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Self-Affirmations Provide a Broader Perspective on Self-Threat
Abstract
We present an "affirmation as perspective" model of how self-affirmations alleviate threat and defensiveness. Self-threats dominate the working self-concept, leading to a constricted self disproportionately influenced by the threat. Self-affirmations expand the size of the working self-concept, offering a broader perspective in which the threat appears more narrow and self-worth realigns with broader dispositional self-views (Experiment 1). Self-affirmed participants, relative to those not affirmed, indicated that threatened self-aspects were less all-defining of the self (although just as important), and this broader perspective on the threat mediated self-affirmation's reduction of defensiveness (Experiment 2). Finally, having participants complete a simple perspective exercise, which offered a broader perspective on the self without prompting affirmational thinking (Experiment 3a), reduced defensiveness in a manner equivalent to and redundant with a standard self-affirmation manipulation (Experiment 3b). The present model offers a unifying account for a wide variety of seemingly unrelated findings and mysteries in the self-affirmation literature.
... A final strategy, although relatively rare, is to broaden perspective (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Crocker et al., 2008;Lindsay & Creswell, 2014). Experiencing a threat can narrow one's perspective to focus on mitigating the threat. ...
... Self-affirmation enables one to "zoom out" and take a broader view (Sherman et al., 2013). For example, Critcher and Dunning (2015) had college students rate a list of values then visually represent the importance of their highest value, lowest value, and student identity (the threatened identity) to their sense of self. This perspective-taking exercise and a standard values affirmation similarly reduced defensiveness relative to a control. ...
... d Self-activation is induced by having participants circle all instances of the letter "i" in a paragraph. ened self-perspective mediates the effect of affirmation on defensiveness (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). Self-esteem indicates broad and stable self-assessment, while narrow self-assessment is related to domain-specific competence or coherence (e.g., health). ...
Objectives:
Self-affirmation approaches for health behaviour demonstrate consistent small to medium effects on message acceptance, health intentions and behaviour change. There are several forms of self-affirmation (e.g., values affirmations, implementation intentions), but few empirical comparisons to guide selection in empirical work. Further, there has been little emphasis on the putative mechanisms of self-affirmation driving behaviour change. The current investigation compared a control and four self-affirmation approaches: values, social, implementation intention, and perspective taking.
Methods:
Participants were recruited through CloudResearch (N = 666) and reported baseline sun exposure and protection behaviour at Time 1. One week later (Time 2), returning participants (N = 535) were randomly assigned to condition, viewed a message conveying risks of sun exposure, and reported sun exposure and protection intentions for the next week. Follow-up one week later (Time 3; N = 449) assessed past week sun exposure (i.e., number of days spent outside during peak hours), sun protection behaviour (e.g., sunscreen use), future sun exposure and protection intentions and engagement with resources conveying further health information (i.e., viewing infographics, following links to websites with more information). The association of putative mechanisms with self-affirmation conditions and health outcomes was also examined.
Results:
Unexpectedly, there were few differences between self-affirmation conditions and the control on intentions, information seeking, or behaviour at follow-up. At follow-up, perspective circle participants reported fewer days spent outside, spent longer viewing infographics, and, along with social values participants, followed more weblinks seeking information than control participants. The putative mechanisms were unrelated to health outcomes.
Conclusions:
The current investigation was a first step in comparing novel online self-affirmation approaches and had largely null findings. Results suggest that the perspective circle performed best at promoting information seeking and, to some extent, behaviour change. Suggestions for future directions are discussed.
... (2) provoking sources that hurt self-concepts evoke threatening cognitions (i.e., rumination, Critcher & Dunning, 2015), which prompt individuals to reaffirm their core values and engage in proactive actions to restore such a sense of adequacy; and (3) individuals who hold stronger self-concepts are more prone to self-affirmation, because the importance of the threats looms larger (Cohen & Sherman, 2014;McQueen & Klein, 2006). Accordingly, as shown in Figure 1, we propose that ideological contract breach ignites a selfaffirmation process by first giving rise to rumination over the breached ideology, motivating cognitive self-affirmation, which subsequently elicits two types of behaviors that reaffirm the ideology: proactive serving behavior (i.e., taking the initiative to serve the beneficiaries of the ideology) and self-improvement behavior (i.e., improving professional skills to advance the ideology). ...
... That is, rumination may prompt constructive selfregulation to eliminate such psychological discomfort (Brunstein & Gollwitzer, 1996;Martin et al., 2004). For example, rumination instigated by a threat to self-concept propels individuals to stop it by affirming important aspects of the self initially challenged by the threat (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). Research has shown that ruminative thinking about events may be "part of the process of attempting to resolve the discrepancy between stressful events and core beliefs and assumptions" (Greenberg, 1995;Horowitz, 1985;Watkins, 2008, p. 164) and "a way to search for meaning and purpose" (Gabriel et al., 2021(Gabriel et al., , p. 1520. ...
... The original proposition by Steele (1988) and more recent advocacy by other scholars (Emanuel et al., 2018;McGregor et al., 2001;Sivanathan & Pettit, 2010;Taber, 2016) hold that individuals may spontaneously respond to threats to self-concepts with self-affirmation of core values and principles. Critcher and Dunning (2015) have further theorized that provoking stressors instigate rumination on the threatened identity before the self-affirmation motive is activated. These important conceptual notions have rarely been empirically examined. ...
Transactional and relational contract breach occur when organizations fail to deliver on promised personal benefits for employees and are associated with negative behaviors reciprocating such mistreatment. However, recent research suggests that ideological contract breach, a unique form of contract breach, may yield constructive behaviors because it is not organizations’ direct personal mistreatment of employees, but organizations’ abandonment of a valued cause to benefit a third party. Such an interesting prediction goes beyond the dominant social‐exchange framework, which mainly forecasts destructive responses to breach. In this research, we develop a novel self‐affirmation model to explain how ideological contract breach results in counterintuitive positive outcomes. In a hospital field study among medical professionals (N = 362) and their supervisors (N = 129), we found that ideological contract breach induces employees’ rumination about the breach, which in turn prompts them to self‐affirm core values at work. This self‐affirmation eventually spurs proactive serving behavior and self‐improvement behavior to compensate for the breached ideology. Professional identification enhances this self‐affirmation process. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
... Guilt induced in the environmental ad could lead consumers to feel their moral self-concept is threatened (Furukawa et al. 2021). In general, when people feel their moral self-concept is threatened, they engage in two different self-related motivations: they become motivated to restore the damaged self-concept (Sachdeva, Iliev, and Medin 2009) or to defend/affirm their positive self-concept (Critcher and Dunning 2015). The activation of different self-related motivations may depend on whether the person engaged in a past moral deed-in other words, having a previously bolstered moral self-concept or not. ...
... However, when consumers have already established a high moral self-concept, they are more likely to defend that positive self-concept (Critcher and Dunning 2015) by reminding themselves of their past moral deeds and considering themselves as "a morally good person" (Della Giusta, Jewell, and McCloy 2012;Khan and Dhar 2006;Merritt, Effron, and Monin 2010). In this respect, consumers may perceive the immoral behavior directed in the green ad as incongruent with their past moral behaviors. ...
... In particular, fewer participants with past moral behaviors chose the green detergent over the conventional detergent when they were exposed to a recycling ad that evoked guilt. These findings suggest that guilt induced in the ad prompted participants to defend their positive moral self-concept by reminding themselves of their previous moral deeds (Critcher and Dunning 2015) and self-justifying that they are not obligated to purchase a green product (Merritt, Effron, and Monin 2010). These results are consistent with previous findings of moral licensing behaviors (Blanken, van de Ven, and Zeelenberg 2015;Longoni, Gollwitzer, and Oettingen 2014;Mazar and Zhong 2010;Miller and Effron 2010). ...
