The experimenter was blind to participant condition, and a separate RAT evaluator (also blind to condition) administered the 30-item RAT performance task. It is possible that the stress buffering effects of self-affirmation on problem-solving performance that we obtained are specific to evaluative performance settings, since all of our participants completed difficult RAT items under time pressure in front of a critical evaluator. When the head protects the heart: Empathic accuracy in dating relationships. There is an important difference between forgiving and reconciling. Self-affirmations can take the form of reflections on important, overarching values (such as relationships with friends and family) or on a prized skill. Get the help you need from a therapist near youa FREE service from Psychology Today. Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. John M. Levine, Affiliation: Creswell, J. D., Welch, W., Taylor, S. E., Sherman, D. K., Gruenewald, T., & Mann, T. (2005). People led to commit an action espousing a position with which they disagree (for example, students who write in favor of tuition increases) subsequently come to agree with the position when they believe that their actions were freely chosen. When we do this, it helps us realize that our self-worth is not contingent on whatever negative feedback we just got (Sherman & Cohen, 2006). The list typically includes the following value domains: aesthetic, social, political, religious, economic, and theoretical values. The social psychologist Claude Steele first proposed the theory of self-affirmation. New York, NY: Guildford Press. 523 0 obj <>stream ), Contemporary perspectives on the psychology of attitudes (pp. This study found that self-affirmed participants from individualist cultures saw reductions in cognitive dissonance, whereas self-affirmed participants from collectivist cultures did not experience a reduction in cognitive dissonance. [1][3] Defensive reactions attempt to minimize the threat in order to preserve the sense of self. It is important to note that the task used in the present study (RAT) is a common measure of creativity performance and insight [18], [33], and hence our study suggests that self-affirmation may increase creativity and insight in stressed individuals [16], [34]. However, more research is needed to better understand why people are more open-minded after they have completed an affirmation task. The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological In. Remote Associate items used in the present study. PostedApril 4, 2022 Examples of defensive reactions include denial, avoiding the threat, and changing one's appraisal of the event in order to make it less threatening. Values are aspirations people live in accordance to, including things like living healthfully and treating others with respect. Next, they wrote about their first ranked value and why it was important to them (self-affirmation condition) or their ninth ranked value and why it might be important to others (control condition) [12]. Future studies should therefore experimentally test whether social evaluation is a necessary condition for self-affirmation problem-solving effects. broad scope, and wide readership a perfect fit for your research every time. %PDF-1.5 % Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories? This site needs JavaScript to work properly. In M. P. Zanna (Ed. 213 0 obj << /Linearized 1 /O 215 /H [ 949 1237 ] /L 505870 /E 21823 /N 60 /T 501491 >> endobj xref 213 26 0000000016 00000 n Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. This research was approved by the Carnegie Mellon University Institutional Review Board. Rucker et al. I am strong and can overcome challenges that come my way. Error bars reflect standard errors of the mean. Culture, dissonance, and self-affirmation. Reducing the gender achievement gap in college science: a classroom study of values affirmation. The psychology of change: self-affirmation and social psychological intervention People have a basic need to maintain the integrity of the self, a global sense of personal adequacy. It will be important for future studies to consider the mechanisms linking self-affirmation with improved problem solving. Self-affirmation interventions typically have people write about core personal values. Explore techniques to work through sadness. Our experimental manipulation of self-affirmation was dummy coded (self-affirmation=1, control=0). [1] [3] Defensive reactions attempt to minimize the threat in order to preserve the sense of self. and catalysts to change. Acute and chronic stress have been shown to disrupt problem-solving and creativity [1]. The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). All predictor variables were mean-centered prior to being entered in multiple regression equations. [21] Another study examined the effect on individuals from individualist and collectivist backgrounds of writing a values essay about a value that was important to the participant compared to a value that was important to the participant's family. Provide examples of ways that people attempt to increase and maintain their self-esteem. Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2006). In the first step of the mediation analysis, self-affirmation increased positive affect (as described above). It is thought that answering questions about a value domain that they find important will make that value more salient to them, resulting in self-affirmation. We had no reason to expect that the experimental task would bias participants responses when self-reporting their chronic stress levels over the past month, and a one-way ANCOVA indicated that the self-affirmation manipulation did not affect perceived stress over the last month (F(1, 72)=.95, p=.22, 2=.01). [2] Promoting one's values can affirm the individual and reduce the perceived threat. Engaging in spontaneous self-affirmation was related to greater happiness, hopefulness, optimism, subjective health, and personal health efficacy, and less anger and sadness. In social, 1 to many Americans reevaluating the kind of country they thought they lived in. 0000008967 00000 n Ethnic minority students in the self-affirmation condition received higher grade point averages than the ethnic minority students who wrote about why their least important value might be important to someone else. Psychological vulnerability and stress: the effects of self-affirmation on sympathetic nervous system responses to naturalistic stressors. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. For example, if we've just been rejected by a potential romantic partner, we might say the affirmation, "I am worthy of love." [28] More research is needed to better understand how self-affirmation can provide benefit to individuals. Yet the other 70% of the time, this player would have failed. Journal for the scientific study of religion, 65-77, Creswell, J. D., Welch, W. T., Taylor, S. E., Sherman, D. K., Gruenewald, T. L., & Mann, T. (2005). The self-affirmation theory posits that people have a fundamental motivation to maintain self-integrity, a perception of themselves as good, virtuous, and able to predict and control important outcomes. [3] Self-Affirmations can occur by both reflecting on a personally relevant value, belief, or role, as well as engaging in an activity that might evoke a personally relevant value, such as spending time with family if that is personally relevant. However, participants who completed the two values essays did not show an increase in catecholamine levels from baseline to their midterm.[12]. And why do they persist in maladaptive behavior even when persuasive information or personal experience recommends, Journal of personality and social psychology. Simpson " trial of the century " in the mid-1990s captured the attention of the American populace more than any other public spectacle since the kidnaping of the Lindberg baby in. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(6), 885, Fein, S., & Spencer, S. J. In one study investigating the effects of self-affirmation on stress response, undergraduate participants completed the Trier social stress test, a standardized laboratory paradigm used to induce stress in participants. [3] According to self-affirmation theory, self-integrity is one's concept of oneself as a good, moral person, who acts in ways that are in accord with cultural and social norms. Introduction In major league baseball, a hitter could have a long and productive career by maintaining a .300 average, that is, by getting a base hit 30% of the time. Adapted with permission. Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Apfel, N., & Brzustoski, P. (2009). Self-affirmation and mortality salience: Affirming values reduces worldview defense and death-thought accessibility. The fact that we did not see any differential effects of self-affirmation on a physiological measure of task engagement (heart rate) also suggests that these effects are not driven by changes in persistence or motivation [32]. In this introduction to the special issue, we review the literature on self-affirmation theory in educational contexts, providing overviews of the heterogeneity in the effectiveness of affirmation interventions, the methods of implementation, potential moderators, and underling processes. Similarly, the self-affirmation condition time (F(2, 64)=.13, p=.88, 2=.004) and condition time chronic stress (F(2, 64)=1.53 p=.23, 2=.05) interactions were not significant (Figure 3). Simpson " trial of the century " in the mid-1990s captured the attention of the American populace more than any other public spectacle since the kidnaping of the Lindberg baby in. endstream endobj startxref 0000013317 00000 n Terror management theory (TMT) is compared with other explanations for why people need