ABSTRACT

A key challenge for social psychology is to identify unifying principles that account for the complex dynamics of social behaviour. We propose psychological relativity and its core mechanism of comparison as one such unifying principle. To support our proposal, we review recent evidence investigating basic processes underlying and novel applications of social comparisons. Specifically, we clarify determinants of assimilation and contrast, evaluative consequences of comparing similarities vs. differences, attitudinal effects of spatial relativity, and how spatial arrangements determine perceived similarity, one of the antecedents of social comparisons. We then move to behavioural relativity effects on motivation and self-regulation, as well as imitation behaviour. Finally, we address relativity within the more applied areas of morality and political psychology. The reviewed research thereby illustrates how unifying principles of social cognition may be instrumental in answering old questions and discovering new phenomena and explanations.

摘要

社会心理学的一个关键挑战是确定解释社会行为复杂动态的统一原则。我们提出心理相对论及其核心比较机制作为这样的统一原则。为了支持我们的建议，我们回顾了最近调查社会比较的基本过程和新颖应用的证据。具体来说，我们阐明了同化和对比的决定因素、比较相似性与差异的评估结果、空间相对论的态度影响，以及空间安排如何决定感知的相似性，这是社会比较的前提之一。然后我们转向行为相对论对动机和自我调节以及模仿行为的影响。最后，我们在道德和政治心理学的更多应用领域中讨论相对论。因此，回顾的研究说明了社会认知的统一原则如何有助于回答老问题和发现新现象和解释。