An online experiment was conducted to examine a past moral deed’s influence on consumers’ response to guilt appeals in environmental advertising. The findings suggested that a guilt appeal ad increased irritation when participants engaged previously in a moral deed. Further, the results indicate that the perceived irritation mediated the interaction between past moral behaviors (i.e., previously engaged versus not engaged) and green message types (i.e., a guilt appeal versus a nonguilt appeal) and attitude toward the green advertisement and the message’s credibility. The results demonstrate that participants who performed a prior moral deed chose conventional detergent over an eco-friendly detergent when they were exposed to a guilt appeal that promoted recycling. However, no moral licensing behaviors were observed among participants in the nonguilt appeal ad. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed further.
... The core prediction in this theory is that self-affirmation broadens people's overall view of themselves and can reduce the impact of negative emotions on an individual due to external factors (Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Łakuta, 2020;Sherman, 2013). According to self-affirmation theory, if a domain that defines the self is threatened, the threat can be compensated for by identifying other values that are also considered important (Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Sherman & Cohen, 2006). This process of broadening the self-concept allows individuals to gain resilience against the threats that they confront (e.g., receiving health risk messages, being criticized by a teacher, or being excluded from a social gathering) (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Layous et al., 2017;Sherman, 2013). ...
... According to self-affirmation theory, if a domain that defines the self is threatened, the threat can be compensated for by identifying other values that are also considered important (Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Sherman & Cohen, 2006). This process of broadening the self-concept allows individuals to gain resilience against the threats that they confront (e.g., receiving health risk messages, being criticized by a teacher, or being excluded from a social gathering) (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Layous et al., 2017;Sherman, 2013). ...
... For now, much research has investigated the relationships between self-affirmation and individuals' strategies of dealing with risk messages or criticism in the context of face-toface situations (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Layous et al., 2017;Sherman, 2013). Although evidence of such a relationship in CMC has not been examined enough, self-affirmation in CMC may be even more promising for reducing or preventing individuals' negative emotions from criticism, taking into account that encountering criticism online can be more hurtful than doing so offline (Allen, 2012;DeClerck & Holtzman, 2018). ...
The online environment for video conferencing lacks cues compared to offline, so one can hear the interlocutor's criticism more sensitively, and the fear of presenting in front of the camera can hinder participation in the meeting. It is known that interface design affords a role in improving public speaking and has a possibility of changing user behavior. To examine how the interface design of video conferencing affects video debating participation, 2 (visual anonymity: avatar vs. face) Â 2 (self-affirmation vs. no self-affirmation) between-subjects experiment was conducted. Results showed that using an avatar, when properly used together with self-affirmation, has a positive effect on active participation in discussions, but derogating others' critical messages. These results indicate unique underlying mechanisms of the effects of the avatar; the deindividua-tion effect of visual anonymity, and the effects of improving participation when customizing self-value reflected avatars.
... Going back to the theoretical model (3), self-esteem indeed may affect how people respond to self-affirming cognitions because self-affirmation changes the accessibility of alternative, positive identities rather than boosts, inflates, or repairs dispositional self-esteem [c.f. (1,4,5)]. Therefore, although tentative, the results suggest that self-affirmations (though positive) could backfire for the very people who as assumed need them the most. ...
... Considering other possible explanations the role of awareness in the process of self-affirmation has to be noted. Researchers have argued that a heightened awareness of an act of self-affirmation in the face of self-evaluative threat could lead people to link the affirmation to the threatened domain rather than broadening their perspective on the threat (4,60). If people perceive that they are engaged in an emotion regulation task and/or a stress-reduction exercise, they may be more aware of their stressors and negative self-views rather than their self-resources, personal values, or important relationships that should be made salient by the act of self-affirmation. ...
... The strengths of this study also include using a control group matched to the target condition. 4 Notably, the study has sufficient (assumed) statistical power, which cannot explain the non-significant (main) results, 5 though it would be the easiest way of explanation. Moreover, the adopted statistical approach (i.e., LMM) enabled the use of all data of each participant in parameter estimation and significance testing, so that the main analyses were performed using the data of all randomized participants, producing more reliable estimates [c.f. ...
This study builds on growing evidence on implementation-intention-based self-affirmation intervention effects on mental health. Using a factorial design, this pre-registered study aimed to further investigate whether (1) strengthening the element of specificity within body-related self-affirming implementation intention (BS-AII) intervention compared to general self-affirming implementation intention (S-AII) would provide greater improvements in mental health outcomes for adults with psoriasis, and (2) whether the addition of a booster component would result in enhancing effectiveness at follow-up. A total of 306 adults with psoriasis were assessed for eligibility and 222 (aged 18–71 years) were randomized and received S-AII, BS-AII, or MGI (mere goal intention—control condition). Within each group, participants were again randomized to booster (B) or no-booster condition in a 3 × 2 factorial design, resulting in six groups: S-AII; S-AII + B; BS-AII; BS-AII + B; MGI; and MGI + B. Data were collected over three-time points, at baseline, 2 weeks post-intervention, and at 1-month later. Three primary outcomes were defined as a reduction of anxiety and depressive symptoms and enhancement of well-being. In terms of secondary outcomes, positive other- and self-directed feelings and also an emotional attitude toward the body were evaluated. To fully estimate intervention effects through intention-to-treat analysis, linear mixed models were used. A significant effect of time was observed, but no evidence of time-by-group interactions and no three-way interactions were detected. Exploratory analyses revealed two significant moderating effects of age and self-esteem, pointing to boundary conditions of the interventions. These findings offer to gain deeper insights on null (or negative) effects also reported in past works and highlight that self-affirmation interventions should be more thoroughly investigated and optimized before they can be broadly implemented in real-life contexts, especially to prevent backfiring and negative-enhancing effects.
... Self-affirming personally important domains makes an individual reflect on such things as personally important values and principles, strengths and attributes, or social relationships, providing a broader perspective on one's self (and also on possible strategies and activities). Critcher and Dunning (2015) suggested that when an individual experiences a threat to an important aspect of self-conception/image, a threatened identity dominates the working self-concept, thereby providing a narrow perspective on the self with an accompanying depressed sense of worth. Self-affirming, as presumed, injects into the working self-concept compensating sources of self-evaluation, reminding people that the threatened domain is not all that defines the self. ...
... resourceful, honest, and a good partner/worker) active to help break a constricted self and dampen the evaluative impact of the threat, self-worth may restore with much broader dispositional self-views (cf. Critcher & Dunning, 2015). ...
... To date, positive effects of self-affirmations have been shown for a variety of contexts that are relevant for mental health and well-being (for a review, see Howell, 2017). Several studies have found that affirming core values upon threat broadens the perceived bases of self-worth (Critcher & Dunning, 2015), reduces anxiety, helps people to deal with stressful situations (Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Morgan & Atkin, 2016;Morgan & Harris, 2015;Sherman, 2013), and also increases self-directed (Lindsay & Creswell, 2014) and other-directed positive feelings, suggesting the mediating mechanisms of self-affirmation effects on mental well-being by positive affect (Crocker et al., 2008;Thomaes et al., 2012). However, there still is sparse evidence on such effects in individuals dealing with chronic conditions. ...
Effective antiretroviral treatment has increased the life expectancy of people living with HIV, and currently, the challenges of prominent importance appear to be mental health issues. This preregistered study among adults living with HIV/AIDS investigated the effectiveness of a brief self‐affirmation intervention framed in terms of if–then plans (i.e. self‐affirming implementation intentions [S‐AII]) against both active and non‐active control conditions, forming non‐affirming implementation intentions and mere goal intentions, respectively. The primary outcomes were defined as a reduction of depressive symptoms and enhancement of well‐being, along with secondary outcomes as positive other‐ and self‐directed feelings. A total of 162 individuals were assessed for eligibility, and 130 (aged 18–74 years) were randomized to the study conditions. Intervention effects were estimated through intention‐to‐treat analysis, using linear mixed models. The S‐AII intervention yielded improvements in overall well‐being over 2 weeks (d = .23), primarily driven by positive changes in emotional (d = .24) and social (d = .30) dimensions of well‐being. There were no significant differences in depression or secondary outcomes. Based on a minimal clinically important difference index, the S‐AII intervention resulted in improvement in well‐being in approximately 40 percent of participants. Nevertheless, further systematic research is needed to optimize self‐affirmation‐interventions, before their application in real‐life contexts.
