Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-09-23
Abstract： System-justifying belief pertains to perceiving the fairness and legitimacy of the existing social system. It fulfills a palliative function in safeguarding mental health through three psychological mechanisms: alleviating ideological dissonance, compensating for personal control, and denying or minimizing threats. The efficiency of these mechanisms is also shaped by contextual, individual, and temporal factors. Nevertheless, the psychological defense viewpoint overlooks the potential role of system-justifying beliefs in fostering a “coping” approach to preserve mental health. Future research should further validate and refine the defense-coping model, focus more on the adverse effects of the palliative function, enhance the measurement tools, and expand the breadth of inquiry.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Deci and Ryan proposed the concept of basic psychological needs based on previous studies and conceptualized basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Basic psychological needs originated from the Self-Determination Theory. Currently, measurement of basic psychological needs mainly employs the General Need Satisfaction Scale compiled by Gagn�. The satisfaction of basic psychological needs is mainly affected by the surrounding environment, and closely related to the mental health of the individual; the thwarting of basic psychological needs will lead to anxiety and depression. The challenges of basic psychological needs are mainly focused on four aspects: the content of needs, the contradiction between needs, the stability of needs, and the universality of needs. Future research on basic psychological needs should focus on developing the measurement, carrying out in-depth studies on need thwarting, enhancing longitudinal studies, and conducting research on the strategies of meeting basic psychological needs.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： System justification theory proposes that people have the natural tendency to see the current sociopolitical systems as fair and legitimate, which is called system justification. But what are the roots of system justification? Researchers have provided explanations from three distinct perspectives. The cognitive dissonance perspective posits that the tendency to justify the current system exists because people want to alleviate those bad feelings which often arise when they feel the system cannot meet their need. The second perspective is compensatory control, which argues that system justification is derived from a sense of lacking control. By a system-legitimating process one can find a sense of order to cope with the threat of personal control. The third perspective is social cognitive process, which proposes that people express a salient and inherent attributional tendency when explaining socioeconomic disparities. It is the attributional style that serves as a main source of system justification. The future study should include explanatory variables from different theoretical perspectives in one study, draw on the findings of similar fields to explore other possible mechanisms, seek sources of system justification peculiar to Chinese culture, and explore the application issues based on distinguishing positive and negative system justification.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Recently, researchers in the field of social class psychology have attached great importance to the perspective of subjective class. This is highlighted by emphasizing the subjective class component in the social class concept. According to this approach, a person's social class includes both the objective social resources they control (i.e., the objective class) and their perception of their own social status (i.e., the subjective class). In terms of theory, measurement, design, and topic selection, research based on this theoretical orientation tends to focus on the investigation of issues related to subjective class. In theory, subjective class, as a personal perception reflecting social class, is considered to be able to reflect a person's social class level comprehensively and effectively. Moreover, by understanding social class as a hierarchical notion, this theoretical orientation provides the foundation for quantitative research in the psychology of social class. Conceptually, subjective class is also considered to be better able to reflect the effect of social class on individuals’ psychological and behavioral exhibition, which not only promotes the simplification of social class measurement but also makes social class (i.e., a traditional sociological variable) more psychologically explained. It is of great significance to the development of research in this field. In terms of the method, researchers use a lot of experimental methods to examine the causal relationship between social class and a dependent variable by manipulating subjective class. This makes up for the insufficiency of previous studies on objective classes that could only reveal correlations and provide methodological assistance for drawing key conclusions in this field. In terms of research topics, the emphasis on subjective class has helped researchers to expand the scope of research in the psychology of social class. Themes such as the experience of social class, sign of social class, and perception of class mobility have all received more attention. Behind this series of research progress, the important foundational role of the orientation cannot be ignored. However, while this research orientation affirms the contributions of the above four aspects, the proposal of this idea has also led to certain negative effects. First, by only focusing on the subjective class attributes in the social class, or even equating the subjective class with the social class, this approach greatly reduces the rich connotation of the social class theoretically, and it cannot fully reflect the reality of this concept. Second, previous studies have found significant inconsistency between the concepts of subjective and objective class, which led to the risk of using subjective class as an operational definition of social class at the conceptual measurement level. Third, for the experiment of manipulating the subjective class, since the objective class of the subjects does not change with the experimental treatment, it is difficult to interpret the research results as the social class effect. Finally, because many studies focus on subjective class, it seems that the issue of social class has lost its original pluralistic and complex characteristics in the real society, and more of it has become the comparison between "higher" and "lower class." If we draw on the sociology research ideas, social class psychology can pay more attention to and reveal some problems in the process of social development. Based on the above advantages and disadvantages, future social class psychology research focusing on subjective class should consider further in-depth basic research to clarify the relationship between objective and subjective classes and their different predictive effects. Furthermore, a more detailed distinction can be made between subjective class and objective class. Similarly, more consideration should be given to combining the perspective of sociology to understand and respond to the problems of contemporary society based on specific social class groups in reality.