Keyword navigation: social psychological effects, self-cognition, self-efficacy improvement, cognitive dissonance theory, self-affirmation training, moral permitted behavior, psychological self-regulation, self-verification mechanism, psychological self-effects collection, self-esteem threat and compensation, self-exhaustion research, and detailed explanation of psychological effects.
In the field of social and personality psychology, research on self and identity reveals how individuals recognize themselves, evaluate themselves, and form and maintain self-identity in social environments. Many psychological effects revolve around self-cognition, self-regulation and identity confirmation. These effects not only help us understand the deep mechanisms of human behavior, but also have important guiding significance for the fields of education, management, mental health and other life.
This article will provide a detailed introduction to key psychological effects in the Self and Identity classification, including:
- Self-efficacy
- Overjustification effect
- Self-perception effect
- Cognitive dissonance
- Post-decision dissonance
- Effort justification effect
- Self-affirmation
- Self-verification effect
- Self-threat compensation effect
- Self-depletion effect (Ego depletion)
- Moral licensing effect
- Self-alienation effect
Each psychological effect is analyzed one by one by one. I hope that through this article, readers can deeply understand the nature of these psychological effects and their actual impact in life, thereby improving their self-cognitive abilities and the wisdom of interpersonal interaction.
Self-efficacy
What is self-efficacy effect?
Self-efficacy effects refer to the individual’s belief in their ability to complete a specific task or achieve a goal. In other words, it is 'I believe I can do it.' This belief can significantly affect a person's motivation, emotional response, and behavioral choices.
Background source and core principles
Psychologist Albert Bandura proposed the theory of self-efficacy in the 1970s, emphasizing the impact of individual belief in their own abilities on behavior. Self-efficacy does not refer to the skills themselves, but to the confidence in whether the skills can be used successfully.
The core principle is: a high sense of self-efficacy can enhance people's persistence in facing challenges and reduce fear and anxiety; conversely, low self-efficacy may lead to difficulties in avoiding and easy giving up.
Classic experimental basis
Bandura's famous 'Popo Doll Experiment' reveals the relationship between observational learning and self-efficacy. Later, he designed several studies that proved that people's sense of self-efficacy can improve through successful experiences, alternative experiences, verbal persuasion, and emotional regulation.
Realistic application
- Educational field : Improving students’ sense of self-efficacy can improve learning motivation and grades.
- Healthy Behavior : Enhancing patients' self-efficacy can help change health behaviors such as quitting smoking and losing weight.
- Workplace Management : Improving employee self-efficacy can increase work performance and satisfaction.
Related psychological test recommendations: General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) Online Test
Critical Analysis
Self-efficacy theory emphasizes cognitive factors, but sometimes ignores the effects of environmental limitations or insufficient resources on behavior. Additionally, excessive self-efficacy can lead to risk-taking behaviors or underestimation difficulties.
Overjustification Effect
What is the excessive reason effect?
Overjustification Effect refers to when a person originally does something because of an inner interest or intrinsic motivation, but later starts doing it because of external rewards (such as money, prizes, or praise), their inner interest in it will decrease.
In other words, the original 'I like to do this' became 'I do this because there are rewards', so the inner driving force is replaced by external factors, resulting in a decrease in enthusiasm for the activity itself.
For example: A child likes to draw because he is happy. If parents start to reward him to draw frequently, then the child may feel that he is drawing for the sake of getting the reward. Over time, the fun of drawing will decrease and he will not even want to draw.
The excessive reason effect tells us that excessive reliance on external rewards may weaken people's intrinsic motivation and affect lasting interest and enthusiasm.
Background source and core principles
Psychologists initially found through research on motivation theory that when people have internal motivation, if external rewards are added, internal motivation may be 'dilute'. This effect illustrates the complex interaction of internal and external motivations.
The core principle is that external rewards change people's attribution of the reasons for their behavior, from 'because of likes' to 'because of rewards', thereby weakening intrinsic motivation.
Classic experimental basis
In the paradise experiment, children like to draw. If the reward is given and then removed, the children's interest in painting will decrease. Systematic research by Deci and Lepper et al. in the 1970s.
Realistic application
- Educational motivation design : Avoid excessive intervention of students' inner interests with material rewards.
- Corporate reward mechanism : Design reasonable rewards to prevent employees from losing their inner enthusiasm for their work.
- Family education : Reasonable use of rewards promotes healthy growth of children.
Critical Analysis
The excessive reasoning effect emphasizes the negative impact of reward on intrinsic motivation, but its scope of effect is limited by situational and individual differences. Not all rewards weaken intrinsic motivation.
Self-perception effect
What is the self-perception effect?
