the psychology of self defense: self affirmation theory
After completing individual difference measures, participants were debriefed, compensated, and excused. Threats and afrmations arise from the self's fundamental motive: to be morally and adaptively adequate, good and efcacious. In social Expand 1 PDF View 3 excerpts, cites background Past Perfect (ed): Future Nostalgia and the Fight Against Trump's America in Netflix's Hollywood %PDF-1.5 % ), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. First, we tested whether chronic stress is related to poorer problem-solving performance. National Library of Medicine Psychology Today 2023 Sussex Publishers, LLC. 0000014641 00000 n Instead of having one self-concept (e.g., I am a good parent), self-affirmation theory posits that individuals flexibly define who they are using various roles (e.g., I am a good parent, child, and worker). Steele, CM (1988) The psychology of self-affirmation: . And why do they persist in maladaptive behavior even when persuasive information or personal experience recommends, Journal of personality and social psychology. Experimental manipulations of self-affirmation: A systematic review. In virtually all cultures and historical periods, there are socially shared conceptions of what it means to be a person of self-integrity. Why Do Women Remember More Dreams Than Men Do? This research was approved by the Carnegie Mellon University Institutional Review Board. SQc7?8GY>2&oZ#jtV=nw_,RU4 ZUhV;,Jn$Ne=)V"HvDEI4JsqR4CG&XUItzm7*sTm&+QEyU%-4T>v0U5>mdcm" kI"VD2:q/ puc Evidence That Self-Affirmation Improves Phosphate Control in Hemodialysis Patients: A Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. To test whether there was differential task engagement in the self-affirmation and control conditions using this physiological measure, we conducted a repeated measures ANCOVA to assess change in heart rate over time between conditions (In order to run a parallel ANCOVA analyses as our primary analysis, the heart rate and mean arterial pressure analyses were run with the chronic stress variable entered as a two-level between subjects variable (low vs. high stress), as determined by median split). HUoLg\j10PVb (M]n&eYTu~i&R\u`e-e;={ 2 5 pq B@`:DvTV##s-{JkqHm.w|M6h?! Participants provided written informed consent and then completed an experiment ostensibly about intelligence and performance. 5R01HD055342-04/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States. However, it is believed that there is not just one factor responsible for the effects of self-affirmation, but rather many. When the head protects the heart: Empathic accuracy in dating relationships. Self-affirmed individuals are also more likely to acknowledge their own personal responsibility (and their groups collective responsibility) for defeat. ), Contemporary perspectives on the psychology of attitudes (pp. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 510, Steele, C. M., Spencer, S. J., & Lynch, M. (1993). sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal It is possible that there may have been significant differences in how participants ranked their #1 value across study conditions, which could indicate a failure of randomization. We conducted six studies ( N = 9,110) to explore how shame influences financial hardship by increasing financial disengagement. Future studies using other measures for assessing chronic stress (e.g., selecting chronically stressed vs. matched control groups) [4] would therefore be useful. 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. 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. There was also no interaction between self-affirmation condition and chronic stress level on number of words written (F(1,72)=1.30, p=.26). Similarly, values affirmation decreased the achievement gap for college students from low socioeconomic status[16] and for women in introductory physics courses. 10 Empowering Self-Affirmations for the Family Caregiver. This stress, in turn, can undermine performance. [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. 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. Do people tell you that you lack confidence? Concern with weight has similar effects of stress in that it can cause psychological distress, poor eating, and weight gain. The present review addresses this second avenue and the theory that it proceeds from, self-affirmation theory. Careers. PLoS ONE 8(5): Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, NCI, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America, Affiliation: Future studies should therefore experimentally test whether social evaluation is a necessary condition for self-affirmation problem-solving effects. Psychological Science, 16(11), 846-851, Creswell, J. D., Dutcher, J. M., Klein, W. M., Harris, P. R., & Levine, J. M. (2013). 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]. 0000002498 00000 n 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). 