... And, here is what self-affirmation can offer. According to the perspective model of self-affirmation effects (Critcher & Dunning, 2015), whereas selfthreats can constrict the self-concept to focus on threatened aspects, affirmations restore a broader perspective on the self; which as a result blunting the impact of a constricted self that was disproportionately influenced by the threat, thereby permitting a person to draw on its broader dispositional resources. In a series of elegant experiments, Critcher and Dunning (2015) gave support to the notion that affirming self does not result in inflated selfworth, but expands self-concept in battle by recognizing additional identities in the self (e.g. ...
... According to the perspective model of self-affirmation effects (Critcher & Dunning, 2015), whereas selfthreats can constrict the self-concept to focus on threatened aspects, affirmations restore a broader perspective on the self; which as a result blunting the impact of a constricted self that was disproportionately influenced by the threat, thereby permitting a person to draw on its broader dispositional resources. In a series of elegant experiments, Critcher and Dunning (2015) gave support to the notion that affirming self does not result in inflated selfworth, but expands self-concept in battle by recognizing additional identities in the self (e.g. resourceful, efficacious, honest, a good partner/son/daughter, etc.). ...
... Besides primary outcomes, the study tested secondary effects of the intervention in terms of positive prosocial-and selfdirected feelings, and emotional attitude toward the body. Moreover, given that under threat, the size of the working selfconcept is constricted and that the effect can be undermined through self-affirmation that restores a broader view on the self, enabling to draw on extensive dispositional resources and to promote defocusing and adopting broader perspective (Critcher & Dunning, 2015); it seems valuable to examine potential cognitive processes that may reflect those effects. This study evaluated whether self-affirmations alter thought (cognitive) processes in terms of cognitive emotion regulation strategies, e.g. ...
Background:
There are relatively few studies to address mental health implications of self-affirming, especially across groups experiencing a chronic health condition. In this study, short- and longer-term effects of a brief self-affirmation intervention framed in terms of implementation intentions (if-then plans with self-affirming cognitions; S-AII) were evaluated against an active control group (non-affirming implementation intentions; N-AII), matched to the target condition, and mere goal intention condition (a non-active control) in adults with psoriasis. The three pre-registered primary outcomes captured depression, anxiety, and well-being.
Methods:
Adults with psoriasis (N = 175; Mage = 36.53, S.D. = 11.52) were randomized into S-AII, N-AII, or control. Participants' mental health outcomes were assessed prior to randomization (at baseline), at week 2 (post-intervention), and at a 1-month follow-up.
Results:
Linear mixed models were used and results were reported on the intention-to-treat principle. Analyses revealed that S-AII exerted significantly more improvement in the course of well-being (ds > 0.25), depressive symptoms (ds > −0.40), and anxiety (ds > −0.45) than the N-AII and control group at 2-week post-intervention. Though the differences between groups faded at 1-month follow-up, the within-group changes over time for S-AII in all mental health outcomes remained significant.
Conclusions:
Brief and low-intensity S-AII intervention exerted in the short-term a considerable impact on mental health outcomes. The S-AII shows promising results as a relevant public mental health strategy for enhancing well-being and reducing psychological distress. Future studies could consider whether these effects can be further enhanced with booster interventions.
... Research suggests that self-affirmation empowers individuals to face the challenges posed by external and internal agents. It promotes self-worth, resilience, and positive health behaviors (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Epton et al., 2015;Pandey, Tiwari, & Rai, 2020a). Self-affirmation reduces inappropriate defensiveness and stress (Cook et al., 2012;Schmeichel & Martens, 2005). ...
... It also enhances global self-esteem and adequacy by catalyzing positive feelings of self-worth after failure experiences. Additionally, self-affirmation reduces defensiveness in the face of personal threats which helps to maintain the right perspective of the threatening situations and bolsters strong feelings of adequacy (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;MCQueen & Klein, 2006). Self-affirmation also counteracts the negative effects of lowered self-control by indulging individuals in adaptive behaviors (Schmeichel & Vohs, 2009). ...
Objective: The study attempts to understand the effectiveness of the self-affirmation intervention for subclinical depression in Indian adults.
Methods: An experimental research design was employed. Using purposive sampling, 80 participants with subclinical depression were chosen who were randomly allocated equally to the experimental (intervention) and control (non-intervention) conditions. Their depression was measured at three-time points: pre- and post-interventions and follow-up. We hypothesize that the self-affirmation intervention will show curative and preventive capacity for subclinical depression. Data were analyzed using 3-way ANOVA.
Results: The results revealed the significant curative power of the self-affirmation intervention for subclinical depression of the participants of the experimental condition, when compared to the control condition. The main effects of conditions (intervention: control and experimental) and treatment intervals (pre-, post-, and follow-up) as well as their interaction effect were significant. Mean subclinical depression scores during pre- and post-interventions and post-intervention and follow-up intervals confirmed the curative and prophylactic power of the intervention.
Conclusion: The study findings indicated that the affirmation-based intervention carries both curative and preventive powers for subclinical depression, as reflected in the experimental group’s lower performance after the intervention and follow-up. The reverberating positive effects induced after self-affirmation manipulation might have remained active even after the intervention ended because of the underlying mechanisms of meaning, strengths, positive attributions, and beneficial social relationships that inhibit the relapse of subclinical depressive tendencies.
... BIS-activating threats also heighten belligerent defenses (Jonas et al., 2014) and so some research has focused on whether self-transcendent focus effects on magnanimity might arise from muted BIS-activation. Value-focus does reduce several BIS-linked phenomena, including anxious distress, ruminative preoccupation, and defensive avoidance of self-threatening information (Alquist et al., 2018;Creswell et al., 2005;Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Crowell et al., 2015;Finley, Crowell, & Schmeichel, 2018;Koole, Smeets, Van Knippenberg, & Dijksterhuis, 1999;McGregor, 2006a;McGregor et al., 2001;Schmeichel & Vohs, 2009;Sherman et al., 2013;Sherman, Bunyan, Creswell, & Jaremka, 2009;Simon, Greenberg, & Brehm, 1995). It has also improved cardiovascular recovery after threatening interpersonal evaluations (Tang & Schmeichel, 2015) and lowered amygdala reactivity to threatening health messages (especially among people with trait-tendencies oriented toward self-transcendentvalues; Kang et al., 2017). ...
... Future research should assess patterns of BAS activation and BIS-linked distress over time, as serial mediators. Future research should also test whether other meaning-andtranscendence-related interventions might produce similar effects (e.g., integrity, virtue, inspiration, ideals, morality, prosocial intentions, love, belongingness, broadened perspective, significance, sanctification, religious devotion, and other forms of spirituality or eudaimonic motivation; Costin & Vignoles, 2020;Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Crocker et al., 2008;Grant, 2012;Hernandez, Mahoney, & Pargament, 2011;Kang et al., 2018;McGregor & Little, 1998;McGregor et al., 2012;Nelson, Fuller, Choi, & Lyubomirsky, 2014;Park, 2005;Thrash, Elliot, Maruskin, & Cassidy, 2010;Walton & Cohen, 2011;Yeager et al., 2014). ...
Fidelity with self-transcendent values is hailed as a hallmark of mature and magnanimous character by classic psychological and philosophical theories. Dozens of contemporary experiments inspired by self-affirmation theory have also found that when people are under threat, focus on self-transcendent values can confer magnanimity by improving psychological buoyancy (less anxious and more courageous, determined, and effective) and decreasing belligerence (less defensive, extreme, and hostile). The present research was guided by the postulate that both aspects of magnanimity—its buoyancy and its freedom from belligerence—arise from the approach motivated states that self-transcendent foci can inspire. Experimental manipulations of self-transcendent foci (values, spirituality, compassion) heightened state approach motivation as assessed by electroencephalography (Study 1, n = 187) and self-report (Study 2, n = 490). Further, even though the heightened approach motivation was transient, it mediated a longer-lasting freedom from moral (Study 1) and religious (Study 2) belligerence. Importantly, self-transcendent-focus effects on approach motivation and belligerence occurred only among participants with high trait meaning search scores. Results support an interpretation of meaningful values and spiritual ideals as self-transcendent priorities that operate according to basic motivational mechanics of abstract-goal pursuit. The transient, approach-motivated state aroused by transcendence-focus causes longer lasting relief from preoccupation with threat, leaving people feeling buoyant and generous. Relevance of results for self-affirmation theory and the psychology of spirituality are discussed.
