Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Personality Psychology submitted time 2023-12-11
Abstract： Growth mindset, the belief that one’s abilities can be improved through effort and learning, has attracted much attention from researchers in personality, social and developmental psychology. Thanks to large-scale surveys and randomized controlled field experiments around the world, growth mindset research has entered a new era of interdisciplinary, international and generalizable intervention research. However, as more evidence emerges, researchers have also noticed that the effects of growth mindsets vary across different situations. To address the issues of replicability and generalizability, mindsets × context theory proposes that growth mindsets are more beneficial when individuals face challenges or threats (vulnerability) and when the environment supports their learning and growth (psychological affordance). These insights offer new directions for designing and implementing growth mindset interventions. Future research should further investigate the mechanisms of psychological affordance and vulnerability, and develop tailored intervention programs for different groups, so that growth mindset interventions can effectively promote individual development and solve educational problems.
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Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-01-04
Abstract：
Social essentialism is an intuitive theory about social categories. It implies that members of one social category share unobservable intrinsic characteristics that determine their membership and generate observable similarities between them.There are numerous studies showing that social essentialism contributes to prejudice based on race, gender, and class. but also reduces prejudice against obesity, homosexuality and criminals. In forced social categories where stability cues are strong (e.g. race, gender, and class), social essentialism leads people to believe that differences between groups are hard to change, thus increasing prejudice by discounting environmental explanations. In chosen social categories where controllability cues are strong (e.g. obesity, homosexuality, criminals), social essentialism leads people to believe that the stigmatized identities of some group members are uncontrollable, thus reducing prejudice by discounting chosen explanations. For future research, it would be useful to examine how social essentialist beliefs emerge, develop and ultimately lead to different outcomes, and from there, to develop systematic, sustained, and effective interventions aimed at eliminating prejudice and promoting harmony within society using scientific psychological solutions.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Other Disciplines >> Synthetic discipline submitted time 2023-10-09 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Awe is an emotional response to vast stimuli that challenge the current frames of reference and require a new schema to accommodate. A large body of empirical studies have highlighted that awe engenders various forms of prosocial behavior. Regarding the psychological mechanisms implicated, the small-self hypothesis posits that the vastness of stimuli that evokes awe elicits feelings of self-smallness, which diverts the individual's attention away from the self and towards others, thus promoting prosocial behavior; the authentic-self hypothesis suggests that awe helps to facilitate a shift in the individual's attention from regular mundane concerns to a larger spiritual presence, which stimulates the individual's pursuit of his or her authentic self, thus promoting prosocial behavior. Though these two hypotheses present distinct viewpoints regarding the psychological mechanisms through which awe fosters prosocial behavior from the perspectives of attention and transformation, relatively. Nevertheless, the relationship between the two suppositions in the promotion of prosocial behavior via awe remains unclear. An organized theoretical framework is wanting to clarify and integrate this inquiry, which can potentially be resolved by considering the “Big Two” perspective. Based on the Big Two framework, the agentic and communal dimensions are considered as the fundamental aspects of the self. The small self, which is affiliated and submissive, is part of the communal dimension of the self-concept. On the other hand, the authentic self is seen as unique and self-determined, and is part of the agentic dimension of self. Positive awe can enhance prosocial behavior through two parallel pathways, the agentic dimension (authentic self) and the communal dimension (small self) of self. The Big Two framework is also beneficial in comprehending the recent discoveries in the field of threat-based awe. Although threat-based awe can promote prosocial behavior on the communal dimension of the self (small self), it also impedes prosocial behavior on the agentic dimension of the self (powerlessness). As opposed to the consistent findings obtained in the field of positive awe, threat-based awe produces contrasting effects on prosocial behavior.Research in this domain will facilitate the examination of the pivotal position of emotions in relation to human sociability. Future research endeavors could develop into the following domains: primordially, scrutinizing the universality of the effects of awe on prosocial behavior, with particular emphasis on threat-based awe tinged with fear, which has elicited inconsistent and heterogeneous