Construal Level and Self-Judgement in Interpersonal Relationships

Abstract

Abstract Construal level consists of viewing events or experiences through varying levels of abstraction (Gong & Medin, 2012). These two levels are high-level and low-level construal. Research has found that high-level construal aids in producing harsh moral judgement of the behavior of others. Along with influencing moral judgements, construal level also influences self-improvement and self-protection goals. These moral judgements, however, have shown to not transfer when asked to judge behaviors that one is to perform themselves. Given previous studies, the present research aimed to determine whether construal level would influence self-judgement of ones’ own past negative behavior within interpersonal relationships. The study was designed to manipulate participants into high-level or low-level construal and measure their judgements on their past behaviors towards someone close to them. An independent samples t-test was used to analyze the data in which there was no significant difference in self-judgement of past behaviors between those in high-level construal and low-level construal. Keywords: Construal Level, Self-Judgement, Interpersonal Relationships