... Self-affirmation paradigms usually seek to encourage people to self-affirm by elaborating on personally important self-aspects, such as values, attributes, or positive traits. As such, self-affirmation essentially involves activating parts of the self (see Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Harris et al., 2019). Therefore, there is a strong resemblance between our research and selfaffirmation, as both imply making parts of self-concept accessible for them to be employed in protecting the self against identity threats. ...
... Therefore, it seems reasonable to suspect that self-affirmation processes and those explored in the current research have much in common. As suggested by some (Critcher & Dunning, 2015), it may be that the strengths of self-affirmation manipulations derive from increased activation of alternative identities. Perhaps the mere activation of a single important alternative identity, with no opportunity or encouragement to reflect upon it-as was the case in the research designs reported here-is sufficient for self-affirmation effects to occur. ...
A host of studies have shown that self‐relevant health messages may result in increased defensiveness and rejection of protective recommendations. Drawing on research showing that multiple identities offer psychological resources to deal with identity threats, we sought to examine whether the salience of an alternative identity before people are exposed to a personally relevant health message may buffer the threat and reduce defensive responses. Two studies were conducted on samples of daily smokers asked to read an antismoking message before completing a range of measures of defensiveness. Half of the participants had an alternative identity made salient beforehand (vs. no salience condition). Consistent with our hypotheses, Study 1 (N = 90) showed that this manipulation significantly reduced defensiveness to the message. Study 2 (N = 95) additionally showed that such effects only occurred when the alternative identity overlapped highly with the threatened identity. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
... Second, those who affirm personal values are better able to view the potential threats that accompany performance pressure in light of other valued aspects of the self, reducing the urge to respond defensively (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). People have several facets to their overall sense of self (e.g., roles, identities, goals, relationships, values;Sherman & Cohen, 2006). ...
... When one faces a threat to a particular facet, this part of their self dominates their working self-concept and consumes disproportionate attention (Staw et al., 1981). A personal values affirmation counteracts the impulse to respond defensively to threat because it broadens the contents of the working self-concept (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). In the case of performance pressure, broader perspective makes the aspect of the self that is under pressure feel less focal and potential failures in that domain less impactful. ...
Pressure to perform is ubiquitous in organizations. Although performance pressure produces beneficial outcomes, it can also encourage cheating behavior. However, removing performance pressure altogether to reduce cheating is not only impractical but also eliminates pressure's benefits. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to test an intervention to counteract some of the most harmful effects of performance pressure. Specifically, I integrate the self-protection model of workplace cheating (Mitchell et al., 2018) with self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988) to demonstrate the utility of a personal values affirmation intervention to short-circuit the direct and indirect effects of performance pressure on cheating through anger and self-serving cognitions. Two experiments were used to test these predictions. In a lab experiment, when people affirmed core personal values, the effect of performance pressure on cheating was neutralized; as was pressure's direct effect on anger and indirect effect on cheating via anger. A field experiment replicated the intervention's ability to mitigate performance pressure's direct effect on anger and indirect effect on cheating through anger. Altogether, this work provides a useful approach for combating the harmful effects of performance pressure and offers several theoretical and practical implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... In addition to outcomes such as depressive symptomatology, positive self-affirmations are an important component of a holistic understanding of mental health (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Sherman & Cohen, 2006;Steele, 1988). Positive self-affirmations often include outcomes such as self-worth and self-esteem. ...
... Data was collected on participants' self-reported feelings of self-worth to create a Self-Worth score. The score was created using the Feelings of Self-Worth Measure, where the mean of 14 items was computed to generate a self-worth mean index, ranging from 1 to 9 (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). Participants were asked to indicate the degree to which they agree with a series of statements, such as, "Overall, I feel positively towards myself right now," "I feel very much like a person of worth," "I feel inferior at this moment." ...
Introduction
Online dating is widespread among young adults, and particularly young sexual minority men. Racialized sexual discrimination (RSD), also known as “sexual racism,” is frequently reported to occur within these digital spaces and may negatively impact the psychological wellbeing of young sexual minority Black men (YSMBM). However, the association between RSD and psychological wellbeing is not well understood.
Methods
Using data (collected between July 2017–January 2018) from a cross-sectional web-survey of YSMBM (N = 603), six multivariable regression models were estimated to examine the association between five RSD subscales and depressive symptoms and feelings of self-worth. RSD subscales were derived from the first preliminarily validated scale of sexual racism.
Results
Analyses revealed that White superiority (β = .10, p < .01), same-race rejection (β = .16, p < .001), and White physical objectification (β = .14, p < .01) were all significantly associated with higher depressive symptoms, and White physical objectification (β = -.11, p < .01) was significantly associated with lower feelings of self-worth.
Conclusions
This study is among the first to examine the relationship between multiple, distinct manifestations of RSD and depressive symptoms and self-worth using quantitative analyses and provides evidence that RSD is negatively associated with psychological wellbeing.
Policy Implications
Site administrators should institute robust anti-racism policies on their platforms and hold users accountable for discriminatory behavior. Activists may also consider forming coalitions and/or developing campaigns to bring about greater awareness of RSD, in an effort to influence site administrators to enact policy change.
... Research on self-affirmation typically seeks to induce heightened states of self-affirmation by drawing attention to a personally highly ranked value and recalling one or two occasions in life where that value was demonstrated (McQueen & Klein, 2006). Highlighting experiences in which personal behavior is congruent with an important value is thought to help strengthen the self-concept (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). ...
... One possibility already discussed is that self-affirmation prevents the working memory of an individual who perceives threat from being consumed with preoccupations related to that threat, thereby allowing for more effective deployment of working memory and functioning in the moment. Critcher and Dunning (2015) found that self-affirmation has its effect by maintaining a larger working self-concept, so that the current threat being experienced is only a part of the working self-concept, not the whole or nearly the whole of it. As noted by Cohen and Sherman (2014), it is likely that there is more than one mechanism, and that the key mechanisms may interact or change depending on the type of threat being faced. ...
Introduction: Persons with social anxiety disorder (SAD) often experience social interactions as threatening and commonly avoid them or perform poorly in them (Asher et al., 2017). Self-affirmation is an intervention shown to help individuals engage effectively in situations they perceive as threatening (Sherman & Hartson, 2011). We hypothesized that self-affirmation would allow socially anxious individuals to participate in more social activities, do so more effectively, and with less stress and anxiety. Methods: Following completion of baseline measures, 75 socially anxious university students were randomly assigned to complete a self-affirming or control writing task. They subsequently completed the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G), and received SAD psychoeducation designed to promote social engagement over the coming month, after which they were reassessed on baseline measures of social anxiety. Results Self-affirmation demonstrated no benefit at the time of engagement in the TSST-G. However, at follow-up, self-affirmed students reported significantly less discomfort, anxiety, and distress related to a variety of social behaviors as well as more engagement in those behaviors, relative to baseline, compared with non-affirmed students. Moreover, significantly more affirmed than non-affirmed participants reported clinically significant reductions in symptoms of SAD at follow-up. Discussion These results help to broaden our conceptualization of self-affirmation and provide support for its potential utility in treatment for those with SAD.
... While not directly targeting feelings of belonging, these exercises contribute to reducing the negative impact of stressful experiences on outcomes like academic performance and sensitivity to potentially upsetting health information [50]. C. R. Critcher's & D. Dunning's research highlights that a central component of standard self-affirmation exercises involves recalling memories of close personal relationships [51]. Consequently, affirmation practices focused specifically on themes of belonging (known as affirmation and belonging) may offer greater benefits in overcoming challenges compared to traditional affirmation exercises, as they more explicitly emphasise social connections. ...
