students can positively predict NA(β = 0.54, p = 0.003) and gSWB(β = 0.81, p = 0.032), and negatively predict PA(β = –0.73, p =0.011) and LS(β = –0.82, p = 0.016) in a long period of time. The result of the diary method indicated that the envy of the previous day could only positively predict NA of the next day in the bi-factor model of subjective well-being in a short period of time. That means the dispositional envy of young students can only positively predict their own NA. We also found that PA, NA and LS of the previous day can all predict the envy of the next day. Besides, the result of this study showed that there was an interaction between envy and gSWB, in which envy can positively predict gSWB(β = 0.81, p = 0.032) and gSWB can negatively predict envy(β = –0.17, p =0.047).In conclusion, based on the theoretical perspective of social comparison, this study deeply reveals the complex causal mechanism between envy and PA, NA, LS of SWB from a longitudinal study and a diary method.In addition, on the basis of this finding, we put forward a circular hypothesis model of envy and gSWB for the first time, which provides a new perspective for exploring the predictive causal relationship between envy and SWB from the perspective of social comparison theory, and a new way for improving young students’ well-being.