Dispositional Pinghe In Chinese Undergraduates:Structure,Characteristics And Its Relationship With Cooperation

As a universal personality tendency of Chinese people,the dispositional Pinghe not only plays an important role in adjusting human's social adaptation,but also has an important guiding value for people's spiritual pursuit.At present,Chinese society is in a sharp transition from tradition to modernity.In the new era,the principal contradiction in Chinese society is the contradiction between people's ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development.Social mentality is an indicator of whether the two are in harmony.Unbalanced and inadequate development brings about class differentiation and wealth gap,which induces a lot of negative social mentality.It is not only the academic need to promote the study of healthy personality in China,but also the mission of The Times to cultivate positive social mentality.The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the dispositional Pinghe and its relationship with cooperation in Chinese undergraduates.This thesis consisted of four parts and 10 studies.A total of 12 sample groups(8,726 Chinese undergraduates in all)were recruited,and a content analysis,cross-sectional survey,and behavioral experiments were conducted.The first part included 2 studies:content analysis research(Study 1),and scale development(Study 2).We reviewed the literature on the ideology of Pinghe in traditional Chinese culture and developed a scale(Dispositional Pinghe Scale for Chinese Undergraduates,DPHS-CU)for measuring dispositional Pinghe in Chinese undergraduates.The second section included two survey studies(Study 3 and 4).The characteristics of dispositional Pinghe in Chinese undergraduates and the most influential factors were investigated in Studies 3.In study 4,on the basis of theoretical analysis and the previous empirical studies,it explored the cognitive factors of individual(mindfulness)and personality factors(conscientiousness and agreeableness)influence on the dispositional Pinghe.Based on this,then,it constructed a mediation effect model and explored the synthetical effects of the different factors and the dispositional Pinghe,in order to reflect the internal mechanism of the dispositional Pinghe.The third part involved one investigation(Study 5)and two behavioral experiments(Study 6 and 7).In Study 5,it discussed the relationship and mechanism between the dispositional Pinghe and cooperative personality.It also tried to construct and examine a mediation effect model of Zhongyong thinking style.In order to clarify the relationship between the dispositional Pinghe and explicit/implicit cooperation,two behavioral experiments were conducted to further examine the mediating role of the Zhong-yong Thinking Style.Study 6 tested the relationship between dispositional Pinghe and explicit cooperative behavior(PGG),and Study 7 examined the relationship between dispositional Pinghe and implicit cooperation(IAT).The pre-research was also included in this part to obtain evoked video materials and the experimental materials of implicit cooperation(IAT).The fourth part included 3 behavioral experiments(Study8,9 and 10),and focused on the relationship between undergraduates'inducing Pinghe emotion and explicit/implicit cooperation.Study 8 explored the relationship between Pinghe emotion induced by video and explicit cooperative behavior(PGG).Study 9 explored the relationship between Pinghe emotion induced by video and implicit cooperation(IAT).Study 10 explored the relationship between Pinghe emotion induced by mindfulness practice and explicit cooperative behavior(PGG).In order to obtain the evoked material,2 pre-experiments of short mindfulness exercise and audio materials evaluation were conducted.The results were as follows:(1)Within Chinese culture,Pinghe is a disposition that includes inner peace,treating people gently,and doing things rationally.The dispositional Pinghe can be expressed in the dimensions of cognition,emotion,intention and behavior.