The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory Files: Sherman & Cohen, 2006 David Sherman Psychological & Brain Sciences Life Sciences Computing Group University of California, Santa Barbara Copyright 2021 The Regents of the University of California, All Rights Reserved. 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]. 0000009164 00000 n 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). Specifically, we used a well-known measure of problem-solving and creativity (the Remote Associates Task (RAT)) [17][20] to test three hypotheses. 0000000949 00000 n Site Information Terms of Use Privacy User Login We also conducted an ANCOVA comparing the total number of words written in the affirmation and control essays to determine if self-affirmation participants were more engaged in the writing task and thus wrote longer essays. Because chronic stress is linked to physical illness, this finding also suggests that affirming the self could have positive effects on health outcomes. Human population biology: a transdisciplinary science, 280-95, Sherman, D. K., Bunyan, D. P., Creswell, J. D., & Jaremka, L. M. (2009). 38, pp. The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. For example, if we've just been rejected by a potential romantic partner, we might say the affirmation, "I am worthy of love." Dispositional, unrealistic, and comparative optimism: Differential relations with the knowledge and processing of risk information and beliefs about personal risk. 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. How to Use Self-Affirmations | Psychology Today The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. 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. William M. P. Klein, All descriptive statistics, ANCOVA, and multiple regression analyses were conducted using SPSS 19.0 (IBM, Armonk, New York). Collectively, these findings do not provide support for a differential task engagement explanation of our performance findings. Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, NCI, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America, Affiliation: Bowen NK, Wegmann KM, Webber KC. The present review addresses this second avenue and the theory that it proceeds from, self-affirmation theory. Our experimental manipulation of self-affirmation was dummy coded (self-affirmation=1, control=0). These self-affirmations can involve family, friends, volunteer work, religion, art and music, or other activities that are central to how we see ourselves (Sherman & Cohen, 2006). A series of field experiments demonstrated that a self-affirmation, administered for 15 minutes in the context of students classroom activities, improved African American students end-of-term course grades and thus reduced the racial achievement gap by 40%. Our work suggests that self-affirmation may be a relatively easy-to-use strategy for mitigating stress and improving problem-solving performance in evaluative settings. In order to create performance pressure, the evaluator provided evaluative feedback three times during the 30 RAT trials (I need you to try harder). $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= This stress, in turn, can undermine performance. Janine M. Dutcher, Why do people resist evidence that challenges the validity of longheld beliefs? Like other interventions and experiences, self-affirmations can have lasting benefits when they touch off a cycle of adaptive potential, a positive feedback loop between the self-system and the social system that propagates adaptive outcomes over time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(5), 658-667, "Self-Affirmation Enhances Performance, Makes Us Receptive to Our Mistakes", Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-psychological intervention, Recursive processes in self-affirmation: Intervening to close the minority achievement gap, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Self-affirmation&oldid=1117319559, This page was last edited on 21 October 2022, at 02:24. However, an intervention known as self-affirmation can curb these negative outcomes. Eighty undergraduates indicated their perceived chronic stress over the previous month and were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation or control condition. Outline the benefits of having high self-esteem. After completing the performance task, the evaluator left the room and the experimenter re-entered and indicated that the participant was to rest quietly (5 minute recovery period). A more likely possibility, to be tested by future research, is that self-affirmation facilitates a more open and flexible attentional stance (e.g., [16]), which increases working memory availability [37], [38] for problem-solving in evaluative contexts. 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. [10], For another experiment, undergraduates were recruited to participate in a research study two weeks prior to completing a mid-term exam. */|"kTd+UATl}\saO&LHh4cL"fQfx]uY)^Fr]Ohz0k3q5EDr -Mp~bS &RUuCr[ON96]Qe/jCb^v:iy\mPGhLy+eZ_rsjI+}cPkU$9l#|F[O/fwkrnHJ pm; &&=n>%fP',n2dr8-H-Ai:G]S_{Vnaq"=s>D*5{)FFtzB)78a3XZ'_LINZZc%ES3 g!I-L zbs 5ZGn$ #j4 Careers. However, if their needs for self-integrity are met in another domain, they have less need to resort to negative stereotypes. 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. People view themselves as able to control outcomes that they objectively cannot. 2012. Chapter 3. The Self - Principles of Social Psychology - 1st Researchers have found that previously engaging in child-health-promoting. [8] This allows researchers to see where an individual's personal interests and values lie. . In sum, there was no evidence that self-affirmation condition or chronic stress level affected participants selection of their top-ranked value. Then learning about self-affirmation may be helpful for you. According to self-affirmation theory (C. M. Steele, 1988), people are motivated to maintain the integrity of the self. Feeling chronically stressed produces similar performance impairments. In the first step of the mediation analysis, self-affirmation increased positive affect (as described above). When our self-esteem is threatened, we. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 389-400, Hoshino-Browne, E., Zanna, A. S., Spencer, S. J., & Zanna, M. P. (2004). 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. The Psychology of Selfdefense: SelfAffirmation Theory. When one's integrity is threatened, self-affirmations can minimize the implications of the threat for the self, even when those affirmations are in a domain other than the self-threat (Sherman & Cohen, 2006). Engaging in such actions when facing threat serves to remind individuals of the broad, principal values by which they define themselves and their lives. I deserve time for myself and can attend to my own emotional, physical, and spiritual needs without guilt or apology. All of these "rationalizations" actually help us continue to feel good about ourselves, so they are generally good for our well-being. Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-psychological intervention. [18] Half of the women completed a values essay. When some aspect of this self-view is challenged, people experience psychological discomfort. The social psychologist Tony Greenwald described the self as totalitarian in its ambition to interpret the world in a way congenial to its desires and needs. 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). Examination of how video games can also increase players' willingness to internalize important but threatening self-information suggests that while players who value video game success as part of their identity may reap benefits from video game play after a self-threat, those who do not value such success may experience more harmful effects. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 183-242. 0000008967 00000 n Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. Although self-affirmation condition participants wrote somewhat longer essays on average (M=68.79 words, SD=25.9) than did control condition participants (M=60.34, SD=26.9), this difference was not statistically significant (F(1,72)=1.63, p=.21). APA Dictionary of Psychology 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. 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. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(9), 1046-1058, Koole, S. L., Smeets, K., Van Knippenberg, A., & Dijksterhuis, A. The present research examines how a motivational process triggered by a, View 6 excerpts, cites background and methods. 2013. 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. Bethesda, MD 20894, Web Policies The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self . However, the defensive reaction can impede more adaptive ways to solve the problem (like engaging in problem-solving or changing unhealthy behaviors). Psychological vulnerability and stress: the effects of self-affirmation on sympathetic nervous system responses to naturalistic stressors.
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