Introduction. The research demonstrates that the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Inventory (MEI2) is an effective tool for assessing various aspects of ethnic identification among Indonesian secondary school students from diverse ethnocultural backgrounds. Aim . The aim of this study is to examine the impact of ethnic identity on the psychological well-being of secondary school students in Indonesia, utilising the MEI2 questionnaire. Methodology and research methods . The study involved 276 secondary school students (60.1% female; 39.9% male). Data were analysed using the SPSS software version 29 and SmartPLS v4. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was utilised to evaluate how well the measurement model fits the data. Results and scientific novelty. The CFA validated the MEI2, with the goodness-of-fit index indicating that the model was both efficient and appropriate. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was .885. Consistency reliability measured by Cronbach’s alpha (α), ranged from .69 to .85, and composite reliability, assessed by McDonald’s (ω), ranged from .64 to .83. Discriminant validity was observed with a range from .591 to .696. Consequently, significant positive correlations were identified among the three domains of ethnic identity. Practical significance . The study supports the MEI2 as a valid instrument for assessing ethnic identity among Indonesian secondary school students. It also assists educators in recognising and addressing the diverse ethnic identities of students within the context of Indonesian culture.
... They are able to silence the self-doubt and limiting beliefs that often creep in during difficult times and replace them with self-assuredness and a positive outlook. Furthermore, self-affirmation broadens adolescents' conception of self, rendering specific threats less dire (Critcher & Dunning, 2015) and less likely to destabilize psychological functioning (Binning et al., 2021). This growth pillar is not just about self-praise; it's also about nurturing a genuine belief in oneself. ...
Live Big offers workshops, professional development, and flexible curriculum designed to empower adolescents in grades 4-12. Live Big programs weave together a broad range of methodologies and research in the areas of nervous system regulation, somatics (mind-body connection), internal parts work, various psychotherapy modalities, behavior change, and mindfulness. This document provides ESSA Evidence for Tier/Level IV, that the program "Demonstrates a Rationale" for improving student outcomes.
... Values affirmation occurs when, by reflecting or acting upon a core personal value, a person bolsters or restores their sense of being an adequate, morally worthy person . This can help make important psychological and social resources salient to them and thereby alter the meaning that identity-threatened students ascribe to their experience of school, putting stereotype threat into perspective and dampening its negative effects (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Walton & Wilson, 2018). However, studies of values affirmation in schools have shown a wide variation in the extent to which it increases the educational attainment of identity-threatened students. ...
Background: An earlier study in a school in England found that a series of brief values affirmation writing exercises, performed over the course of a school year by students aged 11–14, increased the mathematics attainment of students of low socioeconomic status (SES).
Aims: This pre-registered follow-up of the original study aims to investigate the long-term effects of values affirmation on low-SES students’ attainment.
Sample: The sample consisted of all students in the analytical sample of the original study who remained at the school and for whom the necessary data were available, N = 409 (95 low-SES).
Methods: The students’ results in high-stakes national standardised assessments at age 16, taken two to four years after the affirmation, were analysed.
Results: The evidence did not support the pre-registered hypotheses that values affirmation would raise the attainment of low-SES students in mathematics and English. However, exploratory analyses suggested that for low-SES students in two of the three year groups, the intervention increased Attainment 8, a broad policy-relevant measure of academic attainment, and increased the attainment of boys in English (in particular English Literature) but reduced the corresponding attainment of girls.
Conclusions: The results suggest that the benefits of values affirmation can differ by student cohort and by school subject, and that they might be time-limited in some circumstances. This suggests a set of hypotheses that future research could test in order to advance understanding of when values affirmation is, and is not, successful for school students over a sustained period.
... Previous empirical studies also suggest that by aligning actions with valued life domains, individuals may experience a sense of authenticity, which can foster self-insight (Sedikides et al., 2017). Furthermore, when individuals act in ways that affirm their valued life domains, they may be more receptive to self-insight and selfreflection, as their sense of self-integrity is reinforced (Critcher and Dunning, 2015). Overall, by acting in ways that are congruent with one's deeply held values, individuals may experience greater self-awareness, self-knowledge, and a deeper understanding of their true selves. ...
Introduction
The present study expands the existing knowledge base regarding positive psychology interventions (PPIs), by employing an integrative approach to explore the potential benefits of translating values into action.
Methods
Participants (n = 476) were randomly assigned to the Activating Values intervention, the affirmation-only, or the control (no treatment) group. The intervention involved participants choosing a life area they valued, affirming its importance, identifying a specific action related to that valued area, and then planning and carrying out that chosen action within the following week. Data was collected at baseline and three follow-up points: one, two, and three weeks after the intervention.
Results
Results suggest that the intervention contributes to the participants’ well-being, including increased self-insight, sense of coherence, and prioritizing meaning, and decreased symptoms of psychopathology. Exploratory content analyses provide a deeper understanding of the content and frequency of activities chosen and the enabling conditions.
Discussion
The discussion explores the findings within this intersection as well as ramifications for brief, scalable interventions to support and promote well-being.
... Regarding interventions in educational settings, for more than a decade, experimental studies have attempted to examine the effects of self-affirmation, particularly in minority and stigmatized groups. For example, strategies such as expressive writing have been used to promote identity self-affirmation in a diverse sociocultural classroom population with improved academic achievement and well-being, while observing greater effectiveness in groups where psychological threats are intense and imminent [7,8,10,17,24,25,[27][28][29][30][31]. ...
School and university can be stressful contexts that can become an important source of identity threats when social prejudices or stereotypes come into play. Self-affirmation interventions are key strategies for mitigating the negative consequences of identity threat. This meta-analysis aims to provide an overview of the effectiveness of self-affirmation interventions in educational settings. A peer-reviewed article search was conducted in January 2023. A total of 144 experimental studies that tested the effect of self-affirmation interventions in educational contexts among high school and university students from different social and cultural backgrounds were considered. The average effect of self-affirmation interventions was of low magnitude (dIG+ = 0.41, z = 16.01, p < 0.00), with a 95% confidence interval whose values tended to lie between 0.36 and 0.45 (SE = 0.0253). In addition, moderators such as identity threat, participants’ age, and intervention procedure were found. Through a meta-analysis of the impact of self-affirmation interventions in educational contexts, this study suggests that interventions are effective, resulting in a small mean effect size. Thus, self-affirmation interventions can be considered useful, brief, and inexpensive strategies to improve general well-being and performance in educational settings.
... Hearing (from family, friend, employer) that one drinks heavily implies that one is willfully engaging in selfharmful or irrational actions (Armitage et al., 2011;Harris & Napper, 2005;Klein et al., 2011). This threat leads to a "narrowing" of the threatened person's attention (Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Critcher et al., 2010;Sherman & Cohen, 2006;Łakuta, 2022); that is, the threat becomes the primary focus to the exclusion of other aspects of the self (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Sherman et al., 2013). Threats to identity occur when an aspect of identity is devalued, such as being discriminated against for one's race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation (Cohen & Garcia, 2005;Sherman et al., 2013). ...
Annually, alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use are responsible for the 11.8 million deaths worldwide, exceeding the number of deaths from all cancers ( Ritchie & Roser, 2018 ). Motivational Interviewing (MI), a person-centered addiction counseling approach ( Miller & Rollnick, 2013 ), is designed for those with low motivation to change. MI is presumed to minimize client defensiveness by avoiding confrontation. Culturally adapting evidence-based treatments such as MI may reduce alcohol-related health disparities among Latinx adults. A completed randomized trial tested the relative efficacy of Culturally Adapted Motivational Interview (CAMI) compared to MI in Latinx drinkers. CAMI had beneficial alcohol use effects among persons who reported high discrimination and stigma ( Lee et al., 2019 ). Self-Affirmation Theory, which provides a mechanism where stigma effects can be buffered, was integrated into the CAMI. Augmenting affirmation in the CAMI is postulated to lower defensiveness and increase openness to information that pose a threat to self-image ( Sherman & Cohen, 2006 ). The purpose of this case example is to present the novel features of CAMI and to suggest how affirmation may have played in the CAMI’s beneficial effects for individuals with high discrimination. The case example illustrates how the CAMI addresses three conditions for self-affirmation associated with strongest effects on motivating behavior change ( Ferrer & Cohen, 2019 ): the presence of psychological threat, timing and availability of resources.
