Research Perspective Of Embodiment In Integrity Of College Students: Metaphorical Structure Of Integrity And Its Evidences

A weakness of researches on the conceptual structure of integrity is the lack of maneuverable structural model which leads to the deficiency of empirical study.Study 1,guided by conceptual metaphor theory,explored the metaphorical structure of integrity by etymologically analyzing characters structures of “cheng”(honesty)and “xin”(credit)and semantically analyzing the integrity idioms,and found that conceptural structure of integrity is the interaction and consistency of one's heart,words and actions.Integrity is the essential attribute for Chinese people,the holistic reflect of consistency of heart,words and behaviors.Being in the various subcultures of Chinese society,one may present the conflictions between one's inside heart and outside actions(including word behavior)and between one's words and actions.But in the long term,the moral quality of integrity can be presented through interaction among one heart,words and actions and finally get the consistency of one's heart,words and actions.Study 2,based on embodiment theory,with the research method of embodiment stimulation and context simulation,explored that whether hand-over-chest is the symbolized gesture of integrity for college students,and the influences of this symbolic gesture of integrity to the judgment and behavior of college students.Taking the research perspective of social psychology,honesty is defined in this study as being true to one's heart,showing the heart-word and heart-behavior consistency.The results show that(1)the person taking the hand-over-chest gesture are perceived to be more sincere and honest,(2)college students more trust the self-introduction of the job interviewer who takes the hand-over-chest gesture,and(3)when making hand-over-chest gesture,actors behavior more honestly in the evaluation task of women facial attractiveness.Study 2 demonstrated hand-over-chest gesture is associated with the concept of integrity,may affect others' perception and behavior of the hand-over-chest gesturer.Study 3 invested moral judgement of academic integrity in college students when they faced the values confliction between respecting roommate friendship and following the academic integrity,so as to find the attitudes of college students on academic integrity.The result showed that college students made moral judgment in terms of the academic policy of honesty and dynamically consistency of heart,words and behaviors.Study 4 indicated in four experiments that peer behaviors,moral identity of honesty internalization and “hand-over-chest” symbolized gesture of integrity affected the honesty degree of college students' behaviors in examination.The former studies of honesty indicate the influence of honesty personality and academic environment on honesty behaviors.In social psychology,researchers have further demonstrated that bodily states,such as facial expressions and postures,causally affect cognition and behaviors.In the context of Chinese education,taking the research method of embodied simulation and context simulation,Honesty behaviors of College students exhibited the construal dimension of heart-behavior consistency.The present study indicates that there exists the psychological reality about the metaphorical structure of integrity.Internalization of honesty identity is the moral base of moral judgment of honesty and honest behavior.Symbolization of honesty identity affects judgment and behavior of individual integrity.