self-esteem, and a critique of the most prominent of these, sociometer theory, is provided. Self-affirmation theory examines how people maintain self-integrity when this perception of the self is threatened. Experimental manipulations of self-affirmation: A systematic review. Prior to completing the RAT and while the evaluator was ostensibly preparing to administer the test, participants were asked if they would be willing to complete a questionnaire and writing activity that was being piloted for an unrelated experiment on personal values (all agreed). To try it, just choose a statement that represents how you want to think. The research reported in this article illustrates how self-affirmation affects not only people's cognitive responses to threatening information and events, but also their physiological adaptations and actual behavior. Eighty students from two urban universities in Pittsburgh participated for course credit or $20. There is thus some fungibility in the sources of self-integrity. 38, pp. 2012 Mar;102(3):479-96. doi: 10.1037/a0026312. In G. Haddock & G. R. Maio (Eds. However, an intervention known as self-affirmation can curb these negative outcomes. Thus we did not find supporting evidence for positive affect as a mediator for the self-affirmation main effect or the chronic stress self-affirmation interaction on problem-solving performance. Reconceptualizing Self-Affirmation With the Trigger and Channel Framework: Lessons From the Health Domain. Moreover, until now it has been unclear whether the stress buffering benefits of self-affirmation translate into improved performance outcomes on actual problem solving tasks. Advances in experimental social psychology, 38, 183-242. Although participants showed an overall significant heart rate increase from baseline (M=68.50, SE=1.03) to the RAT problem solving period (M=76.44, SE=1.31) (paired-samples t(69)=9.26, p=<.001), there were no significant main effect or interactive effects of conditions on heart rate change. Self-affirmation theory is based on the idea that we are motivated to maintain our self-worth in the face of threats (Sherman & Cohen, 2006). When our self-esteem is threatened, we. Practice Improves the Potential for Future Plasticity, Styles of Coping: Diversify Your Coping Toolkit, 9 Things Productive People Do Differently, Why Forgiving Does Not Require an Apology, Growth Requires Unlearning as Much as Learning, 5 More Helpful Things to Say Than "Calm Down". In R. Baumeister and K. Vohs (Eds. Conceived and designed the experiments: JDC JMD WMPK PRH JML. The need to find order in a confusing world. Self-affirmation theory provides a framework for understanding the origins of these problems and an optimistic perspective for their resolution. Consistent with other reports [28], we found that the self-affirmation group had higher state positive affect compared to the control group (as determined by multiple regression controlling for age: =.51, t(69)=4.79, p<.001.) Consistent with this expectation, there was not a main effect for either chronic stress level (2(10)=11.08, p=.35) nor a self-affirmation condition stress level interaction (2(10)=10.6, p=.39). The authors argue that individuals regulate perceptions of their relationships in a self-protective way, finding virtue in their partners only when they feel confident that their partners also see, By clicking accept or continuing to use the site, you agree to the terms outlined in our. Performed the experiments: JMD. We excluded seven participants who did not follow instructions (N=5) or who did not rate academic performance as important to them (N=2). Collectively, these findings do not provide support for a differential task engagement explanation of our performance findings. [24][25] In contrast, several studies fail to detect any effect of self-affirmation on mood, suggesting self-affirmation does not operate via increases in positive mood. The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychological intervention. All descriptive statistics, ANCOVA, and multiple regression analyses were conducted using SPSS 19.0 (IBM, Armonk, New York). An example item from the religion scale would be "The more important study for mankind is (a) mathematics (b) theology". Pers Soc Psychol Rev. Results suggest that group identification plays a role in whether people use an avoidance or challenge strategy in coping with collective threat and implications for theories of social identity and stigmatization are discussed. The sample thus consisted of 73 students (34 females; 39 males) who ranged in age from 18 to 34, with an average age of 21 (SD=2.4). However, it is believed that there is not just one factor responsible for the effects of self-affirmation, but rather many. [3] That is, if someone perceives threat to one domain, he or she can accommodate this threat by upholding a value in another domain. As a result, participants in the self-affirmation condition have an opportunity to affirm a valued self-domain or characteristic [6], [8]. The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. 