1 University of Texas at Austin.
2 University of Queensland.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2017 May;12(3):382-399. doi: 10.1177/1745691616679464.
A cursory read of the social psychological literature suggests that when people find themselves in strong situations, they fail to display agency. The early classic studies of conformity, obedience, and bystander intervention, for example, are renowned for showing that when challenged by strong situational pressures, participants acquiesced-even if it meant abandoning their moral principles or disregarding their own sensory data. Later studies of learned helplessness, ego depletion, and stereotype threat echoed this "power of the situation" theme, demonstrating that exposure to (or the expectation of) a frustrating or unpleasant experience suppressed subsequent efforts to actualize goals and abilities. Although this work has provided many valuable insights into the influence of situational pressures, it has been used to buttress an unbalanced and misleading portrait of human agency. This portrait fails to recognize that situations are not invariably enemies of agency. Instead, strong situational forces often allow for, and may even encourage, expressions of human agency. We examine the nature, causes, and consequences of this phenomenon. We endorse a broader approach that emphasizes how responding to situational pressure can coexist with agency. This new emphasis should create greater convergence between social psychological models and the experience of agency in everyday life.
粗略阅读社会心理学文献表明，当人们处于强势情境中时，他们往往无法表现出自主性。例如，早期关于从众、服从和旁观者干预的经典研究就表明，当参与者面临强烈的情境压力时，他们会默许——即使这意味着放弃自己的道德原则或忽视自己的感官数据。后来关于习得性无助、自我损耗和刻板印象威胁的研究也呼应了这一“情境力量”主题，表明接触（或预期）令人沮丧或不愉快的经历会抑制随后实现目标和能力的努力。尽管这项工作为情境压力的影响提供了许多有价值的见解，但它被用来支持对人类自主性的不平衡和误导性描述。这种描述没有认识到情境并不总是自主性的敌人。相反，强大的情境力量通常允许甚至鼓励人类自主性的表达。我们考察了这种现象的本质、原因和后果。我们支持一种更广泛的方法，强调如何应对情境压力可以与自主性共存。这种新的重点应该会在社会心理学模型和日常生活中的自主性体验之间产生更大的一致性。