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： After an emergency occurs, inferring the cause of the incident and attributing responsibility is an essential characteristic of people’s psychological activities. Attribution of responsibility in emergencies refers to the public's cognitive tendency and attitude toward the inference of the cause of the incident. Further, it includes the assessment of the responsibility of the subject involved in the process of occurrence and handling. In adverse events, people have stronger motivations for attributing responsibility. It is a protection mechanism for individuals to find fault or accord blame for unfortunate events. This leads us to believe that disasters can be avoided if individuals or groups can determine the relationship between events and control the situation. Therefore, individuals need responsibility attribution after emergencies. The purpose and psychological significance of responsibility attribution are to meet the need to alleviate the sense of uncertainty and maintain a sense of control. The sense of uncertainty due to emergencies results in a need to explain exigencies in achieving cognitive closure. Through attribution of responsibility, people can obtain explanations regarding emergencies that occur, making such situations predictable. Conversely, the pursuit of certainty may lead to the public believing in conspiracy theories of adverse events. Responsibility attribution can also be used as a way to meet the needs of the people's order to compensate for the lack of sense of control. Simultaneously, the accountability or punishment of the offending party can make people feel controllable. Meeting people’s psychological needs depends on the strategies adopted by the responsible subject in dealing with the attribution of people’s responsibilities. These strategies can be divided into negative coping strategies that violate psychological needs and positive coping strategies that meet people’s psychological needs. For example, organizations to which fault is attributable may adopt negative, responsibility-avoidance behaviors to maintain a positive image and project moral values, which makes it more difficult for the public to get a clear picture of the incident. This further aggravates the public’s sense of uncertainty, and causes other negative effects. The situational crisis communication theory proposed by Coombs considers various crises. It provides targeted suggestions for coping strategies, but the approach pays less attention to the psychological needs of the public in the attribution of responsibility. Starting from the people’s psychological needs, we have proposed two principles for coping with responsibility attribution: 1) ensuring complete transparency of information to alleviate people’s sense of uncertainty, and 2) ensuring reasonable and orderly actions to increase people’s sense of control. Finally, we further provided suggestions for response strategies at different stages of the incident. In the initial stage, it is necessary to provide timely guidance information to establish security. In the mid-term, a reasonable explanation of the causality of the event should be provided to alleviate the sense of uncertainty. Further, the structure and order of various measures should be ensured to compensate for the sense of control. Later, detailed information needs to be released, including instructions and suggestions for future preventive measures, to achieve cognitive closure. We also discuss future research in this area. First, we can supplement the integrated empirical evidence on the relationship between psychological needs and accountability in emergencies. Second, we distinguish the characteristics of the public’s responsibility attribution and active response strategies in different types of emergencies. Third, we focus on the connection between responsibility attribution and other social-psychological variables. Finally, we explore practical strategies for the government in responding to the attribution of public responsibility based on Chinese society.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Collective narcissism is the group-level equivalent of individual narcissism and is currently defined as the belief that one's own group is exceptional and entitled to privileged treatment but it is not sufficiently recognized by others. Current research findings show that it has relatively strong explanatory power for intergroup hostility, because collective narcissists are hypersensitive to threats to their in-group image, status, or identity, and are prone to overestimate threats and suspect out-groups; and that lacking sense of self-worth and personal control is one important source of collective narcissism. After reviewing the past research on collective narcissism, combined with latest progress in the field of individual narcissism, this paper proposes several important questions that remain to be investigated in the field of collective narcissism. First, does collective narcissism necessarily entail vulnerability? Currently, collective narcissism tends to be understood as collective self-esteem that is contingent on admiration and recognition from others. This suggests that collective narcissists are generally conceived to be fragile internally, in that it is because of the vulnerability implicit in their own beliefs—or in other words, their own lack of confidence in their in-group's exceptional image—that they are prone to demand external affirmation or recognition. However, vulnerability may not be a necessary attribute of collective narcissism because there may be collective narcissism that is not fragile, just as there may be individual narcissism that is not fragile. Therefore, researchers may consider appropriately narrowing the connotation of collective narcissism to expand its denotation so as to explore more diverse forms of collective narcissism, such as collective narcissism with and without vulnerability. Second, is the