These heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure results are in accord with our previous work showing that self-affirmation does not appreciably alter heart rate or blood pressure responses to acute stress-challenge tasks [9]. The psychology of selfdefense: Selfaffirmation theory. Participants were informed that a trained evaluator would administer the performance task. A., M. A., Psychology) The Tug-of-War Within: Oppositional Affirmation, Parent Versus Professional Identification, and Gender Thesis directed by Professor Bernadette Park The, Self-affirmation theory proposes that individuals possess a flexible self-system, such that they can respond to threats in one domain of life by affirming self-worth in other domains. Thus, our findings identify a potential mechanism by which a self-affirmation intervention at the beginning of a school term can improve at-risk students academic achievement, reducing achievement disparities between African Americans and European Americans and between women and men in science [12][15]. [5] More research is needed to understand how self-affirmations decrease stress responses. 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. 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. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 183-242. Salivary cortisol as a function of time and aYrmation status. 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. For example, acutely stressful contexts, such as completing problem-solving tasks under negative social evaluation, have been shown to impair performance on a variety of tasks, such as anagrams and remote associate problems [2], [3]. 0000003708 00000 n Instead, our data indicate that participants across conditions were similarly engaged in the problem-solving task. yZzxcg3gsT"#-US5$~(9*,H,M-F/&~AnQ"W ARnv$t1;;P=7e*b@S{aSjqQAY5dM3M9y2CL#+j,UntSxp ~' TA9MPWaIWu^~}N/4mJi[=Q9'o}m>`]C9f Do you struggle to feel sure of yourself? [3][26] Similarly, results on the effects of self-affirmation on self-esteem are also mixed. One of the most important implications of contemporary research on self-affirmation theory involves its demonstration that seemingly small interventions can have large effects, if they are attuned to psychological processes of self-integrity maintenance. A., Ickes W., Blackstone T. (1995). Bowen NK, Wegmann KM, Webber KC. There are two chief methods used to self-affirm participants in experimental studies. The theory of self-affirmation is a psychological theory that was first proposed by Claude Steele (1988) with the premise that people are motivated to maintain the integrity of the self. They were given 12 seconds to provide an answer verbally. I continue to learn and take responsibility for my . The study tracked the students' grades for three years. Site Information Terms of Use Privacy User Login Research suggesting that certain illusions may be adaptive for mental health and well-being is reviewed, examining evidence that a set of interrelated positive illusionsnamely, unrealistically positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimismcan serve a wide variety of cognitive, affective, and social functions. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 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. A great deal of money could be earned and fame accrued. Then learning about self-affirmation may be helpful for you. Steele purported that the self is made up of different domains: roles, values, and belief systems. 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. 0000000949 00000 n ), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 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). Participants then write about the value they ranked as most important and how it is meaningful to them for 5 minutes.[6]. 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. Instead, they can reestablish self-integrity through affirmations of alternative domains of self-worth unrelated to the provoking threat. Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Affiliation: Self-affirmation reduces biased processing of health-risk information. Participants then completed individual difference measures, including the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale [26] to assess perceived stress over the last month (all items were summed to form a composite index of chronic stress, study =.87). There are four main principles of self-affirmation theory. Often these affirmations are used to shift the way we're thinking about ourselves to be more positive. Epub 2018 Oct 15. We elected to use this procedure given that completing individual difference measures may have carry-over effects if completed immediately prior to self-affirmation activities [27]. Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. Journal of Education Psychology 105:42735, Miyake A, Kost-Smith LE, Finkelstein ND, Pollock SJ, Cohen GL, Ito TA. The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. When this image of self-integrity is threatened, people respond in such a way as to restore self-worth. 261-302). Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. 