Citation

Dai J, Gao H, Zhang L, Chen H. Int. J. Psychol. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, International Union of Psychological Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ijop.12683

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this study, we examined attention and memory biases for aggressive information in two groups of college students. Individuals with fragile high self-esteem (n = 30) and individuals with secure high self-esteem (n = 30) first performed a dot-probe task investigating attention bias, followed by a memory task. Incidental free recall of words presented in the memory task was then completed to assess memory bias.

RESULTS revealed that individuals with fragile high self-esteem exhibited significant attention and memory biases for aggressive words compared with secure high self-esteem individuals. Attention bias for aggressive words was positively correlated with memory bias in individuals with fragile high self-esteem, but no correlation was found for individuals with secure high self-esteem. These findings suggest that individuals with fragile high self-esteem selectively attend to and remember aggression-related information. They may process information in ways that are congruent with an aggression-related schema.

This study reveals the aggressive cognitive processes of individuals with fragile high self-esteem, which may be related to aggression.

Language: en

Keywords

College students; Aggression; Attention bias; Fragile high self-esteem; Memory bias