An Experimental Research About Self-Esteem's Memory Effect

The main aim of the present research was to investigate the effect of self-esteem level on individuals' memory for their personality traits feedback and its underlying cognitive process, so as to deepen the understanding of the dynamic of self and the cognition of human nature. On the basic of literature review of person memory, the relation between self or self-esteem and memory, as well as the relation between the culture background of self and the selectivity of memory, 5 problems that intended to resolve in the present research were put forward. (1) Under the hypothetical premise that Chinese people have interdependent self-construal, individual may deeply process negative information that is inconsistent with self-knowledge, resulting that inconsistent negative information will be recalled better than consistent positive information. Under the hypothetical premise that Chinese people simultaneously have interdependent self-construal and independent self-construal, it is also possible of "neglecting" or "solving" negative information that is inconsistent with self-knowledge. So, the first problem is that when Chinese people face inconsistent-negative self-referent information, what model on earth do they adopt? "neglect model" or "resolution model"? (2) The second problem is to disentangle information inconsistency from information valence in order to find out which factors is the most important determinant of selective memory. (3) The third problem is to clarify whether the mood is an irrelevant variable or a chief variable that has an effect on selective memory. (4) The fourth problem is to explore the underlying cognitive processes of the self-esteem's memory effect. (5) The fifth problem is to further validate the underlying cognitive processes of the self-esteem's memory effect.Therefore, 4 experiments were designed. The main aim of Experiment 1 was to exploreChinese university students' pattern of their self-esteem's memory effect. After group investigating 196 university student subjects' trait self-esteem by questionnaire, 10 positive trait adjectives, 10 negative trait adjectives and 10 neutral adjectives were presented in text form. Next, subjects engaged in a distractor task for 3min. immediately following the distractor task, subjects were given 10min to write down as many words as they could recall. Experiment 2 tried to clarify whether the temporary mood variable or the long-term stable trait self-esteem has main effect on mnemonic selectivity. After group investigating 181 university student subjects' trait self-esteem by questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory, 10 positive trait adjectives, 10 negative trait adjectives and 10 neutral adjectives were presented in text form. Next, subjects engaged in a distractor task for 3min. immediately following the distractor task, subjects were given 10min to write down as many words as they could recall. Experiment 3 tried to explore the underlying cognitive processes of the self-esteem's memory effect. In experiment 3, 89 university student subjects were tested, and 3-6 subjects were tested per experimental session. After investigating subjects' trait self-esteem by questionnaire, 10 positive trait adjectives, 10 negative trait adjectives and 10 neutral adjectives were random presented by computer for either an ample (4s) or limited (is) time interval. Next, subjects engaged in a distractor task for 3min. Immediately following the distractor task, subjects were given 10min to write down as many words as they could recall. Experiment 4 further explores the underlying cognitive processes of the self-esteem's memory effect, In experiment 4, 82 university student subjects were tested, and 3-6 subjects were tested per experimental session. After investigating subjects' trait self-esteem by questionnaire, subjects read 10 positive trait adjectives, 10 negative trait adjectives and 10 neutral adjectives followed by pressing space bar according to their own pace. The computer automatically recorded interval of reading every adjective. Next, subjects engage...