忍耐品质具有重要的研究意义，不仅传统文化提倡忍耐思想，而且国人多表现出忍耐行为或忍耐策略。虽然忍耐有个人层面与关系层面，也分情境忍耐与特质忍耐，还有静态和动态之分。但本研究主要探讨个体的忍耐行为及方式。尤其，个体忍耐有利于社会适应。然而，国内心理学界对忍耐的探索仍处在初期阶段，对忍耐的内涵和心理结构尚未形成统一认识，对忍耐与社会适应的关系及其作用机制也缺少实证性研究。为此，本研究从理论意义和实践需要出发，深入探讨忍耐的心理结构及其对社会适应的影响机制。

基于文献综述，本研究设计了四项研究8个子研究，解决了3个主要问题：第一，忍耐的内涵和心理结构；第二，忍耐与社会适应的关系；第三，忍耐对社会适应的影响机制。具体研究内容如下：

研究一主要探讨了忍耐的心理结构及编制忍耐问卷。其中，研究1通过访谈法、问卷调查法和词汇评定法探讨忍耐的内涵并构建忍耐词汇表，最终确定了57个忍耐词汇表。研究2以文献分析和研究1词汇资料为基础，结合相关量表，编制忍耐问卷。结果发现：(1)探索性因素分析结果表明，忍耐的心理结构包含坚韧、宽容、毅力3个方面；(2)验证性因素分析结果表明，忍耐问卷的3维度模型各拟合指数良好，均达到心理测量学标准。

研究二主要通过2个子研究初步探讨了忍耐与社会适应之间的关系。其中，研究1采用相关设计，考察了忍耐与社会适应之间的关系以及情绪的中介作用。结果表明：(1)忍耐、积极情绪/消极情绪、社会适应各变量之间显著相关；(2)忍耐、积极情绪都能显著正向预测大学生社会适应；(3)积极情绪在忍耐和社会适应之间起部分中介作用。研究2采用实验设计，进一步验证了忍耐启动对社会适应的促进作用。结果表明：(1)高忍耐分组的大学生体验到更强的积极情绪和更弱的消极情绪，并且其社会适应能力更强；(2)积极情绪在忍耐与社会适应之间发挥着部分中介作用。

研究三主要通过3个子研究进一步考察了忍耐促进社会适应的影响机制及其生态效度。其中，研究1考察了任务重要性对忍耐与积极情绪、社会适应的调节作用，以及对积极情绪中介效应的调节作用。结果表明：(1)忍耐与社会适应呈显著正相关；(2)积极情绪部分中介了忍耐对社会适应的正向关系；(3)任务重要性调节了大学生忍耐对积极情绪、社会适应的影响，即高任务重要性条件下，大学生忍耐与积极情绪体验、社会适应的正向关系越强，反之越弱；(4)进一步地，任务重要性调节了大学生积极情绪对忍耐-社会适应的中介作用，即：高任务重要性条件下，忍耐通过积极情绪对社会适应所产生的作用就越强，反之越弱。研究2考察了时间压力对忍耐与积极情绪、社会适应的调节作用，以及积极情绪的中介作用是否受时间压力调节。结果表明：(1)时间压力调节了大学生忍耐对积极情绪、社会适应的影响，即在低时间压力条件下，大学生忍耐与积极情绪体验、社会适应的正向关系越强，反之越弱；(2)进一步地，时间压力调节了大学生积极情绪对忍耐-社会适应的中介作用，即：低时间压力条件下，忍耐通过积极情绪对社会适应所产生的作用就越强，反之越弱。研究3采用现实生活情境事件为启动材料，构建了一个有双重调节的中介模型，考察了忍耐预测大学生社会适应的中介(积极情绪)和调节(任务重要性)机制及其时间压力差异。结果发现：(1)忍耐、积极情绪对大学生社会适应有显著的正向预测作用；(2)积极情绪在忍耐与社会适应之间具有部分中介作用，并且中介效应受到任务重要性的调节；(3)任务重要性对忍耐与社会适应关系有调节作用，并且其调节效应受到时间压力的调节，即相比低时间压力，在高时间压力条件下，任务重要性的调节效应更显著；(4)有调节的中介模型存在时间压力差异：与高时间压力相比，积极情绪的中介效应在低时间压力条件下更显著；在低时间压力条件下，积极情绪的中介作用会受到任务重要性的的调节作用的影响，而在高时间压力条件下，该调节效应不显著。