2009 Nov;97(5):745-64. doi: 10.1037/a0015451. 846-851. Creswell, J. D., Welch, W., Taylor, S. E., Sherman, D. K., Gruenewald, T., & Mann, T. (2005). Explore techniques to work through sadness. Collectively, these findings do not provide support for a differential task engagement explanation of our performance findings. Although people are certainly capable of realism and self-criticism, ego-defensiveness nevertheless seems to be a pervasive human penchant. Claude Steele originally popularized self-affirmation theory in the late 1980s,[1][2] and it remains a well-studied theory in social psychological research.[3][4]. Personal, behavioral, and environmental risk and protective factors for adolescent overweight. Self-integrity is a sense of global efficacy, an . 0000002796 00000 n San Diego: Academic. Self-affirmation was used successfully to mitigate the psychological threat associated with being the target of a negative stereotype in school. Given this broad age range and the marginally significantly association between age and overall RAT performance (r=.21, p=.07), we controlled for age in all analyses. This dataset is available upon request (creswell@cmu.edu). 38, pp. First citation in article Google Scholar. 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. [4] In order to do this, participants rank a list of values from most important to least important to them. 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. hb```@( O@'c"{%I8p!Yk5Y KDB9a\kveKL9TpV27;)P#aUTf+N0# q *7CUf suP[6May"/#LeCWARDq+EB]o^&YIXE_H,6sA&{!"+k"R&t?$1F@c@K. Research reveals why some of us rush to new partners and others don't. 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]. 0000002498 00000 n For each RAT item, participants saw three words on a computer screen (e.g., flake, mobile, cone) and were asked to generate a fourth word (e.g., snow) that when combined with each of the three stimulus words results in a common word pair used in everyday English language (e.g., snowflake, snow mobile, snow cone). 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. In sum, there was no evidence that self-affirmation condition or chronic stress level affected participants selection of their top-ranked value. 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). Focus on the positive rather than the negative. Advances in experimental social psychology, 21, 261-302, Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2007). . 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. This research suggests a novel means for boosting problem-solving under stress and may have important implications for understanding how self-affirmation boosts academic achievement in school settings. In L. Berkowitz, (Ed. HWrl 7aylcOFI\,@ m TMi!>yx={u~|GIrg82wa$l:C',r"#kqO1o$tF&LI7'.%e_IlI}q7IJ'a_rZ|ilvR(Ir?#qd/?WV?{o_G::/_tI^_,|#\d8aKL^^]_/\u: Affirmations are just one way, but they are a fairly easy strategy to practice and use in daily life. In virtually all cultures and historical periods, there are socially shared conceptions of what it means to be a person of self-integrity. For example, if we've just been rejected by a potential romantic partner, we might say the affirmation, "I am worthy of love." 21, pp. Threats and afrmations arise from the self's fundamental motive: to be morally and adaptively adequate, good and efcacious. In the Trier Social Stress task, participants are asked to give a short speech in front of a panel of judges who do not give any comments or positive feedback to the participant. For individuals in the self-affirmation condition, high-stress individuals performed equally as well as low-stress individuals. Self-affirmation effects on heart rate during the baseline, RAT performance, and recovery periods. An example item from the religion scale would be "The more important study for mankind is (a) mathematics (b) theology". The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the Self-Affirmation Theory. We also tested negative affect using the same approach, but there was not a significant main effect for self-affirmation condition (=.12, t(71)=1.06, p=.29) or a stress self-affirmation interaction (=.02, t(71)=.90, p=.37) on state negative affect. 10 Empowering Self-Affirmations for the Family Caregiver. Loch et al. 0000000871 00000 n Steele, C. M. (1988). However, participants who completed the two values essays did not show an increase in catecholamine levels from baseline to their midterm.