A Study On The Nature And Applicaitona Of Multidimensional Implicit Self-concepts

Self-concept is the most important part of the self. It is the key of self-knowledge as well as the basis of self-experience and self-regulation. A large amount of studies on self-concept have been carried out in personality, social and clinical psychology and led to a lot of meaningful results. The concept of implicit social cognition put forward in1995by Greenwald extended the field of self-concept to unconscious level. The implicit self-concept attracted the interest of many researchers. Using the measurement developed lately-Multifactor Implicit Association Test (MFT-IAT), a series of studies were conducted to study the multidimensional implicit self-concepts which were based on Teenessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) in this dissertation. It included six chapters.The first chapter was a review on the definition and structure of self-concept, and an introuduction of the researches on implicit self-concepts in the world.The mainly part of the dissertation was consisted of three chapters from the2nd to the4th, which included seven experimental studies. They explored the nature of implicit self-concepts, the structure of self-concept, the relationships between implicit self-concepts and college freshmen’s adaption predicament and mental health, and the factors influencing implicit self-concepts and the promotion of the development of implicit self-concepts by group counselling.Study1-3was the2nd chapter, which was on the nature of multiple implicit self-concepts mainly.In study1, MFT-IAT was used to study the nature of multiple implicit self-concepts. The results revealed that every dimension of Teenessee self-concept had implicit effect. The nature of implicit self-concpts was that people were prone to associate themselves with more positive attribute words than others. The results indicated that MFT-IAT could be used to measure multidimensional implicit self-concepts effectively. On the basis of study1, study2empirically examined the relationship between multidimensional implicit self-concepts and explicit self-concepts. The results showed that the correlation between implicit and explict self-concepts was weak, which indicated that they were two relatively independent structures. The results also showed that the development pattern of implict self-concepts was different from that of explicit self-concepts, and it provided another evidence for the independence of implicit self-concepts from explicit self-concepts.The relationship between implicit self-concepts and self-esteem was studied in study3. The results showed that correlation between implicit self-concepts and implicit self-esteem and that between explicit self-concepts and explicit self-esteem were statistically significant. In addition, the results revealed that implicit and explicit self-esteem could be validly predicted by corresponding mental self-concept and social self-concept. It proved the independence of implicit self-concepts from explicit self-concepts, and indicated that the implicit self-concepts had some common characters with implicit self-esteem as well.Chapter3discussed the relationship between multiple implicit self-concepts and freshmen’a adaption predicament and mental-health.In study4, the subjects accepted both implicit self-concepts and adaption predicament self-report in order to reveal the relationship between implicit self-concepts and freshmen’s adaption predicament. The results indicated that implict self-concepts had no direct effect on adaption predicament, but the discrepancy between implicit self-concepts and explicit self-concepts significantly correlated to it. The freshmen with higher implicit self-concepts and lower explicit self-concepts had more adaption predicament. The adaption predicament could be significantly predicted by the discrepancy between implicit mental self-concept and explicit mental self-concept.Study5analysed the relationship between implicit self-concepts and mental-health. The same conclusion with that of study4was drawn. The discrepancy between implicit and explicit self-concepts was significantly related to mental health. With the higher implicit self-concepts and lower explicit self-concepts, the individual would have more possibility to have lower mental-health level. Furthermore, the level of undergraduates’ mental-health could be availably predicted by the discrepancy between their implicit and explicit physical self-concept and that between implicit and explicit mental self-concept.The previous studies showed that implicit self-concepts were different from explicit self-concepts and their discrepancy could predict fremen’s adaption predicament and undergraduate’s mental-health. The next chapter discussed the factors which influenced the implicit self-concepts and how to change the implicit self-concepts.In study6, the influencing factors of implicit self-concepts were explored. The results showed that the implicit self-concepts and explicit self-concepts were influenced by different factors. The gender had significant effect on implicit self-concepts. Implicit physical self-concept and mental self-concept of female are higher than those of male.Study7disccused the effect of group counselling on multiple implicit self-concepts. The results revealed that group counselling reduced the implicit physical self-concept and implicit mental self-concept. They showed that group counselling reduced the discrepancy between implicit and explict physical, mental and social self-concepts, too.The general disscussion which constituted chapter5of the dissertation concerned the nature of implicit self-concepts and the relationship between implicit and explicit self-concepts in the perspective of information reprenstention and the model of dual attitude, the application of MFT-IAF in measurement of multidimensional implicit self-concepts, the meaning of implicit self-concepts, the factors influenceing implicit self-concepts and the effect of group counselling on implicit self-concepts.The last chapter was the conclusion of the dissertation and the perspective of the research on implicit self-concepts.