0000008176 00000 n Self-affirmation theory (SAT; Sherman & Cohen, 2006) is a socialpsychological theory that can inform this topic. And why do they persist in maladaptive behavior even when persuasive information or personal experience recommends, Journal of personality and social psychology. Performed the experiments: JMD. In M. P. Zanna, (Ed. We excluded seven participants who did not follow instructions (N=5) or who did not rate academic performance as important to them (N=2). endstream endobj 224 0 obj << /Type /Encoding /Differences [ 1 /uni2010 ] >> endobj 225 0 obj << /Type /FontDescriptor /Ascent 0 /CapHeight 0 /Descent 0 /Flags 32 /FontBBox [ -187 -208 1135 760 ] /FontName /IJNKHK+AdvP40650 /ItalicAngle 0 /StemV 0 /CharSet (/V/Y) /FontFile3 235 0 R >> endobj 226 0 obj << /Length 2729 /Filter /FlateDecode >> stream [1][3] Defensive reactions attempt to minimize the threat in order to preserve the sense of self. Self-Affirmation Theory. This second analysis revealed that positive affect was not a significant predictor of RAT performance when it was entered as a simultaneous predictor variable with the self-affirmation condition variable (=.07, t(71)=.54, p=.59). When this image of self-integrity is threatened, people respond in such a way as to restore self-worth. 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]. 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. 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. 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). Prior to completing the Trier Social Stress Task, half of the participants completed a variation of values list self-affirmation task. Examples of defensive reactions include denial, avoiding the threat, and changing one's appraisal of the event in order to make it less threatening. */|"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 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. Self-affirmation theory examines how people maintain self-integrity when this perception of the self is threatened. 0000014002 00000 n 0000002796 00000 n Adapted with permission. Focus on the positive rather than the negative. 0000008967 00000 n yZzxcg3gsT"#-US5$~(9*,H,M-F/&~AnQ"W ARnv$t1;;P=7e*b@S{aSjqQAY5dM3M9y2CL#+j,UntSxp ~' TA9MPWaIWu^~}N/4mJi[=Q9'o}m>`]C9f Moreover, the self-affirmation chronic stress interaction for the #1 ranked value was not significant (2(8)=3.03, p=.93). Self-affirmation theory posits that the goal of the self is to protect one's self-image when threatened and that one way to do this is through affirmation of valued . Self-affirmation theory is a psychological theory that focuses on how individuals adapt to information or experiences that are threatening to their self-concept. Epub 2011 Nov 14. Self-affirmation theory also illuminates the way in which prejudice and stereotyping are forms of self-integrity maintenance. John M. Levine, Affiliation: Following the self-affirmation writing task, as a manipulation check, participants were asked to respond to two items assessing how important the value they wrote about was, using a 6-point response scale (1=Strongly Disagree to 6=Strongly Agree). Events that threaten self-integrity arouse stress and self-protective defenses that can hamper performance and growth. 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. Creswell, J. D., Welch, W., Taylor, S. E., Sherman, D. K., Gruenewald, T., & Mann, T. (2005). An official website of the United States government. The present review highlights both connections with other disciplines and lessons for a social psychological understanding of intervention and change. (1997). 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. For example, Liston and colleagues found that participants who reported high levels of stress over the previous month demonstrated impaired attention-shifting performance compared to participants who reported low levels of stress [4], [5]. Second, we tested whether self-affirmation improves problem-solving. ), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. The present study provides the first evidence that self-affirmation can protect against the deleterious effects of stress on problem-solving performance. 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. The social psychologist Daniel Gilbert and his colleagues have suggested that people have a psychological immune system that initiates psychological adaptations to threats to self-regard. We thus selected 30 challenging RAT items ranging in difficulty from moderately to extremely difficult (the items are available in Table S1). The postulate that people are motivated to maintain self-integrity rests at the center of self-affirmation theory (Steele 1988; see also Sherman & Cohen 2006). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. It is thought that affirming an important value unrelated to the threat helps individuals to shift their perspective to their broader life context. 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). [2] Promoting one's values can affirm the individual and reduce the perceived threat. Why do people resist evidence that challenges the validity of longheld beliefs? | Moreover, as depicted in Figure 1, this stress buffering effect of self-affirmation improved the problem-solving performance of high stress individuals to a level comparable to individuals low in stress. 183-242. In M. P. Zanna (Ed. Or does negative feedback rattle your sense of self or well-being? Google Scholar Reed, M.B., & Aspinwall, L.G. Science 330:123437, Haines J, Neumark-Sztainer D, Wall M, Story M. 2007. Prior to completing the problem-solving puzzles half of the participants completed a values essay self-affirmation task. Dispositional, unrealistic, and comparative optimism: Differential relations with the knowledge and processing of risk information and beliefs about personal risk. Several prominent self-theories in social psychology emphasize either the self-as-object or the self-as-subject. Having self-integrity means that one perceives oneself as living up to a culturally specified conception of goodness, virtue, and agency. The site is secure. 