structure of collective narcissism one-dimensional? If not, what dimensions does it have? Although the most widely used collective narcissism scale has a one-dimensional structure, recent studies have developed and validated collective narcissism scales with a multidimensional structure. These studies are preliminary, however, and only suggest it is necessary to carry out multidimensional exploration. As for the exact structure of collective narcissism, further exploration is needed. And future research should not only explore the dimensions of collective narcissism, but also explore the sub-dimensions of both of vulnerable collective narcissism and grandiose collective narcissism. Third, are the consequences of collective narcissism always negative? The vast majority of current research has focused on revealing the negative effects of collective narcissism, and very few studies have directly examined and found positive effects of collective narcissism. However, according to E. Fromm's classical theoretical view, collective narcissism may also have its benign forms within certain limits, just as individual narcissism may also have an adaptive side. Therefore, future research should explore the effects of collective narcissism from a more complete theoretical perspective, and especially, examine more the positive effects of collective narcissism. Finally, does collective narcissism stem simply from frustrated individual needs? Although studies in recent years have begun to investigate the causes of collective narcissism, these studies largely focus on individual motivational factors and fail to examine them together with factors such as cognitions and sociocultural contexts. Future research may draw on ideas from theories such as system justification theory, social identity theory, and self-categorization theory to explore a more complete explanation for the phenomenon of collective narcissism. In summary, after more than a decade of research, there are still many theoretically meaningful questions in the field of collective narcissism that deserve further exploration. And in today's world, such exploration also has profound practical significance, and it may bring a wealth of insights into how to deal with the struggles of various social groups for recognition.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Severe economic inequality can damage individuals' physical and mental health at the micro level; at the macro level, it hinders social mobility and threatens social equity and stability. At the current high level of economic inequality, income redistribution policy is an important means of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor and promoting common prosperity. The formulation and effective implementation of redistribution policies cannot be separated from the support of all social strata, but research evidence from different disciplines shows that the upper class tends to be less supportive of redistribution than the lower class. Based on previous studies, this review proposes a mechanism and intervention model of low redistribution preference among higher social classes. According to the model, economic self-interest and system-justifying beliefs in motivation; the perception of economic inequality; the attribution of the wealth gap; and stereotypes in cognition, compassion, and status anxiety in emotion are the mediating factors that affect the redistribution preference of the upper class. To improve the dilemma of redistribution, three levels must be targeted: at the individual level, humility and compassion should be promoted; at the intergroup level, the focus should be on changing negative stereotypes of disadvantaged groups and the perspective of economic inequality; and at the social level, the focus should be on changing the cultural values of classes. More specifically, (1) improving humility can strengthen the egalitarian tendency of the upper class and weaken support for economic inequality, while reducing the endogenous attribution tendency of the wealth gap. Therefore, improving the humility of the upper class can help improve support for redistribution; (2) counter stereotype intervention can help the higher classes relate to the disadvantaged situation of the lower classes, which, in turn, affects their redistribution bias; (3) the inequality framing effect can, on the one hand, reduce the endogenous attribution tendency of the inequality gap among the upper class, and, on the other hand, increase the support of the upper class for redistribution policy due to the negative influence of inequality framing on the self-esteem of the group; (4) compassion training based on meditation, thinking, and behavioral training can improve redistribution preference by activating the medial orbitofrontal cortex and inferior parietal cortex; and (5) advocating for an equal and just social culture in society as a whole and changing the arrogance that can be found in the cultural value orientation of the higher classes will help to promote their redistribution preference. Several problems in the relationship between class and redistribution bias deserve further discussion. First, the upper classes also exhibit pro-redistribution behavior. Risk aversion, inequality aversion, and altruism may influence this phenomenon. The lower classes may also not support redistribution policies, which may be influenced by subjective identity biases, social mobility expectations, system justification, and welfare stigma. Second, the interaction between motivation, cognition, and emotion must be clarified and investigated. These factors do not always work in isolation but work together through mutual reinforcement and influence. As far as the perception of economic inequality among cognitive factors is concerned, its effects may be influenced by motivational factors. In addition, at the individual and social levels, other factors also deserve attention, such as the sense of psychological entitlement and cultural differences that exist at the social level. Third, the effectiveness of existing intervention strategies should be more comprehensively and rigorously investigated and verified by combining laboratory and field experiments, and horizontal and longitudinal studies. In addition, the differences between different social strata on the principles of fairness preference, the principle of fairness on redistribution towards the applicability problem situation, how to promote an understanding of the negative social consequences of economic inequality to society as a whole, how to change economic inequality as a personal problem, and individualistic discourse problems deserve attention in the future.