The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. Conceived and designed the experiments: JDC JMD WMPK PRH JML. Second, we tested whether self-affirmation improves problem-solving. Thus, the importance of the threatened domain to one's self-integrity is thought to influence the effectiveness of self-affirmations. 183-242. Advances in experimental social psychology, 21, 261-302, Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2007). Why do people resist evidence that challenges the validity of longheld beliefs? The .gov means its official. 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. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar. Socially Optimized Learning in a Virtual Environment: Reducing Risky S. However, it is believed that there is not just one factor responsible for the effects of self-affirmation, but rather many. Self-affirmation theory. Participants were randomly assigned either to the self-affirmation or control condition. 0000003383 00000 n Sherman DK, Cohen GL, Nelson LD, Nussbaum AD, Bunyan DP, Garcia J. J Pers Soc Psychol. Social-psychological research, A key question about achievement motivation is how to maintain it over time and in the face of stress and adversity. Values are aspirations people live in accordance to, including things like living healthfully and treating others with respect. There is thus some fungibility in the sources of self-integrity. 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. 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. [3] To date, increasing positive emotions and self-esteem have been investigated as mechanisms of self-affirmation, but the findings are mixed. Rucker et al. Self-Affirmation Theory The social psychologist Claude Steele proposed self-affirmation theory in 1988. Women concerned with their weight were recruited for a study. Do you struggle to feel sure of yourself? Self-affirmation effects on mean arterial pressure during the baseline, RAT performance, and recovery periods. Unable to load your collection due to an error, Unable to load your delegates due to an error. Steele, C. M. (1988). 0000002163 00000 n 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. Self-integrity is a sense of global efficacy, an . Self-Affirmation Improves Problem-Solving under Stress - PLOS Steele purported that the self is made up of different domains: roles, values, and belief systems. 0000000949 00000 n Contemporary researchers have documented the various adaptations people deploy to maintain self-regard. 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). Rather, individuals are motivated to maintain global self-integrity, a general perception of their goodness, virtue, and efficacy. Education Bookcast. 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]. This self-induced pressure of procrastinating may well boost our previously low levels of motivation. First, we tested whether chronic stress is related to poorer problem-solving performance. Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories? San Diego: Academic. Multiple regression analyses tested for the effects of ethnicity (coded as white vs. all other ethnic groups) on RAT problem-solving performance. Site Information Terms of Use Privacy User Login [4] In order to do this, participants rank a list of values from most important to least important to them. First citation in article Google Scholar. 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]. How people maintain the integrity of the self, especially when it comes under threat, forms the focus of self-afrmation theory (Steele 1988; see also Aronson et al. Preliminary research results suggest that self-affirmation can protect against the negative consequences of stress. Hbd`ad`ddtL) 4ONLN1462 a!CG2bX0v/b`fdH**4204p/,L(QX`hii_Z VVPZZTXZ`dacbd rRR0,E^` rD Experimental manipulations of self-affirmation: A systematic review. Focus on the positive rather than the negative. ISI. 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. Self-affirmation theory asserts that the overall goal of the self-system is to protect an image of its self-integrity, of its moral and adaptive adequacy. The authors found reduced cognitive dissonance for participants from collectivist cultures who wrote about values important to them and their families, and found reduced cognitive dissonance for participants from individualist cultures who wrote about a value important to just them.[22]. Despite this evidence, we know little about protective factors for mitigating the deleterious effects of stress on problem-solving. An official website of the United States government. Rumination is when people cannot stop fixating on a particular thought. Self-affirmation - Wikipedia In the first step of the mediation analysis, self-affirmation increased positive affect (as described above). [3] This change in perspective shifts attention away from the threat in one domain of the self toward a larger context of who they are. 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. Self-affirmation theory also illuminates the way in which prejudice and stereotyping are forms of self-integrity maintenance. Participants were informed that a trained evaluator would administer the performance task.
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