The Moderating Role Of Affective State On The Relationship Between Psychological Distance And Construal Level

Mental representation is an important variable affecting the behavior. We not onlyrepresent the objects which ourselves can experience directly here and now, but alsothe objects which ourselves can not experience directly here and now. Construal-leveltheory (CLT) proposes that individual tends to use higher levels of construal torepresent an object as the psychological distance from the object increases. At present,research based on CLT has become hot spots on social psychology especiallyjudgment and decision-making research. However, CLT is taking “the purelycognitive orientation”, which focus on effects of psychological distance on level ofconstrual only in the natural setting. But previous researches suggest that peoplegenerally tend to be positive mood, so the researches based on CLT may be difficult toexplain whether the effects of psychological distance on construal-level are differentbecause of different affective state. Researches suggest that positive mood individualstrend to represent the object at higher level at least compared to neutral moodindividuals, but previous research conclusions are not consistent about negative moodindividuals. In addition, researchers think, the effects of affective state on levelconstrual are by psychological distance. Related researches suggest that positive moodindividuals trend to see the object as distance targets, but the effects of negative moodon psychological distance is regulated by relationship between the situation and self.Under self related conditions, negative mood individuals trend to see the object asproximal targets, but under self not related conditions, negative mood individualstrend to see the object as distance targets. This research intents to combine a “cold”cognition and a “hot” cognition, which explores the moderating role of affective stateon the relationship between psychological distance and construal level for the firsttime by three experiments. The main conclusions of this research are as follows: (1)Under self related conditions, negative mood can reduce representation levels ofdistance behavior, while positive mood can increase representation levels ofdistance behavior.(2)Under self not related conditions, negative mood can increase representationlevels of proximal behavior, while positive mood can increase representationlevels of distance behavior.