2009 Nov;97(5):745-64. doi: 10.1037/a0015451. Like heart rate, participants showed an overall significant mean arterial pressure increase from baseline (M=79.71, SE=.86) to the RAT problem solving period (M=89.05, SE=1.08) (paired-samples t(69)=12.12, p<.001), but we did not observe significant main effects of self-affirmation (F(1,67)=2.21, p=.14, 2=.03) or chronic stress (F(1,66)=.32, p=.57, 2=.01). Participants who completed the values list had significantly lower stress response than individuals in the control condition, as indicated by a lower cortisol response in affirmed participants compared to participants who did not complete the self-affirmation condition. Moreover, we observed a significant main effect for self-affirmation condition, (=.31, t(72)=2.88, p=.005), such that affirmed participants performed significantly better on the RAT task than control participants (Figure 1). And why do they persist in maladaptive behavior even when persuasive information or personal experience recommends, Journal of personality and social psychology. The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self . [17] These findings suggest that self-affirmation can have a buffering effect on academic achievement for groups who face the most threat. trailer << /Size 239 /Info 205 0 R /Root 214 0 R /Prev 501480 /ID[<25b6ff0975f36615fc50a5b813e1f2e2><25b6ff0975f36615fc50a5b813e1f2e2>] >> startxref 0 %%EOF 214 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 207 0 R /PageLabels 204 0 R >> endobj 237 0 obj << /S 1621 /L 1714 /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 238 0 R >> stream Some have suggested that a sense of personal regard emerges early in the life of an infant and remains relatively stable through the lifetime. Human population biology: a transdisciplinary science, 280-95, Sherman, D. K., Bunyan, D. P., Creswell, J. D., & Jaremka, L. M. (2009). Adapted from an article published by The Berkeley Well-Being Institute. Depression: Goodbye Serotonin, Hello Stress and Inflammation, How Blame and Shame Can Fuel Depression in Rape Victims, Getting More Hugs Is Linked to Fewer Symptoms of Depression, Interacting With Outgroup Members Reduces Prejudice, You Can't Control Your Teen, But You Can Influence Them. Loch et al. Science 330:123437, Haines J, Neumark-Sztainer D, Wall M, Story M. 2007. In: Zanna MP, editor. e62593. Multiple regression analyses tested for the effects of gender (male vs. female) on RAT problem-solving performance. They may attempt to reduce this discomfort by directly resolving the . Because chronic stress is linked to physical illness, this finding also suggests that affirming the self could have positive effects on health outcomes. Participants then completed a state mood adjective checklist assessing state positive mood (5 items: proud, content, joyful, love, and grateful; study =.84) and state negative mood (3 items: sad, angry, scared; study =.65) (PANAS-X; [22], [23]). 0000007527 00000 n Numerous studies demonstrate that individuals are less likely to rationalize, deny, or resist threatening information in one domain if their sense of self-integrity is affirmed in another domain. When this image of self-integrity is threatened, people respond in such a way as to restore self-worth. Participants were informed that a trained evaluator would administer the performance task. Self-affirmation interventions typically have people write about core personal values. New York: Norton. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JDC. .Science, 313, 1251-1252. For individuals in the self-affirmation condition, high-stress individuals performed equally as well as low-stress individuals. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.) Wrote the paper: JDC JMD WMPK PRH JML. Analyzed the data: JDC JMD. They were given 12 seconds to provide an answer verbally. Poor phosphate control in this population can be dangerous and life-threatening. Importantly, the changes in heart rate and blood pressure reaffirm that the RAT task was stressful for participants. Discover what you can do to cope with stress and stop stressing yourself out. 10 Empowering Self-Affirmations for the Family Caregiver. (2002). Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America. Another limitation of our study is that we measured chronic stress using a self-report measure, and this measure was collected at the end of our study session (although there were no experimental (self-affirmation manipulation) effects on chronic stress scores). The site is secure. Doing so is a form of rationalization and self-justification; it convinces the individual that his or her action was the right one. Some studies have found that positive mood brings about similar reductions in defensiveness as self-affirmations. Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Affiliation: Why Do Women Remember More Dreams Than Men Do? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(9), 1046-1058, Koole, S. L., Smeets, K., Van Knippenberg, A., & Dijksterhuis, A. The sample had similar levels of chronic stress (M=16.6, SD=7.1, Range=134) to normed US samples of individuals under 25 years of age (M=16.8) [21]. This article is about the theory in social psychology. 183-242). [20], Individualist and collectivist cultures place different levels of importance on belonging to in-groups, and it is thought that this may vary the effects of self-affirmation. Like Steinbeck, we have wondered why some people are more resilient to the vicissitudes of life than others, that is, why their sense of worth and the psychological states that vary with it (e.g., OVERVIEW The O.J. Janine M. Dutcher, Such self-affirmations, by fulfilling the need to protect self-integrity in the face of threat, can enable people to deal with threatening events and information without resorting to defensive bias. Walking the tightrope between feeling good and being accurate: mood as a resource in processing persuasive messages. One primary aim of my research is the development of theory-driven, rigorously tested intervention strategies that further our understanding of the processes underpinning social problems and that offer solutions to alleviate them. Items were, This value has influenced my life and This value is an important part of who I am (study =.96). People have been shown to be more open to persuasive information, and less biased in their evaluations of political information and health risk warnings if they are first permitted to self-affirm in an unrelated domain, for instance, by reflecting on an important personal value. The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. When a person becomes attached to something, it's often not about the item, but their sense of self, or ego, in relation to it. Conspicuous consumption versus utilitarian ideals: How different levels of power shape consumer behavior Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (2009) C.A. J Couns Psychol. A great deal of money could be earned and fame accrued. Moreover, the self-affirmation chronic stress interaction for the #1 ranked value was not significant (2(8)=3.03, p=.93). Rumination is when people cannot stop fixating on a particular thought. In this paper, we update the field on research conducted using self-affirmation theory as a framework. The role of the self in physical health. Salivary cortisol as a function of time and aYrmation status. If individuals feel relatively positive about themselves in one domain, they are willing and able to tolerate a threat to their self-integrity in another domain. and transmitted securely. The Psychology of Self-Defense: Self-Affirmation Theory by David Sherman & Geoffrey Cohen. Advances in experimental social psychology, 21, 261-302, Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2007). Prior to completing the problem-solving puzzles half of the participants completed a values essay self-affirmation task. 0000002796 00000 n The present research examines how a motivational process triggered by a, View 6 excerpts, cites background and methods. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38: . Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2006). J. David Creswell, From Creswell, J. D., Welch, W., Taylor, S. E., Sherman, D. K., Gruenewald, T., & Mann, T. (2005). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 183-242. (1968). AYrmation of personal values buVers neuroendocrine, By clicking accept or continuing to use the site, you agree to the terms outlined in our, The Psychology of Selfdefense: SelfAffirmation Theory. Given that self-affirmation increased state positive affect, we conducted mediation analyses (following procedure described in [31]) testing whether state positive affect mediated the impact of self-affirmation on problem-solving. Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. 38, pp. This self-induced pressure of procrastinating may well boost our previously low levels of motivation. (2006). Within the framework of self-affirmation theory, the authors compared levels of dissonance reduction in the free-choice paradigm between a culture typical of an independent construal of self (Canadian) and a culture typical of an interdependent construal of self (Japanese). To test whether there were differences in the selected #1 ranked value between study conditions, chi-square analyses were conducted to test for condition differences (self-affirmation vs. control, low vs. high chronic stress) on which value participants ranked #1 (Table 3 provides frequencies of #1 ranked values across conditions). [4] There are six different value domains on the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Values scale: religion, theoretical, aesthetic, political, social, and economic. Engaging in such actions when facing threat serves to remind individuals of the broad, principal values by which they define themselves and their lives. We have a variety of automatic, defensive mental strategies that protect our self-esteem from plummeting in the face of threats. 