[12]. Multiple regression analyses tested for the effects of gender (male vs. female) on RAT problem-solving performance. Future studies using other measures for assessing chronic stress (e.g., selecting chronically stressed vs. matched control groups) [4] would therefore be useful. Extant empirical research demonstrates that self-affirmations can be beneficial in reducing individuals' stress response as well as their defensiveness toward threats. As noted earlier, previous research suggests that heart rate is a useful indirect marker for task engagement [24], [25]. Affirmations can be defined as statements that we repeat to ourselves to help us shift the way we're thinking to be more positive. In order to manipulate self-affirmation, experimental studies commonly have participants rank-order personal values (e.g., politics, relations with friends/family), and then participants in the self-affirmation condition are asked to respond to questions or complete a short essay on why their #1 ranked value is important (control participants complete a similar activity about why a lower ranked value might be important to someone else) [8]. The list typically includes the following value domains: aesthetic, social, political, religious, economic, and theoretical values. There is thus some fungibility in the sources of self-integrity. - "The Psychology of Selfdefense: SelfAffirmation Theory" Skip to search form Skip to main content Skip to account menu. e62593. As shown in Figure 1, self-affirmation (compared to the control condition) improved the RAT problem solving performance of underperforming high chronic stress individuals, but had a minimal impact on the performance of participants low in chronic stress. Self-affirmed participants had lost more weight, had lower body mass index, and smaller waist circumference than non-affirmed women. Mean arterial blood pressure was collected to measure cardiovascular reactivity to the laboratory challenge task. [3] One study investigated the effects of self-affirmation on reducing cognitive dissonance. Women concerned with their weight were recruited for a study. Culture, dissonance, and self-affirmation. 144 RAT items have been normed for difficulty [17], and pilot testing indicated that our undergraduate sample population can solve all easy RAT items. PLoS ONE, 8(5), e62593, James, G. D., Crews, D. E., & Pearson, J. HdMk0:`;J!F{a]Y][ E6S~W~$o wd'?A8T xlF@$s{" I"_aj/]mzr# ";`!|AB]7zD,-NAdMB%U}KHp[ZRHy'r-38 m '1rzo{J GBLQ;L5ex0#DhSx!XY#!6=Q g==POom;Ky>iuWu:2tY F1'V+Y}@? KhH2Z0$~U`:kZb]m,=o~UCj,M. And why do they persist in maladaptive behavior even when persuasive information or personal experience recommends, Journal of personality and social psychology. When the head protects the heart: Empathic accuracy in dating relationships. Reviewed by Michelle Quirk. Self-affirmation theory suggests that when individuals face threat to one of these domains, they are motivated to maintain a positive global image of themselves. Obesity 15:274860, Logel C, Cohen GL. 0000009348 00000 n We provide an overview of self-afrmation theory and review research in three areas where the theory has yielded impactful self-afrmation interventions: education, health, and interpersonal and intergroup relationships. &O7`RDr^`5`l6VLJ fWH DjD3MA ] "$3)X2H 8?cu b Consistent with our self-affirmation stress buffering hypothesis, these main effects were qualified by a significant chronic stress self-affirmation interaction on RAT problem-solving performance (=.35, t(72)=2.09, p=.041). sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal 375-397). 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. Self-affirmation improves problem-solving under stress. Adapted with permission. The social psychologists Steven Fein and Steven Spencer showed that respondents were less likely to discriminate against a Jewish job candidate if they had previously been provided with a self-affirmation. 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]. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JDC. Eighty undergraduates indicated their perceived chronic stress over the previous month and were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation or control condition. Reducing threat responses to help-seeking information: Influences of self-affirmations and reassuring information. Lannin DG, Vogel DL, Guyll M, Seidman AJ. Despite this evidence, we know little about protective factors for mitigating the deleterious effects of stress on problem-solving. government site. 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). Low and high stress groups (as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale) were determined by median split for visual presentation. Remote Associate items used in the present study. (1999). 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". The .gov means its official. Google Scholar Reed, M.B., & Aspinwall, L.G. 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]. Adapted from an article published by The Berkeley Well-Being Institute. Self-affirmation theory proposes that individuals are driven to protect their self-integrity. Performed the experiments: JMD. Socially Optimized Learning in a Virtual Environment: Reducing Risky S. The present research examines how a motivational process triggered by a, View 6 excerpts, cites background and methods. [g$ ' UR$g qM7[ HD>YoEMLyoV;-E^2/'7 In M. P. Zanna (Ed.) [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. - "The Psychology of Selfdefense: SelfAffirmation Theory" Fig. [3], Studies have examined the effects of self-affirmation on the academic performance of historically marginalized groups such as African American and Latino American students, who face a multitude of daily threats in the school environment. [13] Seventh grade students took part in a two-year study. Outline the benefits of having high self-esteem. Participants were randomly assigned either to the self-affirmation or control condition. The present review addresses this second avenue and the theory that it proceeds from, self-affirmation theory. They know that "busyness" is very different from progress. 