Under the multicultural background, cultural conflicts may lead to the crisis of cultural related self-concept, especially in cultural identity. Cultural self-confidence refers to the positive emotions and evaluation of group culture by cultural subjects, which encourages individuals to understand, choose, and evaluate cultures in a multicultural environment to cope with psychological threats. The formation of cultural self-confidence depends a great extent on the individual’s understanding and acceptance of cultural information. However, the processing of culture information is multi-layered. The core and stable consensus of cultural elements such as beliefs and values need abstract thinking. While the external elements of culture (e.g., language and cultural norms), can be easily updated with changes in the situation concretely. The diversity of culture and the complexity of expression and processing require individuals to choose both comprehensive and specific ways of thinking when understanding cultural information. The construal level not only reflects the individual's cognitive preference and habitual processing, but also shapes the cultural self-confidence of individuals and groups from the cognitive perspective.
According to the Theory of Construal Level, with the increase of psychological distance from an object, people will describe the object with a higher level of explanation. Cultural self-confidence focuses on the attribution of cultural values and cultural significance. Individuals tend to adopt an abstract way of thinking when they understand and express cultural elements and complete the construction of cultural meaning, which is consistent with the effect of matching interpretation levels. Regardless of abstract customs, values, and beliefs, or specific cultural behaviors, languages, and systems, cultural self-confidence can be reflected through significance to individuals, groups, and society, and highlights the necessity of high-level cultural construction formed by cultural self-confidence. This study uses the Behavior Cognitive Scale and the Cultural Confidence Questionnaire to explore whether the differences in cultural confidence are related to individual construction levels (Study 1). Studies 2a and 2b explore abstract thinking (vs. concrete thinking) could enhance one’s cultural confidence. Meanwhile, it conducts a mini meta-analysis to determine whether this manipulation paradigm has a universal impact on cultural confidence in the separate way from cultural cues.
In Study 1, there is a small but significant correlation between the construal level and cultural confidence with construal level positively predicting individual cultural confidence. People with a high level of understanding will have a positive attitude and evaluation towards culture, but it is only reflected in the cognitive and behavioral levels of cultural confidence. In the Study 2a, it uses the "why-how" paradigm to manipulate the interpretation level, however, this manipulating has no significant impact on cultural confidence. In the study of 2b, using the "why-how" paradigm, participants are required to write down three reasons (high construal level) or measures for celebrating a Chinese festival (low construal level). The results indicated that the construal level and cultural confidence is not directly related, but is also indirectly related through cultural content. In other words, cultural confidence can only be enhanced by manipulating a high levels culture, and a higher level of cultural interpretation ability could stimulate higher cultural confidence. However, this enhancement is only shown in the domains of cognition and behavior. This study contributes to understanding the cognitive basis of cultural self-confidence in that it helps people to choose appropriate cultural expressions in the process of spreading and promoting cultural confidence.
Key words
cultural confidence /
construal level /
cultural construal level
{{custom_sec.title}}
{{custom_sec.title}}
{{custom_sec.content}}
References
[1] 毕重增. (2020). 文化的间距感和正念与文化自信. 西南大学学报(社会科学版), 46(6), 122-129.
[2] 毕重增, 吴良, 赵玉芳. (2022). 获得意义感: 文化自信对抑郁和焦虑的缓解作用. 西北师大学报(社会科学版), 59(1), 89-96.
[3] 陈咏媛, 韦庆旺. (2020). 流动性社会下文化自信的心理建设进路. 广西师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版), 56(4), 117-132.
[4] 丰怡, 蔡华俭, 施媛媛. (2013). 文化产品研究——文化心理学的独特视角. 心理科学进展, 21(2), 326-335.
[5] 黄俊, 李晔, 张宏伟. (2016). 解释水平理论完善过程中的四个问题. 心理科学, 39(4), 887-892.
[6] 黄薇, 毕重增. (2021). 简易一般文化认同感问卷的编制. 心理学进展, 11(2), 620-626.
[7] 刘林涛. (2016). 文化自信的概念、本质特征及其当代价值. 思想教育研究, 4, 21-24.
[8] 陆洛. (2007). 个人取向与社会取向的自我观: 概念分析与实征测量. 美中教育评论, 4(2), 1-23, 29.
[9] 谢天. (2015). 文化混搭中的决策心理. 中国社会心理学评论, 1, 154-187.
[10] 张亚利, 李森, 俞国良. (2019). 自尊与社交焦虑的关系: 基于中国学生群体的元分析. 心理科学进展, 27(6), 1005-1018.
[11] 周婷, 毕重增 . (2020). 文化自信问卷的编制 . 心理研究, 13(3), 214-220,244.