Self-perception effect refers to when people’s attitudes, emotions, or motivations are not clear or vague enough toward their hearts, they will infer their true feelings or attitudes by observing their behaviors and external manifestations. In other words, it is “I see myself doing this, so I think that’s what I think” – individuals understand themselves like bystanders through their own behavioral clues.
Background source and core principles
Psychologist Daryl Bem proposed the theory of self-perception in 1972, believing that when the intranet is vague or missing, people will observe themselves like others to form self-awareness.
The core principle is: behavior in turn shapes self-cognition, rather than one-way intrinsic attitudes driving behavior. When we cannot directly detect our inner state, we will use external behaviors as 'evidence' to form self-knowledge. For example, a person may not be sure whether he likes a sport, but if he finds that he often takes the initiative to do it, he may infer that he likes it.
Classic experimental basis
The experiment found that when asked to perform an act without a significant reward, the individual infers that he likes or agrees with the behavior. For example, after passively participating in an activity, you are more likely to self-identify that you are interested in the activity.
Realistic application
- Psychological therapy : Helps individuals improve self-cognition through behavioral changes.
- Behavior change : Use behavior to shape positive self-awareness and promote healthy habits.
- Self-regulation : Enhance self-monitoring ability and improve self-efficacy.
Critical Analysis
Self-perception theory may underestimate the role of emotion and intrinsic motivation and cannot fully explain strong emotional experiences and value-driven behaviors.
Cognitive Dissonance
What is the cognitive dissonance effect?
Cognitive Dissonance refers to the feeling of inner discomfort, uneasiness or tension when a person holds two or more conflicting cognitions (including beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors) at the same time. This psychological discomfort prompts individuals to actively adjust their cognition or behavior to reduce or eliminate this contradiction and restore psychological harmony and balance.
Simply put, it is when you do something but it conflicts with your previous beliefs or values, you will feel uncomfortable and then try to make yourself feel “worthy” by changing your thoughts, behaviors, or rationalizing it.
For example: If you know that smoking is harmful to health (cognition 1), but you are still smoking (cognition 2), there is a cognitive dissonance between the two. To alleviate discomfort, you may choose to tell yourself that “smoking makes me relax and has little impact on my health” or “I will quit smoking in the future” to alleviate psychological conflict.
Background source and core principles
The cognitive dissonance effect was proposed by psychologist Leon Festinger in 1957 and is a very important theory in social psychology, helping to explain why people change their attitudes, behaviors, or rationalize themselves to maintain psychological consistency.
Core principle: People tend to adjust their beliefs or behaviors to eliminate contradictions and restore inner harmony.
Classic experimental basis
In the famous experiments of Festinger & Carlsmith (1959), the task of subjects being asked to convince others to be bored was actually very interesting. After different rewards were given, the low-paid group was more likely to change their attitudes to reduce dissonance.
Realistic application
- Persuasion and Marketing : Design information to align consumers’ perceptions and promote purchasing behavior.
- Behavior change : Helps people adjust their cognition and reduce bad behavior.
- Interpersonal relationships : Understanding the mechanisms of cognitive dissonance in conflict regulation.
Critical Analysis
The theory of cognitive dissonance overemphasizes cognitive regulation and ignores the complex effects of emotional and social factors. In addition, individuals may accept contradictions rather than adjusting their cognition in some situations.
Post-decision Dissonance
What is the post-decision dissonance effect?
Post-decision Dissonance is an important phenomenon in the theory of cognitive dissonance, which refers to the fact that after a person makes a choice, he will feel a certain psychological discomfort or ambivalence in his heart. This discomfort comes from doubts about one's own choices and regrets of giving up the option, as you usually face multiple equally attractive options when making decisions.
In order to reduce this psychological discomfort, people often comfort themselves, strengthen their own confidence in their decision-making and restore psychological balance by strengthening the advantages of the options they choose while belittling the unselected options. This psychological adjustment process is the 'post-decision-making disorder effect'.
Simply put, it is 'I chose A, so A must be better than B'. Even if it is difficult to make a decision at the beginning, I will label my choices psychologically to avoid regrets and conflicts.
Background source and core principles
An extension of the theory of cognitive dissonance proposed by Festinger explains the phenomenon of 'buyer regret'.
The core principle is to strengthen the positive cognition of choice through cognitive adjustment after selection and offset negative thoughts about giving up options.
This psychological effect explains why people often continue to strengthen their recognition of their choices after buying things, career choices, or even choices in daily life, avoiding 'buyer regret' or choice anxiety.