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Erich Fromm’s humanistic psychoanalysis theory integrated the basic elements of European cultural traditions, including rationalism, humanism, critical attitude, and Messianism. His main work was to analyze the people in his community and the society in which he lived, with the standards of rationalism and humanism and the methods of psychoanalytic psychology, and to explore the ways of achieving the ideal society and realizing human development. The essence of this work is enlightenment. As a humanistic philosopher in the 20th century, Fromm inherited the unfinished business from those enlightenment philosophers in the 17th and 18th centuries and opened up a way to solve the dilemma of existence debated by his contemporaries, which, in turn, helped modern people overcome the inertia of human nature (i.e., regression toward a child state) and move toward rationality and independence. Grounded in the sense of insecurity that modern people experienced, Fromm deeply analyzed the pathological mechanisms of authoritarianism, nationalism, and consumerism, and suggested a social reform program based on the principles of humanism. As mentioned, Fromm profoundly analyzed the psychological mechanisms and the consequences that modern people relied on to alleviate or even eliminate their sense of insecurity by embracing authoritarianism, nationalism, and consumerism. Those behaviors and the underlying psychological constructs are seemingly becoming more serious nowadays, which highlights the depth and foresight of Fromm’s theory. Inspired by his theory, researchers have conducted empirical studies on the relevant topics in Fromm’s psychology. The findings of those works provide new evidence supporting Fromm’s theory that the enlightenment values of his humanistic psychoanalysis are still practically significant for the solution to the challenges to human development in the 21st century. In his 40-year academic career, Fromm demonstrated how clearly and steadily his social values and personal academic missions were. Given his contributions, Fromm should be considered an enlightenment scholar. According to Immanuel Kant, enlightenment is defined as “man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.” It is so convenient to be immature! Enlightenment requires that we know what we don’t know, discover what we haven’t discovered, exercise the right to criticism without any constraint, endure the loneliness of independence, and then think of ourselves as mature and responsible human beings. Only if the perfectibility of man indicated by philosophers exists and only if we human beings have room to improve will enlightenment continue to play its role in people’s self-realization and function as a premise of human development. Whether an independent person or human beings at large, self-growth never ends on one hand, and to overcome the regressive inertia of human nature never ends on the other. As long as this conflict exists, the task of enlightenment will never be completed, and, in this regard, Fromm’s humanistic psychoanalysis theory will continue to inspire people with its unique values and perspectives.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： A large number of studies conducted in Europe and the Americas have explored the negative relationships between social class and redistributive preferences in recent years. However, few studies have addressed the cross-cultural consistency or explored the internal mechanism and intervention strategies of the effects of social class on redistributive preferences. The present study aimed to systematically and deeply explore the relationships between social class and redistributive preferences through three studies in the context of Chinese society. Study 1 explored the direct relationship between social class and redistributive preferences. Based on national data from the Chinese General Social Survey of 2015, 8376 participants from all provinces and autonomous regions of China and indexes of measuring social class and redistributive preferences were obtained. Based on the inequality maintenance model of social class, Study 2 further explored the mediating role of attribution for the rich-poor gap between social class and redistributive preferences. 621 urban and rural residents were investigated by using objective and subjective socioeconomic status (SES) scales, a rich-poor attribution questionnaire, and a redistributive preferences scale. Study 3 was devoted to exploring the intervention effect of humility on the redistributive preferences of the upper social classes. A sample of 103 undergraduates from the upper social class were randomly assigned to humility priming group or control group. The results showed that all social class indexes can strongly and negatively predict redistributive preferences, meaning that, as in Western society, upper social-class Chinese individuals also tend to have lower redistributive preferences than those from lower social classes. In addition, the influences of social class on redistributive preferences could be partly mediated through the attribution for the rich-poor gap. Compared with individuals from a subjectively lower class, upper-class individuals tended to attribute the gap between rich and poor to internal causes. That is to say, they tended to attribute the rich-poor gap to personal factors, such as abilities, efforts, and ambition. This attitude lowered upper-class individuals’ redistributive preferences even further. Finally, a short video was used to prime participants’ feelings of humility. Compared with a control group that watched a neutral video, those upper-class undergraduates who watched life stories of people with humble qualities experienced higher states of emotional humility. Priming a humble state lowered their tendency to attribute the gap between rich and poor to internal causes, and further improved their redistributive preferences to a significant extent. In conclusion, these three studies deeply explore the relationships between social class and redistributive preferences in the context of Chinese society. Combined with other studies performed in Western societies, these results showed that, to some extent, the negative relationship between social class and redistributive preferences is cross-cultural. The exploration of this mechanism provides supporting data and enrichment for the inequality maintenance model of social class. The finding that humility is an important intervention strategy will further insight into social redistribution. These results suggest that, in order to render the benefits of economic development accessible to more people, social governance could cultivate individual humility through moral education, cultural development, and fostering a community spirit.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2022-05-12