... This result lends support to the possibility that one of the underlying mechanisms is an expanded sense of self-worth, because an elevation in self-esteem can occur quickly. Moreover, another explanation for improved performance after an intervention-that the student learned new information before an examination-would not be possible, owing to a lack of time for this learning to occur 28,30,75 Arguably, VA is likely to broaden students' sense of self, stimulating a feeling of integrity and pride across expanded domains that may otherwise be constricted by stereotype threat. Put differently, engaging in VA likely reminds people that stereotype threat is not all that defines the self, which then minimizes the effect of the threat. ...
Values-affirmation (VA) exercises, which direct people’s attention to aspects of their lives that they value and broaden their sense of self, have been shown to improve performance in many populations, particularly those who worry that doing poorly will feed into negative stereotypes of the ethnic or other social groups they belong to. Most studies of VA have examined its benefits in highly literate, economically stable, Englis-speaking populations and have used written exercises. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of a visual VA exercise in an understudied population: marginalized Arabic-speaking students (mostly Syrians) living in a context (Lebanon) affected by conflict. Before taking final exams for a program to improve basic Arabic and English literacy skills and math proficiency, the participants, ages 14–24 years, made a drawing that represented a value important to them. This visual VA exercise improved performance on the Arabic test, particularly among the Syrians, suggesting that, at least for the Arabic test, it reduced anxiety related to
stereotyping, allowing students to relax enough to demonstrate their true ability. If replicated, our findings would suggest that schools could use such exercises to improve the value of test scores for guiding decisions about next steps in the education of marginalized students in a context affected by conflict.
... In standard values affirmation procedures, people identify their most important values from a list and then write about why those values are important to them. Doing so bolsters a sense of personal adequacy or "self-integrity" by broadening their perceived sources of self-worth beyond the immediately threatening situation (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). ...
Within psychology, efforts to address racial-ethnic disparities in students’ academic outcomes have focused primarily on students themselves. But there is another important person in classrooms: the teacher. In the United States, most racial-ethnically minoritized students are taught by White teachers. Drawing on research on cross-race interactions, we argue that for White teachers—especially those new to the profession—this dynamic is likely to elicit psychological threat, which then undermines their relationships with students, their well-being, and their effectiveness as an instructor. We hypothesized that values affirmation, a technique to mitigate threat and stress, could improve these outcomes. We randomly assigned White public school teachers (N = 109) at schools serving predominantly minoritized students to complete a values affirmation exercise or a matched control exercise in the fall of their first year of teaching. Five months later, affirmed teachers reported greater well-being and better teacher–student relationships than their control counterparts, and their classrooms were rated as more rigorous and more supportive of students’ academic growth by trained observers.
... At the individual level, self-affirmation is a useful strategy to buffer people from social evaluative threat. Self-affirmation allows individuals to expand their working self-concept via reminders of other self-attributes (Critcher & Dunning, 2014;Steele, 1988), social identities (Rydell, McConnell, & Beilock, 2009), and values (Miyake et al., 2010) that are important to the self. Affirming the self reduces defensiveness, increases people's receptiveness to threatening information (Sherman & Cohen, 2006;Sherman, Nelson, & Steele, 2000), and activates positive, other-directed feelings, such as love and connection, which prompts individuals to transcend the self and self-esteem concerns (Crocker, Niiya, & Mischkowski, 2008). ...
Social psychologists have long been interested in studying the effects of threat on physiology, affect, cognition, and behavior. However, researchers have traditionally examined threat at the level of individuals, relationships, or groups, rather than studying commonalities that exist across these levels. In this chapter, we propose that social evaluative threat – the real, imagined, or potential experience of being negatively evaluated – can occur at the level of the individual self, as a relational partner, or as a group member. Individual, relational, and collective selves are not always distinct entities, but are flexible and can overlap with one another. Across these levels, individuals differ in the degree to which they perceive and respond to social evaluative threat, depending on their psychological distance from the threat and expectations and motivation to detect threat. When people perceive a threat to any of these levels, they respond by engaging in behaviors reflecting approach or avoidance motivation. Overall, our model encourages researchers to assess key moderators of threat, examine threats at different levels of the self, and consider how experiences of threat at one level may impact other levels. By highlighting the flexibility of the self, researchers can test interventions that change threat cues in the environment, attenuate perceptions of threat, or help people cope with threat.
... It highlights the notion that when people feel they are not constrained to one identity, but rather are seen as a person with multiple values, identities, and relationships, this feeling of breadth has a range of benefits. First, it makes students more resilient to academic challenges by making those challenges less threatening to a student's overall integrity as a capable person (see Critcher & Dunning, 2015). When seen as only a student, a failure to learn material could reflect inadequacies as a student, and thus (with a narrow construal of the self), as a person in general. ...
The contributed papers in this special issue each provide valuable perspectives on how social processes are relevant to academic motivation. Yet a critical question remains: How can this research lead to concrete guidance for educators who wish to create motivating and equitable classrooms? We propose this complex task can be simplified by encouraging educators to address students’ concerns about how they are viewed by instructors in school. Our review of the literature suggests that two meta-concerns are particularly important to address for students from groups marginalized in education: whether instructors may (1) see them as limited in academic potential and (2) narrowly define them by their academic success. We argue that effective teaching practices address these concerns by communicating two corresponding messages: (1) inclusive expectations, “I recognize your potential for academic growth” and (2) broad regard, “I regard you as a whole person, with a range of personal values, social identities, and relationships.” These messages can shift students away from a “narrow” sense of self, in which their value is defined by current academic performance, and towards an “expansive” sense of self, in which students feel both academically capable and valued for more than just their academic success. We present evidence that novice instructors can use this framework to develop or adapt practices that are attuned to marginalized students’ two meta-concerns and enhance student motivation and engagement. Throughout this commentary, we describe how this framework can build on the important theoretical advances presented elsewhere in this special issue.
... Although it may appear paradoxical that unethical behavior could ultimately protect an individual's self-worth, our results suggest that deception may offer benefits similar to those provided by other established self-protection processes, such as self-affirmation (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). ...
This article investigates if and how negotiators' self‐efficacy beliefs affect their use of deception in negotiation. Specifically, we propose that self‐efficacy can be interpreted as a threat to self‐concept, which encourages individuals to temporarily bypass self‐regulatory obstacles by morally disengaging their cognitive moral filters, thereby enabling them to use deception in negotiation. We test our hypotheses in three independent experimental studies involving an interactive negotiation simulation, totalizing 460 participants. We find that negotiators with low self‐efficacy regarding their negotiation abilities are more likely to use deception than those with high self‐efficacy beliefs. Furthermore, we find that moral disengagement mediates the effects of self‐efficacy on deception. Our findings suggest that self‐efficacy plays a key role in shaping negotiators' ethical behaviors and we identify the psychological mechanism underlying this relationship.
... Im Sinne der Selbstbestätigungstheorie kann es sich jedoch bewusstmachen, dass es die beste Stürmerin in der Fußballmannschaft ist und dass seine Familie immer zu ihm steht. Personen entwickeln somit unter Zuhilfenahme selbstbestätigender Interventionen ein eher ganzheitliches Verständnis des eigenen Selbst, das sich über verschiedene Aspekte der persönlichen Identität, wie Interessen und Werte, aber auch die Mitgliedschaft in sozialen Gruppen definiert und mit diesen identifiziert(Critcher & Dunning, 2014). Dadurch gewinnen Menschen auch ein anderes Verständnis vom Stressor. ...