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. Some studies have found that positive mood brings about similar reductions in defensiveness as self-affirmations. 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. In L. Berkowitz (Ed. The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory D.D. 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). Epub 2018 Oct 15. The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. In this paper, we update the field on research conducted using self-affirmation theory as a framework. The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychological intervention. In both cases, they rated 11 values (i.e., art, business, friends/family) in order of personal importance. and transmitted securely. In the first step of the mediation analysis, self-affirmation increased positive affect (as described above). The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. 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). Bookshelf 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. McQueen, A., & Klein, W. M. (2006). 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). 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. 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. [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. [13] Seventh grade students took part in a two-year study. People view themselves as able to control outcomes that they objectively cannot. Disclaimer. Self-affirmation interventions typically have people write about core personal values. 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. Multiple regression analyses tested for the effects of gender (male vs. female) on RAT problem-solving performance. 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. HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. Engaging in spontaneous self-affirmation was related to greater happiness, hopefulness, optimism, subjective health, and personal health efficacy, and less anger and sadness. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.) Funding: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #924387 and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse Opportunity Fund. In order to create performance pressure, the evaluator provided evaluative feedback three times during the 30 RAT trials (I need you to try harder). [3] For example, in the experiment detailed above in which coffee drinkers read an article about caffeine consumption and increased risk of breast cancer, self-affirmation only reduced defensiveness in individuals who were heavy coffee drinkers and not in occasional coffee drinkers. Half of the students completed a values essay about their most important value approximately seven to eight times over the course of two academic years, while the other half wrote a values essay about why their least important value might be of value to someone else. 480 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<84EB8E7460E00C4F7DB1E7A100F88209>]/Index[445 79]/Info 444 0 R/Length 149/Prev 655244/Root 446 0 R/Size 524/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream 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%. Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2006). 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). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(6), 885, Fein, S., & Spencer, S. J. (1998). Thousand Oakes: Sage Publications. Rumination is when people cannot stop fixating on a particular thought. For example, when people were given the opportunity to express the importance of a cherished personal value (for example, when science students were allowed to don a white lab coat, or when people who valued aesthetics were allowed to assert their love of art), these individuals did not defensively change their attitudes to make them concordant with their behavior. Chronic threat and contingent belonging: protective benefits of values affirmation on identity development. Extant empirical research demonstrates that self-affirmations can be beneficial in reducing individuals' stress response as well as their defensiveness toward threats. (2002). Panel A depicts the results for participants low in chronic stress, and Panel B depicts the results for participants high in chronic stress, as determined by median split. These examples show how we try to maintain our self-esteem when its broken down. They were given 12 seconds to provide an answer verbally. tefi{'" m 2ZVftYXE?gB The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. A one-way ANCOVA confirmed that the self-affirmation group (M=22.97, SD=1.38) rated the value as significantly more important than did the control group (M=15.13, SD=3.69), F(1, 71)=142.6, p<.001, 2=.671, indicating success of the value-affirmation manipulation. Self-Affirmation Theory The social psychologist Claude Steele proposed self-affirmation theory in 1988. The Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Values Scale[7] is another measures that is administered to participants to induce self-affirmation in the laboratory. Researchers propose that this is because we have a psychological protection systema system that involves a variety of automatic, defensive mental strategies that protect our self-esteem from plummeting in the face of threats (Sherman & Cohen, 2006). 