Huang Hui-Dan, Zhang Qi
School of Continuing Education, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
School of Management, Hangzhou College of Commerce, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 30;13:975417. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.975417. eCollection 2022.
The construal level theory (CLT) has been supported and applied widely in social psychology. Yet, what remains unclear is the mechanism behind it. The authors extend the current literature by hypothesizing that perceived control mediates and locus of control (LOC) moderates the effect of psychological distance on the construal level. Four experimental studies were conducted. The results indicate that individuals perceive low (vs. high) situational control from a psychological distance (vs. proximity), and the resultant control perception influences their motivation in control pursuit, producing a high (vs. low) construal level. Moreover, LOC (i.e., one's chronic control belief) affects an individual's motivation to pursue control and yields a reversal of distance-construal relationship under external (vs. internal) LOC as a result. Overall, this research first identifies perceived control as a closer predictor of construal level, and the findings are expected to help with influencing human behavior by facilitating individuals' construal level control-related constructs.
解释水平理论（CLT）在社会心理学中得到了广泛的支持和应用。然而，其背后的机制仍不明确。作者通过假设感知控制起中介作用，而控制点（LOC）调节心理距离对解释水平的影响，扩展了当前的文献。进行了四项实验研究。结果表明，个体从心理距离（而非接近度）中感知到低（而非高）情境控制，由此产生的控制感知会影响他们追求控制的动机，从而产生高（而非低）解释水平。此外，LOC（即一个人的长期控制信念）会影响个体追求控制的动机，并导致在外部（而非内部）LOC情况下距离 - 解释关系的逆转。总体而言，本研究首次将感知控制确定为解释水平更直接的预测因素，预计这些发现将有助于通过促进个体对与控制相关结构的解释水平来影响人类行为。