Die Entwicklung der persönlichen, sozialen und ethnisch-kulturellen Identität stellt eine zentrale Entwicklungsaufgabe im Jugendalter dar. Insbesondere für Schüler*innen aus sozial und ethnisch-kulturell unterrepräsentierten oder marginalisierten Gruppen gestaltet sich dieser Entwicklungsprozess zwischen Erwartungen von Lehrer*innen, Mitschüler*innen und persönlichen Vorstellungen sowie dem Umgang mit Vielfalt in Schul- und Klassenkontext als zunehmend komplex. Dies kann mit einem erhöhten Belastungserleben und verminderten Schulleistungen durch Stereotype und Diskriminierung einhergehen. Entwicklungs- und sozialpsychologisch fundierte Ansätze bieten eine Möglichkeit, diesen Herausforderungen zu begegnen und das Belastungserleben zu reduzieren sowie Lernmotivation, Lernleistungen und Wohlbefinden zu steigern. Die dargestellten Interventionen heben dabei die Stabilisierung eines wachstumsorientierten Intelligenzkonzepts, die Fokussierung auf intrinsisch motivierende Werte und die Reflexion gesellschaftlich vorhandener Stereotype und Vorurteile auf die Stärkung persönlicher oder gruppenbezogener Identitätsanteile, das Wohlbefinden und die Lernmotivation hervor. Zudem werden Anforderungen, Gelingensbedingungen, Gemeinsamkeiten und Schnittstellen der Interventionen als identitätsschützende und -fördernde Anwendungen im Schulkontext diskutiert.
... Although self-affirmation generally occurs outside of an interpersonal context, it may provide some of the same benefits or operate via some of the same mechanisms as psychological safety. As with psychological safety, self-affirmation is hypothesized to bolster one's sense of inherent worth (Steele, 1988), reduce defensive responding (Sherman & Cohen, 2006), and broaden one's view on the topic under discussion (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). It is possible that receiving psychological safety in an interaction affirms one's inherent social value. ...
Interpersonal contexts can be complex because they can involve two or more people who are interdependent, each of whom is pursuing both individual and shared goals. Interactions consist of individual and joint behaviors that evolve dynamically over time. Interactions are likely to affect people’s attitudes because the interpersonal context gives conversation partners a great deal of opportunity to intentionally or unintentionally influence each other. However, despite the importance of attitudes and attitude change in interpersonal interactions, this topic remains understudied. To shed light on the importance of this topic. We briefly review the features of interpersonal contexts and build a case that understanding people’s sense of psychological safety is key to understanding interpersonal influences on people’s attitudes. Specifically, feeling psychologically safe can make individuals more open-minded, increase reflective introspection, and decrease defensive processing. Psychological safety impacts how individuals think, make sense of their social world, and process attitude-relevant information. These processes can result in attitude change, even without any attempt at persuasion. We review the literature on interpersonal threats, receiving psychological safety, providing psychological safety, and interpersonal dynamics. We then detail the shortcomings of current approaches, highlight unanswered questions, and suggest avenues for future research that can contribute in developing this field.
... Although self-affirmation generally occurs outside of an interpersonal context, it may provide some of the same benefits or operate via some of the same mechanisms as psychological safety. As with psychological safety, self-affirmation is hypothesized to bolster one's sense of inherent worth (Steele, 1988), reduce defensive responding (Sherman & Cohen, 2006), and broaden one's view on the topic under discussion (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). It is possible that receiving psychological safety in an interaction affirms one's inherent social value. ...
Interpersonal contexts can be complex since they can involve two or more people who are interdependent, each of whom is pursuing both individual and shared goals. Interactions consist of individual and joint behaviors that evolve dynamically over time. Interactions are likely to affect people’s attitudes because the interpersonal context gives the conversation partners a great deal of opportunity to intentionally or unintentionally influence each other. However, despite the importance of attitudes and attitude change in interpersonal interactions, this topic remains understudied. We briefly review the features of interpersonal contexts and build the case that understanding people’s sense of psychological safety is key to understanding interpersonal influences on people’s attitudes. Specifically, feeling psychologically safe can make individuals more open-minded, increase reflective introspection, and decrease defensive processing. Psychological safety impacts how individuals think, make sense of their social world, and process attitude-relevant information. These processes can result in attitude change, even without any attempt at persuasion. We review the literature on interpersonal threats, receiving psychological safety, providing psychological safety, and interpersonal dynamics. We then detail the shortcomings of current approaches, highlight the unanswered questions, and suggest avenues for future research that can contribute to developing this field.
... There have been many types of experimental inductions of self-affirmation, although most of these inductions invite participants to focus on values or positive characteristics that are separate to the domain under threat (see McQueen & Klein, 2006). By attending to positive aspects of the self when a separate self-domain is challenged, individuals are presumed to broaden their working self-concept and uphold a global sense of self-integrity (Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Sherman & Cohen, 2006). Self-affirmations have been shown to be related to two high-order, or umbrella, concepts of wellbeinghedonia and eudaimonia (Emanuel et al., 2018;Nelson et al., 2014). ...
Self‐affirmations—responding to self‐threatening information by reflecting on positive values or strengths—help to realign working self‐concept and may support adaptive coping and wellbeing. Little research has been undertaken on spontaneous self‐affirmations in response to everyday threats, and less has been undertaken on the relationships between spontaneous self‐affirmations, coping, and wellbeing. This study aimed to test both within‐ and between‐person relationships between spontaneous self‐affirmations, coping, and wellbeing, controlling for threat intensity and other outcomes. A repeated survey assessment design was adopted to achieve these aims. Outcome measures included approach coping, avoidance coping, positive affect, negative affect, and eudaimonic wellbeing. It was found that spontaneous self‐affirmations positively predicted approach coping and positive affect at both within‐ and between‐person levels, and eudaimonic wellbeing at the between‐person level. Overall, spontaneous self‐affirmations were positively associated with approach coping and aspects of wellbeing. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Although our protocol differs in scope from the standard selfaffirmation procedure-the latter is based on abstract personal values, whereas responsiveness refers to specific relationships and interactions-the underlying mechanisms appear to include common elements. Critcher and Dunning (2015) found that self-affirmations alleviate distress and defensiveness by broadening people's perspectives so that their self-assessments are less firmly tethered to momentary experiences of threat. We repeated their experiment using the same responsiveness inductions as in the prior two studies, and obtained the same result: Perceived responsiveness led participants to adopt a broader perspective, but perceived unresponsiveness fostered a more narrow focus. ...
Extensive research has documented people’s desire for social partners who are responsive to their needs and preferences, and that when they perceive that others have been responsive, they and their relationships typically thrive. For these reasons, perceived partner responsiveness is well-positioned as a core organizing theme for the study of sociability in general, and close relationships in particular. Research has less often addressed the downstream consequences of perceived partner responsiveness for cognitive and affective processes. This gap in research is important, because relationships provide a central focus and theme for many, if not most, of the behaviors studied by social psychologists. This chapter begins with an overview of the construct of perceived partner responsiveness and its centrality for relationships. We then review programs of research demonstrating how perceived partner responsiveness influences three core social-psychological processes: self-enhancing social cognitions, attitude structure, and emotion regulation. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of how deeper incorporation of relationship processes can enhance the informativeness and completeness of social psychological theories.
... Self-affirmation interventions prompt the individual to consider and affirm aspects of self that enhance self-integrity. When faced with a stereotype threat, the self-affirmation intervention restores self-integrity by extending the domains of self-concept beyond the threatened domain (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). The act of self-affirmation is shown to lower levels of self-protecting behaviors, reduce defensiveness in processing self-relevant information, reduce physiological stress responses, and improve academic performance (Klein et al., 2011;Schmader & Johns, 2003). ...
Disparity exists between racially minoritized students and their White student counterparts in academic achievement. This discrepancy engenders the difference with which students will have opportunities in advanced courses; rates of high school graduation, college acceptance, and completion rates; and salary and quality of life. The academic disparity between the two groups has been found to have roots in stereotype threat, which causes anxiety where the individual’s behavior may confirm the negative stereotypes of one’s in-group. Reducing stereotype threat has been theorized to allow minoritized students and those in negatively stereotyped groups to enhance their academic performance by removing levels of anxiety hampering their performance. Following previous work, whereby the academic achievement gap between Black and White middle school students were reduced, this study examines the effectiveness of such an intervention on 4th grade, elementary students’ reading achievement levels.
... The typical finding is that value affirmation serves to allay the threat, allowing people to behave less defensively. Critcher and Dunning's (2015) interpretation of selfaffirmation effects is especially useful for casting this research into the present framework. I view value affirmation as a way of priming either an identity theme, a selfview, or both, along with providing the opportunity to recruit or create supportive narratives. ...