研究四通过纵向研究考察了忍耐对社会适应的延时影响。采用问卷法对270名大学生进行间隔6个月的追踪调查。结果发现：(1)前测的忍耐对社会适应有即时与延时预测效应，即前测的忍耐各维度可以预测6个月后的社会适应，忍耐水平越高则随后的社会适应水平越高，反之前测的社会适应对6个月后的忍耐无显著预测作用；(2)忍耐对社会适应延时预测中，后测积极情绪起部分中介作用。

综上，本研究得出如下结论：

第一，忍耐的心理结构包括：坚韧、宽容、毅力三个方面，即忍耐问卷包括三个维度，并且忍耐问卷具有良好的信效度。第二，高忍耐水平有助于提升大学生社会适应性。第三，高忍耐水平的大学生能体验到更强的积极情绪和更弱的消极情绪，其中积极情绪在忍耐与社会适应之间发挥着部分中介作用。第四，高任务重要性条件下，大学生积极情绪就越容易受忍耐的积极影响；积极情绪也就越多地传导了忍耐对社会适应的效应，表现为被调节的中介作用模式。第五，忍耐与大学生积极情绪的关系受时间压力影响，即相比高时间压力条件，低时间压力条件下大学生忍耐与积极情绪正向关系越强；积极情绪也就越多地传导了忍耐对社会适应的效应，表现为被调节的中介作用模式。第六，在低时间压力条件下，积极情绪的中介作用受到任务重要性的调节作用影响，而在高时间压力条件下，该调节效应不显著。第七，忍耐是社会适应的预测因素，反之不成立。总之，本研究丰富了忍耐的心理学理论和研究，揭示了忍耐的内涵和心理结构，阐明了忍耐促进社会适应的影响效应以及“忍为何事”“忍在何时”的作用机制。

Patience is one of the most distingusished psychological virtue of the Chinese Culture, which reflects not only the personality of tenacity and optimism, but also the coping methods or process for dealing with setbacks, difficulties and adversities. However, the study of patience in psychological, especially in China psychological field, is still in the initial stage, and there is no unified cognition on the connotation and psychological structure of patience. There is also a lack of empirical research on the relationship between patience and social adaptation and its influence mechanism. Therefore, based on the theoretical and practical needs, this study would explore the psychological structure of patience and its influence mechianisms on the social adaptation.

Based on the literature review, this present research aim to investigate this association between patience and social adaptation and the influenced mechanisms. Thus, four studies (a total of 8 sub-studies) were conducted to solve three key questions: (1) What is the connotation and psychological structure of patience? (2) What is the relationship between patience and social adaptation? (3) What is the mechianisms influenced by patience on social adaptation?

These detailed contents of this research are illuminates as follows:

The main purpose of Study 1 is to explore the psychological structure of patience and  develop the patience questionnaire. In sub-study 1, research on the connotation of patience and the description words of patience will be probed firstly. The results showed that: (1) developed a patience vocabulary contains 57 words. In sub-Study 2, research on the psychological structure of patience will be carried out, and the patience questionnaire was developed and validated. The results show that: (1) the resultes of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) indicated that a three factor solution comprising 18 items that explained 63.531% of the variance of patience; (2) the results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the fitting indexes of the 3-dimensional model of patience questionnaire were good, and all of the fitting index met the standards of psychometrics.

The aim of Study 2 (2 sub-studies) is primitively to explore the relationship between patience and social adaptation and its influencing mechanism throught cross-section study. In sub-Study 1, the correlational research was conducted to obtain better insight into the associations between patience and social adaptation, and the possible mediating roles of the positive emotion. The results showed that: (1) patience was significantly related to the positive emotion and social adaptation; (2) patience was found to be associated with higher positive emotion and social adaptation; (3) positive emotion was a mediator between patience and social adaptation. In sub-Study 2, the current study conducted experiment research to further examine whether and how patience influences the social adaptation and the mediating effect of positive emotion on the relationship between patience and social adaptation. The results showed that: (1) the college students with high patience priming group reported more positive emotions and lower negative emotions, and high social adaptation; (2) positive emotion partial mediated the relation between patience and social adaptation.

