中国人人际情感的差序格局关系:来自EAST的证据

Differential Mode of Association in Chinese Interpersonal Relationship Affection:Evidence from Extrinsic Affective Simon Task(EAST)

本研究采用外部情感西蒙任务(EAST),以36名大学生为被试对自我词及亲人、熟人、陌生人三种人际关系词与积极情感和消极情感的关系进行探究,从而检验个体对自我和不同人际关系对象的情感是否存在差序格局的表现形式。结果显示,在EAST中,对自我词和亲人词作积极反应比作消极反应时间更短;对陌生人词作消极反应比作积极反应时间更短;对熟人词作积极反应和消极反应的时间差异不明显。并且,自我词的EAST效应值最大,接着依次是亲人词和熟人词;陌生人词的EAST效应值为负值。表明了在个体的认知图式中,对自我、亲人持有积极的情感,而对陌生人持有消极的情感,对熟人情感偏向不明显;且不同人际关系在情感的联结强度上表现出差序格局的形式。

Interpersonal relationship affection is a valuable research topic. China has a unique interpersonal relationship culture, and individuals exist in the interpersonal relationship network. Within this network, individuals treat different people with different affection tendency. Only by fully understanding this unique interpersonal relationship mode can we maintain harmony and avoid certain inaccurate social judgments. This study discussed the influence of the Differential Mode of Association （DMA） in interpersonal relationship affection. Previous study used IAT （Implicit Association Test） to study affection between the self and others by pairwise comparison; but this kind of research could not compare multiple kinds of objects at the same time. De Houwer developed the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task （EAST） as a single task to remedy these defections. EAST could measure implicit attitude in different objects at the same time, based on the difference reaction time between incompatible discrimination and compatible discrimination as the indicator. The EAST measured implicit attitude indirectly by measuring the automatic association between concept words and attributive words. By randomly sampling 36 undergraduate students as subjects, we completed the EAST under four kinds of interpersonal relationships conditions, which were the self, the relatives, the acquaintances and the strangers, to confirm if interpersonal relationships associated themselves with affection in a DMA pattern. The experiment proceeded as follows： the self nouns, the relatives nouns, the acquaintances nouns and the strangers＇ nouns were presented on the colored trials, whereas five positive and five negative adjectives were presented on the white trials. The nouns were either presented in green or blue. All participants were instructed to classify these words by pressing the good key or bad key depending on the meaning or color of the presented word. They were told that, if the word was white, the meaning of the word was important. All participants were instructed to press the good key for white words with a positive meaning and press the bad key for white words with a negative meaning. If the word was colored, they were instructed to press the good or had key on the basis of the color of the word. The results indicated that： （1） People were prone to associating themselves, the relatives with positive affection and associating strangers with negative affection, but not significant bias affection in acquaintances. （2） Interpersonal relationship affection showed a DMA pattern in connection strength. This study suggested that influenced by Chinese culture, Chinese people showed an interdependent relationalism in their individual cognitive schema. Those close to the self in psychological distance had closer connection to the positive affection, and those away from the self in psychological distance had a closer connection to the negative affection. People in different interpersonal distances within the DMA affected the extent of organization and processing of relevant information, and resulted in differences in interpersonal relationship affection.