集体自尊对个体和集体自我参照加工的影响:来自ERP的证据

Influence of collective self-esteem on individual and collective self-referential processing:An ERP study

从集体自尊的角度出发,使用ERP技术和自我参照范式,探讨了集体自尊水平对集体和个体自我参照加工影响的时间进程特点.结果发现,在高集体自尊组中,集体自我参照条件相比非集体自我参照条件诱发了更大的N1波幅,而在低集体自尊组中,两种条件下的N1波幅没有显著差异;在P2和P3成分上,低集体自尊组被试在集体自我参照条件下相比非集体自我参照条件诱发了更大的P2和P3波幅,但是高集体自尊组被试在这两种条件下的P2和P3波幅没有显著差异.而在个体自我参照加工中,尽管高、低集体自尊组被试都表现出了明显的个体自我参照效应,但是两组被试个体自我参照效应的强度并没有差异.因此,本研究表明,集体自尊对集体自我参照加工具有明显的调制作用,而对个体自我参照加工没有显著的影响.

Previous studies have demonstrated that self-relevant information is processed more quickly and deeply than other information,and that self-esteem could modulate the self-reference effect.Individuals with low self-esteem were shown to be more sensitive to self-related information than other information that were individuals with high self-esteem.However,these studies mainly focused on self-esteem and self at the individual level,ignoring them at the collective level.The present study aimed to determine whether collective self-esteem could modulate individual and collective self-referential processing.Collective self-esteem is associated with one’s evaluation of the group he belongs to,and it emphasizes social relationships and collective value.We hypothesized that,similar to individual self-esteem,collective self-esteem may also influence self-referential processing,especially concerning the collective.More specifically,individuals with low collective self-esteem may be more sensitive to collective self-referential processing than individuals with high collective self-esteem.In order to explore the time course of self-referential processing,event-related potentials(ERPs)were recorded while participants performed a self-reference task in which they were presented with positive and negative personality trait adjectives and required to make judgements on themselves or a famous person,either Chinese or American.Participants’own names were selected as the individual self-relevant stimuli,while Andy Lau,a famous Chinese superstar,was chosen as the individual non-self-relevant stimulus.It was considered that collective self emphasized the identity as a member of a social group.Thus,"中国人(Chinese person)"and"美国人(American person)",were chosen as the collective self-relevant and non-self-relevant stimuli.Results showed an obvious modulation effect of collective self-esteem on the N1,P2 and P3 components in collective self-referential processing.For the early N1 component,larger N1 amplitudes were elicited by collective self-referential than collective non-self-referential processing in individuals with high collective self-esteem,whereas no such difference was observed in individuals with low collective self-esteem.For the later P2 and P3 components,larger P2 and P3 amplitudes were elicited by collective self-referential than collective non-self-referential processing in individuals with low collective self-esteem,whereas no such difference was observed in individuals with high collective self-esteem.Although an obvious individual self-referential effect was also observed in both low and high collective self-esteem individuals,the strength of the individual self-reference effect,indicated by the difference between individual self-referential and individual non-self-referential conditions,showed no significant difference between these two groups.Consistent with previous studies,the individual self was the core of selfconcept and the individual self-reference effect was robust.Moreover,individual and collective self-esteem,two different aspects of self-esteem,cannot be equated.In conclusion,the present study indicated that collective self-esteem could modulate collective rather than individual self-referential processing.