The Study 3 (3 sub-studies) aims to explore the relationship between patience and social adaptation and its influencing mechanism and to explore the ecological validity. In sub-Study 1, the current study further examined the mediating effect of positive emotion and the moderating effects of task importance on the relationship between patience and social adaptation, and this experiment had a 2 (patience: low vs. high)×2 (task importance: low vs. high) between-subjects design. Results revealed that: (1) patience was a significantly positive predicted the social adaptation; (2) positive emotion played as a mediator role in the relationship between patience and social adaptation; (3) task importance moderated the link among patience and positive emotion, social adaptation; (4) the mediating effects of positive emotion on patience and social adaptation linkage was significantly only among individual with high task importance experienced. In sub-Study 2, the current study further examined the mediating effect of positive emotion and the moderating effects of time pressure (time-perception) on the relationship between patience and social adaptation, and this experiment had a 2 (patience: low vs. high)×2 (time pressure: high vs. low) between-subjects design. The results showed that: (1) patience has a positive direct effect on the social adaptation; (2) positive emotion mediated the relation between patience and social adaptation; (3) time pressure moderated the link of patience and positive emotion, social adaptation; (4) the mediating effects of positive emotion on patience and social adaptation linkage was significantly only among individual with low time pressure group. In sub-Study 3, based on the above four studies, the current study used a real-world life situation paradigm to examine the effect of patience on social adaptation and whether the association, and to test the mediator of the relationship, and to test task importance (and time pressure) as a moderator of these effects. The results showed that: (1) patience and positive emotion had a positive direct effect on undergraduates’ social adaptation; (2) the positive association between patience and social adaptation was mediated by positive emotion, and there is task importance difference in this indirect effect; (3) task importance moderated the link of patience and social adaptation, and the moderated effects was moderated by the time pressure, specifically, as compared to high time pressure condition, the moderated effects of task importance was significant in low time pressure condition; (4) for low time pressure, the mediating effect of positive emotion was moderated by task importance. Meanwhile, the indirect effect was stronger for those with low time pressure than for those with high time pressure; However, the moderating effect of task importance cannot be found in the indirect effect of high time pressure condition.

The aim of Study 4 was to examine the effect of patience on social adaptation through longitudinal design. In sub-Study 1, the Cross-Lagged Regression Analysis was used to examine the causal link between patience and social adaptation. The main findings were as follows: (1) patience reported in the first investigation could predict social adaptation at the reinvestigation, however, the social adaptation at the first investigation could not predict patience at the reinvestigation; (2) the posttest positive emotion as a mediator between the pretest patience and the posttest social adaptation.

To sum up above, the present research contribute to the following conclusions:

First, mental structures of the patience were composed of three elements: hardiness, tolerant and willpower. So the Patience Questionnaire 3 dimensions and good reliablility and validity. Secondly, undergraduates with high patience would possess higher social adaptation. Third, undergraduates with high patience reported more positive emotion and less negative emotion, and positive emotion mediated the relationship between patience and social adaptation. Forth, in the condition of high task importance, college students’s positive emotion were more likely to be influenced by the patiece. The more positive emotions transmitted the effect of patience on social adaptation, the more positive emotions were demonstrated as the mediating action mode. Fifth, the time pressure moderated on the relationship between patience and positive emotion, and social adaptation. Sixth, under the condition of low time pressure, the mediating effect of positive emotion influenced by the moderating effect of task importance, while under the condition of high time pressure, the moderating effect is not significant. Seventh, the mediating effect of positive emotion was moderated by the task importance, and the moderated effect was stronger in low time pressure condition than for high time pressure. Eighth, patience influenced the social adaptation. In sum, these findings expanded and enriched the theories of patience and contribute to the literature patience. The current study findings showed the highlight of daily patience decision and management on issues such as: practice patience on the right time, and for the right incident.