findings in extant research and warrant further exploration with greater depth in the future. Secondly, the prevailing hypotheses suffer from certain inadequacies. The notion of “small-self” lays emphasis on the act of shifting attention, which results in a stark dichotomy between self-directed and other-directed attention. Similarly, the “authentic-self” hypothesis warrants refinement regarding the mechanisms involved in the generation of prosocial motivation. In due course, there is a pressing need for both theoretical and empirical advancement aimed at redressing the deficiencies that currently exist. Lastly, although interventions aimed at facilitating awe have been proposed, very few initiatives target the core mechanism through which awe engenders transformation of small and authentic selves. Hence, future studies ought to construct intervention programs focused on self-transformation for this mechanism, imparting a scientific psychological insight to progress a philanthropic-based third distribution strategy.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： In the historical stage of solidly promoting common prosperity, low-income groups are the key support groups to promote common prosperity. How to improve the self-development ability of low-income groups is an important way to achieve common prosperity. One of the core abilities of self-development ability is self-regulation ability. Self-regulation is the ability to monitor and regulate cognition, emotion and behavior in order to achieve goals and adapt to the changing environment, it includes three independent and interactive components: cognition, emotion and behavior. Self-regulation has a strong and extensive impact on individual development and plays a role in various fields such as achievement, interpersonal communication and health. It not only promotes positive behavior, but also prevents bad behavior. Self-regulation is regarded as the key to human success and happiness. Improving the self-regulation ability of low-income groups is conducive to increasing human capital, increasing income, reducing medical and health care costs, and then conducive to the realization of common prosperity. However, many studies have found that people who live in low socioeconomic conditions have poor self-regulation ability. In order to improve their self-regulation ability, we must deeply investigate the mechanism of low socioeconomic status affecting self-regulation. Because the brain is the main channel for the environment to affect individual psychology and behavior, neuroscience methods can observe specific behavioral, cognitive and emotional brain processes, and then provide unique information, which plays an irreplaceable role: low socioeconomic status changes the structure and function of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(DLPFC), cingulate gyrus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex(vmPFC), amygdala, hippocampus and ventral striatum(VS), and then affects various components of self-regulation (cognitive regulation, emotional regulation and behavioral regulation). Specifically, low socioeconomic status affects the structure and function of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(DLPFC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and then affects cognitive regulation. Amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex(vmPFC) and hippocampus are three key brain regions in the process of emotion regulation affected by low socioeconomic status. Ventral striatum (VS) may be the physiological basis of low socioeconomic status affecting behavioral regulation. Since behavioral regulation is the result of cognitive regulation and emotional regulation playing a role in the interrelated balance, the neural mechanism of low socioeconomic status affecting behavioral regulation may also involve brain regions related to cognitive regulation and emotional regulation. In order to make the research findings in this field give full play to the value of practice and policy, future research should be strengthened in the following aspects: First, for each step of the potential "causal chain" of "low socioeconomic status - brain structure and function - self-regulation - adverse consequences", there is an urgent need for more research and more in-depth investigation. Low socioeconomic status does not necessarily lead to adverse consequences, the influence of low socioeconomic status on self-regulation and its neural mechanism also have complex paths. Second, connect neurobiology with developmental psychology, and reveal the unique impact mechanism of low socioeconomic status on self-regulation at different development stages. Living in low socioeconomic conditions in a specific development stage may have a unique impact on different aspects of self-regulation. Third, in the long run, promoting the self-regulation ability of people who live in low socioeconomic conditions is the key to improving human capital and the core of realizing common prosperity. Future research should explore the adaptive response and advantageous response of people who live in low socioeconomic conditions at the neural and behavioral levels from the perspective of adaptation, which is conducive to the development of systematic, sustainable and effective self-regulation intervention schemes on the basis of mechanism research, so as to make the intervention design better adapt to the needs and potential of people who live in low socioeconomic conditions.
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