The Effect Of The Implicit Theory Of Self-confidence On Cross-time Self-confidence

Self-confidence refers to the trust of individuals’ own body, mind and sociality. The formations and expresses of self-confidence is influenced by emotion states, social compare, temporal compare and so forth. The phenomenon that individuals’ self-confidence changes along with the change of time cognitive frameworks is named cross-time self-confidence. The cross-time self-confidence has two defining forms: one is separating cross-time self-confidence, which means the difference between self-confidence appraisals of two time points; the other is perceptual cross-time self-confidence, which means appraisals of self-confidence change of a period. Previous research showed that on the sequence of past-present-future, people believed that they became better and better, more and more attractive, more and more well-being, and more and more self-improvement. Accordingly, people’s self-confidence may rise over time, that is, people may believe that their improvement of self-confidence will be higher and higher.There are two implicit theories about whether the self changes over time or not: one is entity theory or stable theory which holds the beliefs that the self is fixed and unchangeable; and the other is the changeable theory which holds the beliefs that the self is changeable and developed. Implicit theories not only have different effect on the self in temporal compare, but also can moderate the effect of subjective time distance on the appraisals of past selves. Existing research found that when in the negative mood, the stable theorists tended to idealize their past selves, while the changeable theorists tended to derogate their past selves. What was more, the stable theorists’ subjective distant past self was more positive than that of the changeable theorists. Thus, the individual beliefs and temporal self-appraisal become a possible approach through which people can know, maintain or improve their own self-confidence.This research explored the effect of individual beliefs and time direction on cross-time self-confidence from the perspective of the relationship between the implicit theory and temporal selves. With three studies using a questionnaire survey and experiments, the present study examined the effect of implicit theory on the judgment of the cross-time self-confidence, and the affecting ways of time direction in this relationship.Study 1 used questionnaires to examine the relationship of the self-reported implicit theory, time direction and cross-time self-confidence. Results showed that, when controlling for the subjective and actual time distance, the cross-time self-confidence on the future direction(i.e. change of appraisals of self-confidence between the future and the present) was larger than that on the past direction(i.e. change of appraisals of self-confidence between the present and the past). And the interaction of time direction × the implicit theory of self-confidence was also significant. For implicit theory of self-confidence, changeable theorists’ cross-time self-confidence on the future direction was larger than that on the past direction; however, for stable theorists’ cross-time self-confidence, there were no difference between the future direction and the past direction.Study 2 used two experiments to examine the effect of the induced implicit theory and time direction on the separating cross-time self-confidence. The two experiments used different manipulating materials of the implicit theory which belong to different processing levels and different procedures. As to manipulating materials of the implicit theory, study 2A used the low-processing-level materials, while study 2B used the high-processing-level materials. As to procedures, study 2A’s procedure was that manipulating the implicit theory of self-confidence at first, the present and the past/future self-confidence appraisals then, and appraisals of the time distances. While in study 2B, the procedure was that the present self-confidence appraisals at first, manipulating the implicit theory of self-confidence then, the past/ future self-confidence appraisals and appraisals of the time distances finally. Both the 2 experiments’ data results found that when controlling for the subjective and actual time distance, neither the implicit theory nor time direction had effect on the cross-time self-confidence.Study 3 used two experiments to examine the effect of the induced implicit theory of self-confidence and time direction on the perceptual cross-time self-confidence. The two experiments used different manipulated materials of the implicit theory which belong to different processing levels respectively: study 3A used low-processing-level materials; while study 3B used high-processing-level / high self-involvement materials. As to procedures, both experiments’ procedure was that manipulating the implicit theory first, the appraisal of the cross-time self-confidence on the past direction / on the future direction and appraisals of the time distances then. The results found that when processing the materials of implicit theory of self-confidence at a low level(study 3A), only the implicit theory’s main effect was significant. While processing the materials of the implicit theory of self-confidence at a high level(study 3B), time direction’s main effect and the interaction of the implicit theory of self-confidence × time direction was significant. For the implicit theory of self-confidence, stable theorists’ cross-time self-confidence on the future direction is higher than that on the past direction; however, for changeable theorists, the cross-time self-confidence on the two time directions had no significant difference. As to the time direction, the stable theorists’ cross-time self-confidence was lower than that of the changeable theorists’ on the past direction; however, the cross-time self-confidence of the two theorists had no significant difference on the future direction.Above all, the implicit theory of self-confidence and time direction has an effect on the cross-time self-confidence:1. People’s natural implicit theory of self-confidence and time direction has an effect on the cross-time self-confidence. The cross-time self-confidence on the future direction is larger than that on the past direction. For changeable theorists, the cross-time self-confidence on the future direction is larger than that on the past direction; however, for stable theorists, the cross-time self-confidence on both time directions has no difference.2. Induced implicit theory of self-confidence by experiments’ manipulations and time direction also has an effect on the cross-time self-confidence, while the influencing patterns are different because of the definition ways of cross-time self-confidence. On the separating cross-time self-confidence(defined by the difference between self-confidence appraisals of two time points), neither induced implicit theory nor time direction has an effect. However, on the perceptual cross-time self-confidence(defined by appraisals of self-confidence change of a period), the induced implicit theory of self-confidence and time direction has an influence, while the patterns of influencing are something different because of the processing level or self-involvement level of the manipulated materials of implicit theory of self-confidence.