Classic experimental basis
In the Brehm (1956) experiment, after selecting two items of similar preferences, participants will increase their evaluation of the selected items and reduce their favorability for unselected items.
Realistic application
- Consumer behavior analysis : Helps understand and reduce purchase regrets and improve user satisfaction.
- Leadership decision-making : Reduce decision-makers’ anxiety and promote firm implementation.
- Psychological counseling : Helps people deal with choice anxiety.
Critical Analysis
The post-decision dissonance effect emphasizes psychological adjustment, but the impact on environmental reality and external feedback is insufficient, and sometimes over-beautify choices.
Effort Justification
What is the effect of effort legitimization?
The Effort Justification Effect is a very interesting and practical phenomenon in psychology. Simply put, when a person makes a lot of effort to achieve a certain goal, even if the result is not ideal, they tend to give the result higher value or meaning, thereby 'rationalizing' the efforts they have put in.
Background source and core principles
Also derived from the theory of cognitive dissonance, Festinger believes that when people make high efforts for something, if the results are not as expected, they will feel psychologically discomfort and need to be alleviated by improving the evaluation of the results.
This is a typical manifestation of the theory of cognitive dissonance. When our behavior (making a lot of effort) conflicts with the outcome (reward mismatch), it can cause psychological discomfort - cognitive dissonance. In order to reduce this discomfort, we will adjust our evaluation of the results and tell ourselves that 'although the results are average, the efforts we put in prove that this is important', so as to avoid the feeling of feeling that 'I'm wasted.'
Classic experimental basis
Aronson & Mills (1959) researched that a group of participants experienced 'entry rituals' of different levels of difficulty. It was found that participants who experienced more stringent inclusion rituals valued the group more and had higher evaluations. This shows that they justify their efforts by giving the group higher value.
Realistic application
- In the workplace, you may cherish the projects you spend a lot of time and effort to complete, even if the results are mediocre.
- After making great efforts to pass a difficult course, students often agree more with the value of this subject.
- Athletes are very hard to train. Even if they don’t have outstanding grades, they may still feel that this effort is worth it.
Critical Analysis
Overemphasis on the legitimization of efforts may lead to 'sunken cost fallacy', which makes individuals stubbornly insist on wrong decisions and lack rational judgments. Understanding this effect can help us view the relationship between efforts and returns more rationally, and prevent irrational persistence (sunken cost fallacy) due to excessive legitimization.
Self-affirmation
What is the self-affirmation effect?
Self-affirmation effect refers to the phenomenon of maintaining overall self-esteem and psychological balance by confirming certain important values, strengths or identity characteristics when an individual faces threats or challenges, thereby alleviating negative emotions and reducing defensive responses.
Simply put, when you feel that you are questioned or threatened, you will 'encourage yourself' by remembering what you are good at, important beliefs or cherished identities to help you maintain psychological stability and positiveness.
The self-affirmation effect is a psychological self-protection mechanism that helps people restore inner balance and stability by strengthening their cognition of their own value when facing threats.
Background source and core principles
The core theory behind this psychological effect is the theory of self-affirmation, proposed by psychologist Claude Steele in 1988. He believes that people have an inherent need to maintain their overall sense of self-worth, rather than just focusing on success or failure in one aspect. When a certain aspect of self-esteem is hit or faced with threats, repairing self-esteem through self-affirmation and confirming the value of other aspects can help people relieve psychological stress.
For example :
If you experience criticism at work and feel that your self-esteem is damaged, you may think of your success in family relationships or a hobby, so that you can maintain a positive attitude and not lose confidence or become overdefensive.
Classic experimental basis
Research has found that when an individual faces a threat of self-esteem, self-affirming tasks such as writing can reduce defensive responses and promote openness and positive behaviors.
Realistic application
The self-affirmation effect is widely used in areas such as psychotherapy, education and health promotion, such as helping depressed patients enhance their sense of self-worth, or helping students maintain motivation to learn when facing failure.
- Psychological therapy : Self-affirmation exercises help depressed and anxious patients improve their self-evaluation.
- Educational intervention : Reduce students' frustration due to failure and improve their motivation to learn.
- Health promotion : Enhance patients' persistence in healthy behaviors.
Critical Analysis
The self-affirmation effect depends on individual recognition of value, and the diversity of value leads to unstable effect. Furthermore, excessive dependence on self-affirmation may mask the root cause of the problem.
Self-verification effect
What is the self-verification effect?
Self-verification effect refers to people's tendency to find, value and maintain information and feedback that can confirm that they already have self-awareness. In other words, whether these self-awarenesses are positive or negative, individuals want others to see and recognize themselves as “who are they” in order to maintain consistency and stability of self-awareness.
