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Related Experiment Videos

Self-infiltration: confusing assigned tasks as self-selected in memory.

Nicola Baumann1, Julius Kuhl

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Osnabrück, Seminarstrasse 20 EW, 49069 Osnabrück, Germany. baumann@luce.psycho.uni-osnabrueck.de

Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
|July 30, 2004
PubMed
Summary
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Sad moods increase self-infiltration, the false attribution of external goals as one's own, particularly in state-oriented individuals. Action-oriented individuals did not exhibit this tendency, suggesting emotion regulation impacts self-perception.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • Self-infiltration, the false self-attribution of externally controlled goals, is a cognitive phenomenon.
  • Personality Systems Interactions (PSI) theory posits that mood and coping styles influence self-representation access.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of negative affect and coping styles in self-infiltration.
  • To test PSI theory predictions regarding mood-induced self-infiltration.

Main Methods:

  • Two studies were conducted, examining self-infiltration rates.
  • Participants' mood (sadness levels or experimentally induced sadness) and coping style (state- vs. action-orientation) were assessed.
  • Self-infiltration was measured by the false self-ascription of assigned activities.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • State-oriented participants showed increased self-infiltration with higher sadness levels (Study 1) and after sad mood induction (Study 2).
  • Action-oriented participants did not exhibit a similar tendency towards self-infiltration across varying sadness levels.
  • Sad mood impairs access to integrated self-representations, particularly in individuals with difficulties in negative affect regulation.

Conclusions:

  • Sad mood can lead to self-infiltration, especially in state-oriented individuals, supporting PSI theory.
  • The ability to regulate negative affect (action-orientation) appears to buffer against mood-induced self-infiltration.
  • Findings have implications for understanding self-perception, attribution biases, and emotional coping mechanisms.