144 RAT items have been normed for difficulty [17], and pilot testing indicated that our undergraduate sample population can solve all easy RAT items. Evidence That Self-Affirmation Improves Phosphate Control in Hemodialysis Patients: A Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. Previous research had demonstrated that African Americans experience threat and its concomitant stress, in situations in which they know that they or fellow group members could be judged in light of a negative racial stereotype. }]}*~SOQKl=)9PCqPA035^{xXu)f/v[K4B0 When self-integrity is threatened, according to self-affirmation theory, people need not defensively rationalize or distort reality. All of these "rationalizations" actually help us continue to feel good about ourselves, so they are generally good for our well-being. The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. Timely affirmations have been shown to improve education, health, and relationship outcomes, with benefits that sometimes persist for months and years. As a manipulation check, we compared the ratings that participants in different conditions made about their value writing activity immediately after completing the writing activity. For some, this has been a positive experience in which the values, customs and institutions they believe in are the, A theorybased intervention known as selfaffirmation provides people with the opportunity to affirm a sense of selfintegrity, a global image of moral and adaptive adequacy, at moments of, Current Directions in Psychological Science, The question of the antecedents of prejudicial responses has a long history that includes contributions of historical, structural, cultural, and psychological factors. [4], One of the most common ways to induce self-affirmation is to have participants write about a personally relevant value. %PDF-1.3 % Bowen NK, Wegmann KM, Webber KC. 0000013411 00000 n Benefits from self-affirmation are thought to primarily occur when the perceived threat is in an area of importance to the individual. Researchers have found that previously engaging in child-health-promoting. In addition, people are more open to threatening courses of actionfor example, compromising with an adversary in a divisive social-political disputewhen self-affirmed. Self-affirmation theory purports that when individuals are faced with information that threatens their self-integrity, the response to this information is often defensive in nature. When our self-esteem is threatened, we sometimes affirm other parts of ourselves unrelated to the threat (e.g., he may say I have a big nose, but I know I have a good personality). Third, we tested whether these two main effects are qualified by a chronic stress self-affirmation interaction, such that self-affirmation will improve problem-solving in chronically stressed participants, whom are likely to have impaired problem-solving, compared to participants who are low in chronic stress. hbbd```b``="SdT d Although people are certainly capable of realism and self-criticism, ego-defensiveness nevertheless seems to be a pervasive human penchant. 0000009348 00000 n ), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. Cook JE, Purdie-Vaughns V, Garcia J, Cohen GL. Second, our study suggests that self-affirmation may be effective at boosting performance in academic tasks requiring associative processing and creativity, particularly for students who experience stress on such tasks [34]. It is thought that when people operate from this broader perspective, they react less defensively to the threat, which allows them to act more effectively. 3. We show here that our self-affirmation effects are unlikely to be explained by changes in positive affect or task engagement. The ethnic composition of the sample was predominantly Caucasian (55%), followed by Asian-American (16.5%), Other (12%), African-American (9.5%), mixed-race (5.5%), and Latino/Hispanic (1.5%). We also diminish the importance of things we have failed at or things we're not very good at. $FR"a=D ~Gk2(&BW[l^sj8t u_ YvVl`vU^sEQiUI54o wMw,G;O@%En;*1O]\>4%YN;-u:6%V)At.{]u 9ap(qq@>VRLiWIX'2O=r)]B!/U9\N*P= Values that participants wrote about by affirmation condition and chronic stress level (as determined by median split). To reduce potential confounding effects, we administered these measures at the end of the experimental session because previous studies indicate that completing individual difference measures at the beginning of an experimental session may act as an affirmation manipulation (i.e., they have carry-over effects) [27].