Abstract：
"Recently, researchers in the field of social class psychology have attached great importance to the research orientation of subjective class. This perspective emphasizes subjective class in understanding the concept of social class, focusing on the subjective aspect in operational definition, research design, and specific issues. Such orientation has laid a theoretical contribution to the development of social class psychology, provided new research methods, and enriched the issues pertaining to this field. However, this perspective also has some potential drawbacks. In theory, it sometimes fails to accurately reflect the social reality. Conceptually, some studies tend to ignore the effect of objective class. In terms of methods, some studies pay attention only to the experimental manipulation of subjective class and neglect other research designs. Moreover, this perspective tends to examine only the difference between the higher- and lower-class individuals, and it does not pay more attention to the diversity of social class in the society. Future research should clarify further the relationship between objective and subjective classes, as well as the different predicting effects of the two variables. As for research design, future studies may need to make a more detailed distinction and measurement of subjective and objective classes. Furthermore, researchers should pay more attention to specific social issue.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Personality Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2022-02-15
Abstract：
Collective narcissism is the group-level equivalent of individual narcissism and is currently defined as the belief that one’s own group is exceptional and entitled to privileged treatment but it is not sufficiently recognized by others. Current research findings show that it has relatively strong explanatory power for intergroup hostility, because collective narcissists are hypersensitive to threats to their in-group image, status, or identity, and are prone to overestimate threats and suspect out-groups; and that lacking sense of self-worth and personal control is one important source of collective narcissism. Although collective narcissism is preconceived in current research as fragile and negative, its attributes are not necessarily so. Thus, future studies on it should first clarify its concept and structure; then, continue to explore its negative and positive consequences, its multiple causes and interventions; and in the meantime, advance cross-cultural research.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2022-02-07
Abstract：
Previous research on the relationship between social inequality and the system-justifying beliefs of disadvantaged individuals remains inconclusive. On the one hand, self-interest-oriented theories (e.g., social identity theory) argue that inequality decreases the system-justifying beliefs of the disadvantaged, given that inequality conflicts with their self-interest. System justification theory, on the other hand, predicts that when inequality in the system is made especially salient, then system justification motivation is activated (or increased); thus, individuals (including the disadvantaged) would be more likely to defend and support the unequal status quo. In this article, we intend to advance the debate by proposing a dual-process model. Specifically, when the realistic threat of inequality at the individual or group level is salient, it is more likely to activate the self-interested motivation of the disadvantaged (and thus inhibit their system justification motivation), and in turn weaken their system-justifying beliefs. However, when the symbolic threat of inequality at the system level is salient, it is more likely to activate their system justification motivation (and thus inhibit their self-interested motivation), thereby enhancing their system-justifying beliefs. Our dual-process model offers a new approach to bridging the research gap, and future research is needed to test and develop this model.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2021-12-21
Abstract： Social class is an important factor that affects redistribution preference. Some studies have found that compared with the lower classes, the upper class has a lower redistribution preference. Based on previous studies, this review proposes a mechanism and intervention model of low redistribution preference among people of a higher social class. According to the model, economic self-interest and system-justifying beliefs in motivation; the perception of economic inequality; the attribution of the wealth gap; and stereotypes in cognition, empathy, and status anxiety in emotion are the mediating factors that affect the redistribution preference of the upper class. Cultivating the upper class’s humility, employing counter stereotype interventions , take advantage of the inequality framing effect, enhancing compassion, and changing the cultural values of the upper class can help enhance the redistribution preference of the upper class. Future research should pay more attention to the charitable behavior of the upper class and the refusal of some lower classes to redistribute, further investigate and improve the mechanism of this model, and explore strategies to promote the redistribution preference of the upper class.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2021-12-08
Abstract： The main objective of the psychological activities in a public emergency is to determine its source and who is to take responsibility. Emergencies often increase individuals’ sense of uncertainty and give them a sense of unpredictability about the future, thus, driving individuals to seek explanations for emergencies to achieve cognitive closure. Additionally, crises threaten individuals’ control, making them feel less influential in their outcomes, making them more concerned about the order of the external world. Related organizations who are responsible for the emergency should adopt appropriate response strategies to reshape their reputation and re-win the trust of the public. Significantly, researchers need to establish a more systematic and complete model to supplement empirical evidence based on psychology. Further, there is a need to study the attribution of responsibility in various emergencies, explore effective coping strategies suitable to the Chinese socio-cultural context, and examine the connection between responsibility attribution and other social-psychological variables."
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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