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. The role of the self in physical health. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar. When self-integrity is threatened, according to self-affirmation theory, people need not defensively rationalize or distort reality. [4] In order to do this, participants rank a list of values from most important to least important to them. Self-affirmation theory. %%EOF Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(9), 1046-1058, Koole, S. L., Smeets, K., Van Knippenberg, A., & Dijksterhuis, A. Self-affirmed participants had lost more weight, had lower body mass index, and smaller waist circumference than non-affirmed women. [5] More research is needed to understand how self-affirmations decrease stress responses. In her article on the stereotype inoculation model, Nilanjana Dasgupta (this issue) makes a powerful case that numbers shape the psychology of women and minorities in fields related to science, A persistent puzzle emerges from a review of the psychological research literature on how people defend the self from potentially threatening information and events: People can be adamantly, Smith, J. Allegra (B. According to self-affirmation theory (C. M. Steele, 1988), people are motivated to maintain the integrity of the self. Peter R. Harris, #1 Ranked Value selected by participants according to self-affirmation condition and chronic stress level (as determined by median split). x2j "6g7U{;"$cdZ99@PpKq}h1m'Wa'2XVm8]Z Yk 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]. We also assessed the impact of our self-affirmation manipulation on mean arterial blood pressure responses during the RAT problem-solving period. Janine M. Dutcher, Importantly, there was no main effect for either self-affirmation condition (2(8)=6.36, p=.61) or chronic stress level (2(8)=6.50, p=.59) on the #1 ranked value. Accessibility $bE!,jS]5m1b//NiFp?r4yE3f doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115137. Then, say it to yourself using these guidelines: Finding ways to maintain our self-worth is a worthwhile endeavor. Explore findings indicating diversity in self-esteem in relation to culture, gender, and age. 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. They then completed 30 difficult remote associate problem-solving items under time pressure in front of an evaluator. Building on previous research showing that self-affirmation can buffer stress, we tested whether an experimental manipulation of self-affirmation improves problem-solving performance in chronically stressed participants. Human population biology: a transdisciplinary science, 280-95, Sherman, D. K., Bunyan, D. P., Creswell, J. D., & Jaremka, L. M. (2009). Timely affirmations have been shown to improve education, health, and relationship outcomes, with benefits that sometimes persist for months and years. These findings have important implications for self-affirmation research and educational interventions. However, more research is needed to better understand why people are more open-minded after they have completed an affirmation task. FOIA Crossref. and catalysts to change. Consistent with previous studies [28], approximately 50% of participants selected Relations with Friends and Family as their #1 ranked value. 0000003708 00000 n 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". 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. Instead, they can reestablish self-integrity through affirmations of alternative domains of self-worth unrelated to the provoking threat. Simpson J. Choose the statements that are most meaningful to you.. Journal of Education Psychology 105:42735, Miyake A, Kost-Smith LE, Finkelstein ND, Pollock SJ, Cohen GL, Ito TA. As shown in Table 4 and noted above, approximately half the self-affirmation condition participants wrote about relations with friends and family, whereas control condition participants wrote about a heterogeneous set of values. 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]. In her article on the stereotype inoculation model, Nilanjana Dasgupta (this issue) makes a powerful case that numbers shape the psychology of women and minorities in fields related to science, A persistent puzzle emerges from a review of the psychological research literature on how people defend the self from potentially threatening information and events: People can be adamantly, Smith, J. Allegra (B. - "The Psychology of Selfdefense: SelfAffirmation Theory" Skip to search form Skip to main content Skip to account menu. As noted earlier, previous research suggests that heart rate is a useful indirect marker for task engagement [24], [25]. 375-397). official website and that any information you provide is encrypted self-affirmation theory. It is also worth noting that word count was not correlated with RAT problem-solving performance (r=.14, p=.23), and including word count as a covariate did not appreciably change our primary problem-solving results (word count was not further pursued as a variable of interest). 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].
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