自我提高还是自我增强? 解释水平理论的观点

Self-enhancement or Self-improvement:A Temporal Construal Approach

以概念启动和情境启动的方式分别激活了可能自我和当前自我知觉,借以检验对自我提高和自我增强的影响。结果发现:(1)相对于当前自我,可能自我启动后,个体对自我的评价更低,更乐意接受反馈,也更能注意到测试对自己的帮助;(2)一年级学生在读了明星学生的新闻后对自己的评价更低,对明星的评价更高;四年级学生则相反。这表明,消极反馈和可能自我的同时出现引发了自我提高动机,消极反馈和当前自我共同激活了自我提高动机。

Self-enhancement and self-improvement are two basic motives that guide the ways in which people seek self-evaluation. Whereas there is considerable empirical data regarding the self-enhancement, the research of self-improvement has achieved very little. The present research aimed to investigate the relationship between temporal self-perception and self-evaluation, such as self-improvement and self-enhancement. According to the construal level theory （Trope ＆ Liberman, 2003 ）, any event can be construed concretely or abstractly. People form more abstract representations, or higher-level construal, of psychologically distal objects than psychologically proximal objects. Consistent with this logic, studies also showed that abstract construals encouraged the pursuit of long-term goals （ Wakslak, Nussbaum, Liberman, ＆ Trope, 2008）. Based on the theory, the present research posits that self-improvement will be triggered when possible self-perception which represents the core ingredient of self-concept is activated in face of negative feedback. Alternatively, self-enhancement will be triggered when current self and negative feedback are co-activated. Two studies were made to examine the above assumptions. Study 1 explored the relationship between temporal perception and self-motivation. The participants first completed a test pertaining to creativity to prime self-perspective, were then given negative feedback about the test. After that, the Stroop task was employed to estimate the level of self-motivation. The results showed that when possible self-perception （i. e. , distal self-perception） was primed, the participants reacted to the words of self-improvement more slowly than the control group or the proximal group. For the proximal group, when they were told that the creativity test was authoritative, they then showed longer reactive time for the words of self-enhancement than the control group. But it was not the case for the new test manipulation condition. Analysis indicated that when the possible self was activated, people focused on the information that can facilitate their self-development. Possibly because of this, they were glad to accept all kinds of feedback, even if the feedback would threaten their self-esteem. But when the current self was activated in one＇ s working self-concept, they chose to escape from negative feedback in order to maintain their positive self-regard. Study 2 manipulated the self-perception of freshmen and seniors with a piece of news pertaining to a superstar student. By this means, it examined the impact of the positive role on the freshmen and seniors. Statistical analysis showed that the freshmen evaluated the superstar more positively than the seniors, but evaluated themselves less positively than the seniors. The results indicated that the freshmen were more prone to see the superstar as the future possible self than the seniors, who focused more on the differences between the superstar and themselves, which in turn triggered self-improvement. Though the seniors would see the superstar as a current goal in order to protect their self-concept, they were more likely to show self-enhancement bias. Implications of the results for self-regulation and motivation were discussed, and the need for future research was indicated.