Self-Verification自我验证

Overview 概述

Imagine updating your self-concept for every new piece of information you receive about yourself. Today, you think you’re a good chemistry student. Tomorrow, you get a low grade on a quiz, so you update your self-concept to reflect that you no longer think you’re that great at chemistry. A few days later, you do well on a chemistry lab report, so you again update your self-concept to reflect your new belief that you’re good at chemistry, and so on. This would be a very challenging way to live life.
想象一下，每当你收到关于自己的新信息时，都要更新你的自我概念。今天，你认为你是一名优秀的化学学生。明天，你在一次测验中得了低分，于是你更新了你的自我概念，反映出你不再认为自己擅长化学。几天后，你在化学实验报告中表现良好，你又更新了你的自我概念，反映出你相信自己擅长化学，如此等等。这将是一种非常具有挑战性的生活方式。

To help keep our self-concept stable and rise above the conflicting information we receive about the self, Swann (1983, 2012; Swann & Burhmester, 2012) has argued that people are motivated to seek out information that confirms what they already believe to be true about themselves. He calls this motivation to seek information that is consistent with your current self-concept the self-verification motive. Ultimately, succeeding in finding self-verifying information results in a sense of stability and coherence in people’s understanding of who they are.
为了帮助保持我们的自我概念稳定，并超越我们关于自我的矛盾信息，Swann（1983，2012；Swann & Burhmester，2012）认为人们有动机去寻找证实他们已经相信的自我信息。他把这种寻求与当前自我概念一致信息的动机称为自我验证动机。最终，成功找到自我验证信息使人们在理解自己是谁时产生稳定和一致的感觉。

Creating a Coherent View of the Self 创建一个连贯的自我观

People’s desire to have a coherent view of the self has several implications. First, research has shown that people tend to prefer interactions with people whose perceptions of them are consistent with how they perceive themselves (Swann & Brooks, 2012). Second, the desire for self-verification occurs even when it is a negative view of the self that people are seeking to confirm. That is, if we think we’re an awful singer, we are more likely to seek out information that confirms our belief than information that tries to persuade us we’re a good singer. To illustrate this tendency, researchers gave people with positive and negative self-evaluations in a particular domain the opportunity to hear feedback from an evaluator who previously said good things about them or an evaluator who previously said bad things about them. People with positive self-evaluations were more likely to choose to interact with the positive evaluator, whereas people with negative self-evaluations were more likely to choose to interact with the negative evaluator (Swann et al., 1989).
人们对拥有一个连贯的自我认知有着多重含义。首先，研究表明，人们倾向于与那些对他们有与自己认知一致看法的人互动（Swann & Brooks，2012）。其次，即使人们寻求的是对自我的负面看法，自我验证的欲望也会出现。也就是说，如果我们认为自己是一个糟糕的歌手，我们更有可能寻求证实我们信念的信息，而不是试图说服我们成为一个好歌手的信息。为了说明这种倾向，研究人员给了在特定领域有积极和消极自我评价的人机会，让他们听取先前对他们说过好话的评估者的反馈或先前对他们说过坏话的评估者的反馈。有积极自我评价的人更有可能选择与积极的评估者互动，而消极自我评价的人更有可能选择与消极的评估者互动（Swann 等人，1989）。

Given what we’ve said previously about the importance of the self-enhancing motive, this result seems somewhat strange. However, it is the case that there are times when self-verification goals are given priority over self-enhancement goals. Specifically, for people to prefer to receive self-verifying information over self-enhancing information, one of two things must happen. First, it’s possible to increase people’s desire for self-verification motives by giving them feedback that challenges their views of themselves. In an effort to restore the coherence of their self-image, people seek to bolster that image by verifying what they know about themselves, even if this means seeking to confirm a negative attribute of the self. Second, although self-enhancement motives seem to inform our rapid, emotional reaction to receiving self-relevant information, when we are given more time and space to really think about the implications of the information we are receiving, self-verification motives seem to win (Swann & Schroeder, 1995). This suggests that allowing people time to reflect on the information they have received about themselves allows people’s self-verification desires to have more sway over information processing.
鉴于我们之前关于自我提升动机重要性的讨论，这个结果似乎有些奇怪。然而，确实存在某些时候，自我验证目标比自我提升目标更重要。具体来说，为了使人们更愿意接受自我验证信息而不是自我提升信息，以下两种情况之一必须发生。首先，通过提供挑战他们自我认知的反馈，可以增加人们对自我验证动机的渴望。为了恢复自我形象的连贯性，人们会试图通过验证他们对自己的了解来加强这种形象，即使这意味着寻求确认自我的一些负面特征。其次，尽管自我提升动机似乎影响我们对接收到的自我相关信息快速、情绪化的反应，但当我们有更多时间和空间真正思考我们接收到的信息的含义时，自我验证动机似乎占上风（Swann & Schroeder，1995）。 这表明，让人们有时间反思他们所收到的关于自己的信息，可以让人们的自我验证欲望在信息处理中发挥更大的作用。

It’s important to note that the self-verification motive exists whether our self-concept is accurate or inaccurate. That is, if we think we’re not physically attractive, even if we are of above-average attractiveness, we seek out information to confirm our inaccurate self-view. So, just as self-enhancement can create an inaccurate view of the self (specifically, an overly positive one), so, too, can self-verification. However, while the former can lead to an overly positive self-view, the latter can lead to an overly coherent one. While coherence in the self-concept isn’t bad, focusing only on information that confirms our existing view of ourselves might make us miss nuances in who we are. For example, a person who thinks they are bad at athletics and only seeks out confirming information might fail to realize that, while they are bad at sports that require strength, they’re good at sports that require endurance.
值得注意的是，自我验证动机存在于我们的自我概念准确或不准确的情况下。也就是说，即使我们认为自己外表不吸引人，即使我们的吸引力高于平均水平，我们也会寻求信息来证实我们错误的自我观念。因此，正如自我提升可以创造一个不准确的自我观（特别是过于积极的自我观），自我验证也是如此。然而，虽然前者可能导致过于积极的自我观，但后者可能导致过于一致的自我观。虽然自我概念的一致性并不坏，但只关注证实我们现有自我观念的信息可能会使我们错过我们是谁的细微差别。例如，一个认为自己运动能力差且只寻求证实信息的人可能无法意识到，虽然他们在需要力量的运动中表现不佳，但在需要耐力的运动中却很擅长。

Source: https://www.coursera.org/learn/psychology-of-the-self/supplement/Jp1ka/self-verification