(2)Dispositional Pinghe is a conceptual multi-factor structure that includes inner peace,rational disposition,moderate disposition and calm disposition.Based on this multi-factor structure,a scale measuring dispositional Pinghe in Chinese undergraduates was developed and its psychometric properties tested.The self-developed Dispositional Pinghe Scale for Chinese Undergraduates(DPHS-CU)consisted of 20 items and the four sub-factors mentioned above.The Cronbach's?coefficient for the total DPHS-CU was 0.93;for the four sub-factors ranged between0.87 and 0.90.The composite reliability of the total DPHS-CU was 0.96,and for the four sub-factors ranged between 0.87 and 0.90.The re-test reliability for the total DPHS-CU(after a four-week interval)was 0.85,and for the four sub-factors ranged between 0.75 and 0.82.The DPHS-CU positively correlated with Peace of Mind,and Inner Peace State Scale;negatively correlated with NEO Personality Inventory Anxiety and Hostility sub-factors showing that it enjoyed good criterion-related validity.The results from the exploratory factor analysis(EFA)and confirmatory factor analysis(CFA)supported the high construct validity of the First order four factors and second order one factor structure for DPHS-CU.Multi-group structural equation modeling(multi-group SEM)showed that the four-factor construct was invariance for both males and females,undergraduates in different grades,and students with different majors.(3)The level of dispositional Pinghe for Chinese undergraduates was above a moderate level(M=4.31).There were significant differences in the level of undergraduates'dispositional Pinghe between different genders,with males showing significantly greater dispositional Pinghe than did females(4.40 vs 4.28,d=0.17).Grade difference was also significant;juniors showed higher levels than did other grades(4.38 vs 4.29?4.28?4.31,?_p~2=0.03).(4)Cognition and personality factors have significant influence on undergraduates'dispositional Pinghe:the results showed positively predictive effects from mindfulness on dispositional Pinghe(?=0.22).Mindfulness not only directly predicted dispositional Pinghe,but also indirectly predicted it via the mediation role of conscientiousness and agreeableness.The standard mediation effects of conscientiousness and agreeableness were 0.28 and 0.03,respectively.The conscientiousness mediating path is significantly greater than the agreeableness mediating path(standardized difference effect is 0.35).(5)The dispositional Pinghe can significantly promote the cooperation of undergraduates.The dispositional Pinghe is not only has significant positive effect on the explicit cooperation,but also on implict cooperation.The higher the undergraduates dispositional Pinghe level is,the more obvious the cooperation(?=0.43),the explicit cooperation(compared to low and tendencies,high tendencies of PGG task average71.74 vs 40.31,d=2.09),and the implicit cooperation is(compared to low and tendencies,high tendencies of PGG task average71.74 vs 40.31,d=2.09),the more obvious of implicit cooperation(compared to low tendencies,high tendencies of the IAT effect value of 363.82 vs 254.06,d=0.56).In addition,the Zhong-yong thinking style mediating mechanism between dispositional Pinghe and cooperative personality(standardized mediating effect is 0.30),explicit cooperation(standardized mediating effect is 0.29)and implicit cooperation(standardized mediating effect is 0.14)is verified.(6)Pinghe emotion induced by video has significant promoting effect on explicit cooperation(compared with neutral group,joy and anger group,Pinghe group's PGG task average 60.57 vs 50.36,42.60,42.36,?_p~2=0.28)and implicit cooperation(compared with neutral group,joy and anger,Pinghe group's IAT effect value 420.93 vs 359.00,351.56,256.13,?_p~2=0.09).Compared with audio and blank control group,Pinghe emotion induced by mindfulness is more significant and has more significant promoting effect on explicit cooperation(PGG task average 64.43 vs 49.48,45.40,?_p~2=0.22)than the former.In sum,this thesis shows that self-developed DPHS-CU enjoys a high level of reliability and validity,which should be used to measure dispositional Pinghe in Chinese undergraduates.Dispositional Pinghe in Chinese undergraduates is above a moderate level.Dispositional Pinghe in Chinese undergraduates is influenced by a pattern of“cognition-personality”.The dispositional Pinghe has a significant influence on the cooperation of the three levels(cooperative personality,explicit cooperative behavior and implicit cooperation),and the Zhongyong thinking style plays a mediating role between them.In a word,the dispositional Pinghe is an important factor to promote the cooperation of undergraduates.The implication of this thesis is that the perspective of“cognition-personality”has certain practical significance to the cultivation of the dispositional Pinghe of undergraduates.