Background source and core principles
Scholars such as William Swann proposed that individuals have a strong need for the stability of their self-awareness and prefer feedback consistent with their own self-concept.
- Demand consistency : People desire inner cognition to be consistent with external feedback to avoid cognitive contradictions and uneasiness.
- Self-stability : By obtaining feedback that fits your own image, individuals can maintain self-esteem and psychological balance.
- Positive and negative feedback can be : even negative self-concepts will be verified because this is in line with the individual's self-cognition.
Classic experimental basis
Research by psychologist William Swann and colleagues shows that low self-esteem tends to be more willing to accept negative reviews than positive reviews that do not match their negative self-awareness; high self-esteem prefers positive feedback.
Realistic application
- Relationships : People tend to build relationships with those who “see their true selves” and even be receptive to bad feedback.
- Psychological Counseling : Understanding the need for self-verification helps patients break through their solidified self-image and promote positive change.
- Organizational Management : Appropriate feedback strategies can help employees adjust their self-awareness and improve job satisfaction.
In short, the self-verification effect reflects human deep demand for self-cognitive consistency and is an important psychological mechanism for understanding individual behavior and social interaction.
Critical Analysis
The self-verification effect sometimes hinders positive change and falls into a negative cycle. At the same time, different cultural backgrounds have different needs for self-consistency, and the effects vary.
Self-threat Compensation
What is the self-esteem threat-compensation effect?
Self-esteem threat-compensation effect refers to the fact that when a person's self-esteem is challenged or threatened, he will compensate for the threat through certain behavioral or cognitive ways, restoring or enhancing his own self-esteem.
Simply put, when you feel that you are being belittled, failed, or denied, you will try to do something to 'retrieve your face' or prove yourself, thereby alleviating your inner uneasiness and depression.
For example, if an employee feels frustrated by self-esteem because of work criticism, he may be more active in other aspects, or emphasize his other advantages, or even show defensive or even aggressive behavior towards his colleagues. These are all compensation behaviors after threats of self-esteem.
Background source and core principles
Based on social psychology's research on self-esteem maintenance, it is found that when people are threatened, they use a variety of ways, including exaggerating their own strengths, belittling others, or enhancing their sense of belonging.
The core mechanism behind this effect is that people have strong psychological needs to maintain a positive self-image. When facing threats, compensatory behavior can help them relieve their inner anxiety and discomfort and maintain psychological balance.
Classic experimental basis
Research shows that after being denied, individuals may show aggressiveness, increase their sense of identity with their own group, or increase their investment in successful areas.
Realistic application
- Workplace conflict management : Understand the behaviors caused by impaired self-esteem and prevent negative reactions.
- Educational psychology : Design a positive feedback mechanism to reduce the threat of students' self-esteem.
- Social regulation : alleviate the opposition caused by threats to self-esteem among groups.
Critical Analysis
Compensation behavior is not always positive and can sometimes lead to overdefense, competitive, and even disrupt relationships. Understanding this effect can help us better deal with emotions and behaviors when self-esteem is damaged, and promote mental health and interpersonal harmony.
Self-depletion effect (Ego depletion)
What is the self-exhaustion effect?
The self-depletion effect (Ego depletion) refers to the psychological phenomenon that when a person continues to perform tasks with self-control or willpower consumption for a period of time, his ability to perform self-control tasks will significantly decrease.
In layman's terms, just like your 'willpower muscles' are exhausted, when a person restrains impulses, persists in hard work, or resists temptation, his energy and endurance will gradually decrease, making it more difficult to continue to maintain self-discipline or focus later.
Background source and core principles
In 1998, Baumeister et al. proposed the theory of self-exhaustion, believing that self-control is as limited as muscles and requires recovery after use.
Classic experimental basis
This effect was first proposed by psychologist Roy Baumeister and others in 1998. Through experiments, they found that after completing a task that requires self-control, participants performed poorly when doing another task that requires self-control, which shows that self-control resources are limited.
Experiments show that after first performing the problem of suppressing impulse or persistence, individuals perform worse in subsequent self-control tasks.
For example: If you just insist on not eating sweets and then let you concentrate on completing complicated work or exams, you may be more likely to be distracted or give up.
However, recent research has also found that willpower is not entirely a limited resource, and individual beliefs, motivations and external motivations can alleviate the effects of self-exhaustion, which makes the theory of 'willpower depletion' more complex and detailed.
Realistic application
- Behavior change : Plan tasks reasonably and avoid continuous high-intensity self-control.
- Health intervention : Design phased goals to prevent willpower collapse.
- Management strategy : Understand the relationship between employee fatigue and decreased self-control.