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. tefi{'" m 2ZVftYXE?gB To try it, just choose a statement that represents how you want to think. 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. $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= 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]. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 1-7, Heine, S. J., & Lehman, D. R. (1997). The present study builds on previous research showing that self-affirmation has stress protective effects in performance settings [9], [12], [13], [15], providing an initial indication that self-affirmation can buffer the effects of chronic stress on actual problem-solving in performance settings. To test our primary hypotheses, we conducted a multiple regression analysis with condition (self-affirmation vs. control), perceived stress over the last month, and their interaction predicting RAT score. However, there was not a self-affirmation chronic stress interaction on positive affect (=.19, t(69)=1.19, p=.24). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited. I am strong and can overcome challenges that come my way. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions. 38 . 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. Importantly, the changes in heart rate and blood pressure reaffirm that the RAT task was stressful for participants. [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. Notably, we also did not observe a significant self-affirmation condition time interaction (F(2, 67)=.43 p=.65, 2=.01) or a condition time chronic stress interaction (F(2, 67)=1.15 p=.32, 2=.03) (Figure 2), indicating that there were no differential effects of self-affirmation (or the self-affirmation chronic stress interaction) on heart rate. Results from studies provide support for the idea that when individuals complete an activity that affirms their self-integrity they are less defensive and more accepting of information that is potentially threatening. 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). 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, Fig. An absolute gem that seems not to be much talked about, self-affirmation theory gives us both practical approaches to dealing with problems, and a fresh and surprising theoretical viewpoint on various issues in cognitive science. 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). 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]. In social, 1 to many Americans reevaluating the kind of country they thought they lived in. Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories? Engaging in spontaneous self-affirmation was related to greater happiness, hopefulness, optimism, subjective health, and personal health efficacy, and less anger and sadness. In L. Berkowitz (Ed. However, an intervention known as self-affirmation can curb these negative outcomes. 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. Yet, we are often able to look past these threats and still feel good about ourselves. The Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Values Scale[7] is another measures that is administered to participants to induce self-affirmation in the laboratory. [2] Promoting one's values can affirm the individual and reduce the perceived threat. 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). Self-affirmation theory research suggests that defensive resistance, self-serving illusions, intransigence in social dispute, prejudice and stereotyping, stress, illness, and intellectual underperformance can be understood as arising, in part, from threats to self-integrity and the motivation to protect it. 2012. J Pers Soc Psychol. J. David Creswell, Rather, individuals are motivated to maintain global self-integrity, a general perception of their goodness, virtue, and efficacy. [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. San Diego, CA: Academic . Discover a faster, simpler path to publishing in a high-quality journal. Moreover, the self-affirmation chronic stress interaction for the #1 ranked value was not significant (2(8)=3.03, p=.93). We can "self-affirm"or protect our sense of selfby engaging in activities that remind us of who we are. Unable to load your collection due to an error, Unable to load your delegates due to an error. 445 0 obj <> endobj Do messages about health risks threaten the self? Self-affirmation effects on RAT performance in low and high chronically stressed participants. Despite many studies showing that acute and chronic stressors can impair problem-solving [1], [2], [4], we know little about stress management and coping approaches for buffering stress during problem-solving [36]. and transmitted securely. PLoS ONE 8(5): official website and that any information you provide is encrypted