个体自发特质推理、自发特质联结与自发特质转移的发展及其影响因素

Empirical research on impression formation and the spontaneous inference of traits consistently shows that people tend to make spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) when confronted with the behavior of others. Recent research provides clear evidence that people not only spontaneously infer traits, but also associate them with the actors who enact the trait-implying behaviors (spontaneous trait associations, STAs) and even with the informants who describe the actors' trait-implying behaviors (spontaneous trait transferences, STTs). However, most studies in the area of STIs, STAs and STTs have been undertaken with adults, little attention has been paid to explicitly examine the developmental course of STIs, STAs and STTs and influence factors. Therefore, 9 studies in this project were designed to examine the developmental course of STIs, STAs and STTs and influence factors with samples of 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-, 13, and 14-year-olds. The first 3 studies aimed to examine the developmental course of children's STIs, STAs and STTs. The second 3 studies were designed to further explore the influence of gender stereotypes on the development of STIs, STAs and STTs respectively, and the results of these studies will not only lead to a better understanding of the context under which the STIs, STAs and STTs occur, but also provide more insight into the mechanism of STAs and STTs. It should be noted that the above studies about the influence of stereotypes on STIs, STAs and STTs have mainly focused on the features of stimulus persons (actors), but the characteristics of perceivers, such as their gender schematicity, have not been investigated. Therefore, the aim of the final 3 studies were to explore whether individual differences in gender schematicity may moderate the effects of gender stereotypes on children's STIs, STAs and STTs. The present research will be an important step toward better understanding of the development of children's implicit cognition and influence factors.

个体不仅自发地从行为者的行为推断人格特质(自发特质推理)，还将推断出的特质与行为者建立联结(自发特质联结)，甚至还会将推断出的特质与信息提供者建立联结(自发特质转移)。但目前该领域的研究均以成人为被试，发展性研究相对缺乏。鉴于此，本研究拟选取8~14岁儿童青少年及大学生为被试，考察儿童青少年自发特质推理、自发特质联结和自发特质转移的发展及其影响因素。研究问题主要包括：①儿童青少年自发特质推理、自发特质联结和自发特质转移的发生与发展特点；②性别刻板印象对儿童青少年自发特质推理、自发特质联结和自发特质转移的影响；③儿童青少年的性别图式对其自发特质推理、自发特质联结和自发特质转移中性别刻板效应的调节作用。该研究能阐明儿童青少年自发特质推理、自发特质联结和自发特质转移的年龄特点，深入揭示性别刻板印象对三者影响的年龄差异与个体差异，为从内隐社会认知的层面促进儿童青少年的社会性发展提供心理学依据。

对特质的理解和运用是儿童认知发展的重要方面，然而，先前有关自发特质推理、自发特质联结和自发特质转移的研究大多都是以成人为被试，且大都是在西方文化背景下进行的。本项目研究首次考察了中国文化背景下8-14岁儿童的自发特质推理、自发特质联结和自发特质转移的发生发展特点。结果发现，8岁的儿童已经能够进行自发特质推理和自发特质联结，推理的强度在大约10岁左右达到最大，随后缓慢下降，自发特质转移的强度不随年龄的增长而变化。先前以成人为被试的研究发现，行为者性别激活的性别刻板印象能够影响个体的自发特质推理，因此本项目研究还考察了性别刻板印象对9-14岁儿童的自发特质推理、自发特质联结和自发特质转移的影响以及性别图式对刻板效应的调节作用。结果发现：性别刻板印象影响了9岁和13岁组儿童的自发特质推理，并且这种影响受到性别图式的调节。具体表现为，相比非图式化个体，刻板印象更可能影响图式化个体的自发特质推理。在其他年龄组，性别刻板印象不影响被试的自发特质推理。除10岁组以外，性别刻板印象也影响了9-14岁儿童的自发特质联结，而且只有9岁组儿童的性别刻板印象效应受到性别图式的调节。具体表现为，相比非图式化个体，刻板印象更可能影响性别图式化个体的自发特质联结。性别刻板印象也能够影响9-14岁儿童的自发特质转移，但是性别刻板的效应不受年龄和性别图式的影响。本项目的研究成果能够为我国儿童教育活动中的道德教育、人际认知、以及对儿童的性别角色教育提供重要的实证依据。