[12] 周婷, 毕重增. (2023). 地域多文化经验是否会削弱家乡文化自信?文化依恋的补偿作用. 心理科学, 46(5), 1131-1140.
[13] Berzonsky M. D., Macek P., & Nurmi J. E. (2003). Interrelationships among identity process, content, and structure: A cross-cultural investigation. Journal of Adolescent Research, 18(2), 112-130.
[14] Chaimani A., Mavridis D., & Salanti G. (2014). A hands-on practical tutorial on performing meta-analysis with Stata. BMJ Mental Health, 17(4), 111-116.
[15] Chiu C. Y., Ng S., & Au, E. W. M. (2013). Culture and social cognition. In D. E. Carlston (Ed.), Oxford handbook of social cognition (pp. 767-785). Oxford University Press.
[16] Freitas A. L., Gollwitzer P., & Trope Y. (2004). The influence of abstract and concrete mindsets on anticipating and guiding others' self-regulatory efforts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(6), 739-752.
[17] Fujita K., Trope Y., Liberman N., & Levin-Sagi M. (2006). Construal levels and self-control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(3), 351-367.
[18] Goh J. X., Hall J. A., & Rosenthal R. (2016). Mini meta-analysis of your own studies: Some arguments on why and a primer on how. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 10(10), 535-549.
[19] Ikeda K., Hattori Y., & Kobayashi M. (2016). Thinking about “why” eliminates retrieval-induced forgetting: Levels of construal affect retrieval dynamics. European Journal of Social Psychology, 46(4), 514-520.
[20] Jensen L. A., Arnett J. J., & McKenzie J. (2011). Globalization and cultural identity. In S. J. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, & V. L. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 285-301). Springer.
[21] Jiga-Boy G. M., Clark A. E., & Semin G. R. (2013). Situating construal level: The function of abstractness and concreteness in social contexts. Social Cognition, 31(2), 201-221.
[22] Ledgerwood A., Trope Y., Liberman N. (2015). Construal level theory and regulatory scope. In R. A. Scott, & M. C. Buchmann(Eds.), Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences: An interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resourse(pp. 1-10). Wiley.
[23] Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2008). The psychology of transcending the here and now. Science, 322(5905), 1201-1205.
[24] Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (2010). Cultures and selves: A cycle of mutual constitution. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(4), 420-430.
[25] McCrea S. M., Wieber F., & Myers A. L. (2012). Construal level mind-sets moderate self- and social stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(1), 51-68.
[26] Napier J. L., Luguri J. B., Dovidio J. F., & Oltman K. A. (2018). Construing the essence: The effects of construal level on genetic attributions for individual and social group differences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(9), 1395-1407.
[27] Oakes P. J.(2001). The root of all evil in intergroup relations? Unearthing the categorization process. In R. Brown & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intergroup processes (pp. 3-21). Blackwell Publishing.
[28] Oetting, E. R., & Beauvais, F. (1991). Orthogonal cultural identification theory: The cultural identification of minority adolescents. International Journal of the Addictions, 25(S5), 655-685.
[29] Oyserman, D. (2017). Culture three ways: Culture and subcultures within countries. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 435-463.
[30] Park S. Y., Kim E., & Moon M. J. (2020). Designing public information campaigns as an effective policy tool: Construal-level fit effects and evidence from an experimental study. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 22(6), 579-592.
[31] Salvatore S., Palmieri A., Cordella B., & Iuso S. (2021). The decay of signs’ semiotic value: A cultural psychology interpretation of the contemporary social scenario. Culture and Psychology, 27(4), 539-561.
[32] Schlicht T., Springer A., Volz K. G., Vosgerau G., Schmidt-Daffy M., Simon D., & Zinck A. (2009). Self as cultural construct? An argument for levels of self-representations. Philosophical Psychology, 22(6), 687-709.
[33] Szabo, A., & Ward, C. (2015). Identity development during cultural transition: The role of social-cognitive identity processes. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 46, 13-25.
[34] Todd A. R., Johnson D. J., Lassetter B., Neel R., Simpson A. J., & Cesario J. (2021). Category salience and racial bias in weapon identification: A diffusion modeling approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(3), 672-693.
[35] Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2003). Temporal construal. Psychological Review, 110(3), 403-421.
[36] Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117(2), 440-463.
[37] Tse C. S., Gu X., Zeng T. R., & Chan Y. L. (2020) Construal-level priming does not modulate memory performance in Deese-Roediger/McDermott paradigm. Memory, 28(9), 1136-1156.
[38] Vallacher, R. R., & Wegner, D. M. (1989). Levels of personal agency: Individual variation in action identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(4), 660-671.
[39] Wiesenfeld B. M., Reyt J. N., Brockner J., & Trope Y. (2017). Construal level theory in organizational research. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4(1), 367-400.
PDF(517 KB)
