The Mediating Role of Implicit Theory in Individual Aggression：Does Positive Self-Regard Plus Negative Feedback Necessarily Lead to Violence？

This study tested hypotheses concerning the relationships between people’s self-regard, their implicit theories, and aggression. Eighty-six College participants’self-evaluated social confidence was measured by a translated version of the Self-Rating Scale. A computerized experiment was conducted in which the participants were randomly assigned to two groups and read an article that supported either an entity view or an incremental view of human traits. They then received negative comments on their social competence and were provided with an opportunity to aggress against the evaluator during a paired contest. In general, participants who had been induced to believe in an entity view of human traits responded more aggressively than those in the incremental view group did. For people with low social confidence, those in the entity view group were more aggressive than those in the incremental view group. For people with high social confidence, no significant difference was found between the two groups. Implications of the results were discussed.