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： Public emergencies refer to social events that occur suddenly, cause, or may cause serious social harm and require emergency measures in dealing with them. Previous studies have focused on the psychological and behavioral responses of individuals during public emergencies. However, most of these studies have focused on describing psychological phenomena rather than exploring psychological mechanisms. Thus, the present article proposes that compensatory control theory can be used as a basic theoretical framework to understand a series of psychological and behavioral manifestations of individuals in the context of public emergencies. The core idea of this theory is that when individuals lack a sense of control, they tend to show a variety of reactions that have a common motivation; that is seeking structure. We analyzed the applicability of compensatory control theory to explain individuals’ psychological performance in the context of public emergencies from four perspectives. First, after major public emergencies occur, conspiracy theories on the cause of the event often follow. From the perspective of compensatory control theory, when individuals’ sense of control is threatened due to the occurrence of public emergencies, they tend to form conspiratorial thinking to some extent. Hence, they are eager to obtain a sense of order or structure to compensate. Since it is often difficult for authorities to immediately give a definitive answer about the cause of the incident, the conspiracy theory is often believed, which satisfies people’s search for causality and certainty. Second, during public emergencies, people tend to believe in and spread rumors. From the perspective of compensatory control theory, this can also be interpreted as individuals’ need to obtain a sense of structure brought about by deterministic information in a crisis, which leads to blind acceptance of unreliable information. Third, people exposed to public emergencies will also show stronger concern for moral issues, which, according to the compensatory control theory, is an individual’s search for certain social values. Further, the need for order and structure still matters when focusing on values. By emphasizing the objective standard of morality and strengthening the value that they believe in, people can achieve a sense of structure and order to some extent and thus, compensate for the lack of perceived control. Finally, in the context of public emergencies, there is another typical public behavior: irrational buying and hoarding of commodities required for daily life or event protection materials. This phenomenon can also be partially attributed to the performance of the individual need for structure. Due to the lack of a sense of control, individuals need to satisfy their internal needs for control and order through the possession of tangible material resources, which leads to their irrational purchasing behavior. These typical symptoms (belief in conspiracy theories, spreading rumors, moral concerns, and irrational hoarding) can also be explained by other social psychological theories to some extent. For example, by analyzing an individual’s fear of death and the worldview defense process used to overcome this fear, terror management theory can explain an individual’s focus on moral values. Similarly, the uncertainty management theory and meaning maintenance model can also explain some psychological and behavioral reactions of individuals in public emergencies. However, we believe that compensatory control theory has a unique advantage in understanding the above phenomena. This is because it has a clearer definition of antecedents (lack of perceived control) and consequences (need for structure) and shows a wide range of explanatory power and cross-cultural applicability. We suggest that in future studies, people’s psychological and behavioral responses to public emergencies should be further explored from the perspective of compensatory control. In addition, future research should delve deeper to explore this issue from theoretical, empirical, and practical 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 >> Social Psychology submitted time 2022-02-16
Abstract：补偿性控制理论指出，当面临控制感的缺乏时，个体会表现出一种需求秩序的倾向，即努力寻求客观世界的秩序，对于具有秩序性、确定性、可预测性的物理或抽象事物表现出偏好与需求，这种表现被称为补偿性控制。基于突发公共事件常会引发人们控制感暂时的下降，补偿性控制理论的视角可以用来解释个体在突发公共事件中的一系列典型心理反应。如阴谋论信念、谣言传播、道德争论和非理性囤积，都可以从补偿性控制与秩序需求的角度来加以理解。未来研究可以更多考虑从补偿性控制的角度探讨突发公共事件中的公众心理反应，并基于此视角加强理论深化、研究细化和实践干预。
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 2018-11-27
Abstract： "
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2018-11-15
Abstract： In recent years, multiple religious priming paradigms have been used to explore the relationship between religions and morality. It has been found that religious initiation, on the one hand, could promote people's prosocial behaviors and urge people to obey moral rules; on the other hand, it could also activate out-group prejudice and stimulate the hostility to groups with conflicting values. Existing research suggests that specific religious beliefs mediate the influence of religious priming on morality. Variables such as intrinsic religion, gender, the priming method and connotation of the stimuli, and some personality traits would serve as moderators influence the relationship between religion and morality because they may have influence on specific religious beliefs. Future research could further focus on methodological innovation as well as the exploration of other mediators and integrate more cross-religious and cross-cultural perspectives with interdisciplinary collaboration.
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