Critical Analysis
Recent research has questioned the universality of self-depletion and found that motivation and beliefs can significantly alleviate the depletion effect, and the theory of resource finiteness is challenged.
Moral licensing effect
What is the moral licensing effect?
Moral Licensing refers to a psychological phenomenon: when a person has just completed something that society or himself considers to be 'moral' or 'correct', he will feel that he has accumulated a certain amount of 'moral capital' or 'psychological balance', so that when he acts in the next step, he will give himself more psychological tolerance, and even more likely to do something less moral or contrary to ethical.
In other words, after completing good behaviors, people will unconsciously relax their moral constraints, as if they exchanged their previous 'good behavior' for permission to follow up 'bad behavior'.
Background source and core principles
Moral psychology research has found that people will obtain psychological permission after doing good things, reducing moral constraints on their own behavior. The moral licensing effect originates from people's psychological motivation to maintain their self-image. After completing moral behavior, the individual gains self-affirmation, reducing the inner moral burden, thereby reducing the moral examination of subsequent behaviors.
Classic experimental basis
Research shows that after making charity donations, individuals are more inclined to make selfish or immoral choices. for example:
- A person who has just donated a sum of money to charity may feel that he has 'doed good things', so he may relax his control over his consumption impulse and buy some unnecessary luxury goods later.
- Some people may feel that they have the right to pay less attention to the environment in other aspects because they have done environmental protection.
Realistic application
- Behavioral intervention : Design a continuous supervision mechanism to avoid negative behavior caused by moral licensing.
- Corporate ethics : Prevent employees from violations caused by 'moral compensation'.
- Social governance : Enhance the public's awareness and sense of responsibility for continuous moral behavior.
Critical Analysis
The moral licensing effect is a psychological mechanism that is both respectable and complex: it shows human flexibility and self-tolerance in moral judgment, and also reminds us to be wary of the trap of 'for good deeds for bad deeds.'
The moral licensing effect reveals the complexity of human nature, but not everyone will experience this effect, and its role is greatly affected by culture and personality. In social behavior, it may lead to double standards in people's moral standards.
Self-alienation effect
What is the self-alienation effect?
Self-alienation refers to a psychological state in which an individual feels disconnected from the true emotions, values or self-cognition in his heart, or even strangers. Simply put, it means 'feeling not like yourself' or 'feeling that you have become stranger', as if you have lost contact with your true self.
This effect is usually manifested in the individual being confused or alienated by his behavior, thoughts or emotions, and feeling that his behavior is not out of his true intentions, but is influenced by external pressure, environment or expectations of others, resulting in emptiness, loneliness and even psychological pain in his heart.
Background source and core principles
It originates from existentialism and humanistic psychology, emphasizing that individuals’ loss of their own identity may lead to psychological pain and behavioral problems.
- Psychological separation : The individual feels like a bystander, not the real master of his behavior.
- Inner contradiction : The true self and external manifestations are inconsistent, resulting in blurred identity.
- Emotional emptiness : often accompanied by negative emotions such as loneliness, anxiety and depression.
Causes of formation include :
- Acts that violate inner values for a long time.
- Social roles are under too much pressure to truly express themselves.
- There is a lack of identity and support in important relationships.
Classic experimental basis
Research points out that long-term self-esteem can lead to psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety, and at the same time reduce life satisfaction.
Realistic application
- Psychological therapy : Pay attention to the reconstruction of patients' self-identity and reduce the sense of alienation.
- Organizational psychology : prevent employees from professional alienation and improve their sense of belonging.
- Educational counseling : Promote self-acceptance and mental health among young people.
Critical Analysis
The self-alienation effect is difficult to quantify, and cultural differences are large. Individualism in some cultures is weak, and the alienation experience is different. The self-alienation effect can affect an individual's mental health, reduce life satisfaction, and even lead to depression and behavioral disorders. Therefore, psychology and therapy often focus on helping individuals re-establish real self-connection and restore a sense of self-consistent.
Conclusion
The psychological effects related to 'self and identity' reveal complex self-cognition and regulation mechanisms in humans. From self-efficacy to cognitive dissonance, from self-affirmation to moral licensing, these effects not only help us understand the dynamic changes in the inner world, but also provide practical tools for mental health, education, management and other fields.
Deeply mastering these effects will help improve individual self-cognitive abilities, optimize behavioral choices, and enhance the effectiveness of interpersonal communication. I hope that the detailed analysis of this article can bring you systematic and comprehensive understanding and practical guidance.
Continue to pay attention to the series of articles in 'Complete Psychological Effects' and explore more secret weapons of psychology in depth.
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