Self-protection and self-enhancement, once depicted as biases that impede accurate self-knowledge and hinder effective environmental control, have more recently been viewed as misbeliefs that can have fortuitous, adaptive consequences. I take the next step forward by construing identity protection and enhancement mechanisms as part of a routine, adaptive system. Whereas biological homeostasis regulates physiological processes, psychological homeostasis regulates the emotional states that threaten a desired identity. Ι elaborate on the nature of psychological homeostasis, the identity system that it modulates, and the immune system that safeguards it from harm. Ι discuss the construction of self-views and narratives in the ordinary stream of mental activity, as well as reparative responses to contemporaneous threats, similar to the immune system’s response to microbes that breach the body’s initial defenses. Using basic immunological principles, Ι distinguish between innate and adaptive psychological immunity, compare the spread of disease to that of threatening information among related self-views and narratives, and consider the “memories” of the biological and psychological immune systems to redress future threats. In addition, Ι offer a set of propositions that include predictions about various aspects of immunity, and end by considering the roles of awareness and self-deception in the immunity process.
... For example, a student might identify "relationships with family" as a core value and then write about why that value is important to her. By thinking about "what really matters to me," people broaden their self-concept (Critcher & Dunning, 2015) and a specific threat they face becomes less destabilizing to their overall conception of personal worth. Research suggests that values affirmations promote the belonging and performance of people under psychological threat, such as ethnic minority students contending with stereotype threat (e.g., G. L. Cohen et al., 2009;Goyer et al., 2017;Sherman et al., 2013). ...
Access to college for students from low-income families is disproportionately low because of many factors. A targeted intervention that addresses social psychological factors is introduced in the present paper. It is hypothesized that the steps needed to go to college-applying for college and applying for financial aid-can be blocked by both psychological and behavioral friction. The psychological friction arises from the threats to self-integrity that low-income students experience when considering attending college. Behavioral friction takes the form of institutional and bureaucratic barriers that students must overcome to apply to college and for financial aid. Two interventions are tested separately and in combination to address these dual barriers. A self-affirmation intervention in which students wrote about important values aimed to alleviate threats to self-integrity; and a behavioral ladder intervention that provided a series of timely reminders or "nudges" and accompanying strategies to students through a mobile application (app) at key decision points along the college admissions process addressed behavioral friction. Students who received the behavioral ladder made further progress along the college admission pipeline based on official records, an effect that was apparent only in the affirmation condition. These results illustrate the efficacy of combining "wise" interventions to address discrete barriers, the importance of tailoring and timing intervention content to key points of friction, and the potential of mobile technology to facilitate both objectives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... There are several mechanisms explaining the intervention's effectiveness in improving Black students' identities. The intervention expands Black students' self-concepts by prompting them to focus on valued aspects of their identities beyond the stereotyped domain (Critcher & Dunning, 2015), which in turn reduces attention to and saliency of the troublemaker identity. With less attention diverted to the harm imposed by the troublemaker identity, Black students' sense of school belonging increases, which tempers feelings of marginalization (Shnabel et al., 2013). ...
Nationally, educators suspend Black students at greater rates than any other group. This disproportionality is fueled by stereotypes casting Black students as “troublemakers”—a label students too often internalize as part of their identities. Across two independent double-blind randomized field trials involving over 2,000 seventh graders in 11 middle schools, we tested the efficacy of a brief intervention to buffer students from stereotypes and mitigate the racial suspension gap. The self-affirmation intervention helps students access positive aspects of their identities less associated with troublemaking in school. Confirmed in both trials, treatment effects cut Black-White suspension and office disciplinary referral gaps during seventh and eighth grade by approximately two thirds, with even greater impacts for Black students with prior infractions.
Drawing upon the Cycle of Adaptive Potential model from Self-Affirmation Theory, this autoethnographic study analyzed how a sense of accomplishment and social connection could foster a self-affirming identity through tasks—particularly through the practice of writing—and thereby be effective in managing obsessive-compulsive thoughts. The primary data consisted of notes compiled by the author over the last 2 years, documenting his experiences with obsessive-compulsive thoughts and the process of overcoming them. A thematic analysis was conducted on the data to identify recurring patterns and themes. The findings of the study suggested that if a task could elicit feelings of accomplishment and social contribution, individuals with obsessive-compulsive thoughts might sustain engagement with the task, thereby facilitating the subsequent development of self-affirmation. This process could lead to the establishment of a self-affirming identity, potentially overshadowing the obsessive-compulsive disorder identity.
Purpose
Because of an increase in consumer awareness and the ease of information dissemination on the Internet, brands have increasingly become the target of online criticism. Several factors affect consumers’ reactions to public criticism against brands that they support. The present study investigated the interactive effects of psychological ownership, agency–communion orientation, and internal attribution on self-threat in the context of such criticism.
Design/methodology/approach
Three studies were conducted to test several research hypotheses. The psychological ownership, agency–communion orientation, and internal attribution of the participants in this study were manipulated using an experimental scenario. Subsequently, they completed a questionnaire with items used to assess purchase intention, self-threat, and demographic variables and for performing manipulation checks.
Findings
When a brand is criticized, (1) consumers with high psychological ownership of the brand are likely to buy more of that brand’s products, (2) communion-oriented consumers with high psychological ownership of the brand experience greater self-threat relative to those with low psychological ownership, and (3) agency-oriented consumers experience a consistent level of self-threat regardless of their level of psychological ownership.
Research limitations/implications
Brands should endeavor to enhance consumers’ psychological ownership of the brand to increase their support in times of crisis.
Originality/value
This study investigated how psychological ownership of a brand among consumers affected their reactions when a brand was criticized. The effect of self-threat as a mediating mechanism was also considered. Furthermore, agency and communion orientation were proposed as crucial moderators that should be considered in research on consumer–brand relationships.
Although an increasingly age‐diverse workforce offers many potential advantages for organizations, it also presents unique challenges. Namely, bringing together people of different ages produces an environment ripe for age‐based discrimination. In this study, we integrate the transactional model of stress with self‐affirmation theory to propose the effectiveness of a brief personal values affirmation for shaping the effect of age discrimination on stress appraisals. In turn, we expect this intervention to weaken the indirect effects of age discrimination on somatic complaints, emotional exhaustion, and task performance. We test our model using four multi‐wave field experiments among full‐time employees (total N = 629). We find robust support for the utility of the intervention for mitigating the effects of age discrimination on outcomes via threat appraisal. Our findings have implications for managing experiences of ageism in organizations and complement existing techniques to reduce the adverse effects of this pernicious form of mistreatment.
Both in their quantity and their quality, informal political conversations can provide an important bellwether for democratic health. However, not everyone is willing to participate in political conversations in all settings, and systematic imbalances in who chooses not to share political attitudes can distort perceptions of public opinion. Using data from three original surveys, including both observational and experimental analysis, we examine people’s decisions to initiate political discussions using a psychological framework of self-threat and self-affirmation. We find that political conversations pose a higher level of self-threat when disagreement is probable and the relationship with the potential discussion partner is weaker. High levels of self-threat, measured via self-reported anxiety, are associated with a lower willingness to initiate a political conversation. However, self-threat can be counteracted. While it does not reduce the anxiety associated with a threatening situation, self-affirmation increases people’s willingness to initiate a political conversation in higher threat circumstances. This suggests that efforts to find common ground or boost confidence by reflecting on non-political values could increase the pool of people willing to bring up and share their political views.
When adult men are made to feel gender‐atypical, they often lash out with aggression, particularly when they are pressured (vs. autonomously motivated) to be gender‐typical. Here, we examined the development of this phenomenon. Specifically, we provided a first experimental test of whether threatening adolescent boys’ perceived gender typicality elicits aggression as a function of their pressured (vs. autonomous) motivation to be gender‐typical. We also investigated whether this causal link emerges as a function of boys’ chronological age versus pubertal development. Participants were a geographically diverse sample of 207 adolescent US boys (ages 10–14; 23.2% boys of color) and one of their parents. Boys played a “game” and received randomly‐assigned feedback that their score was atypical versus typical of their gender. For boys in mid‐to‐late puberty (but not before), feedback that they are gender‐atypical predicted an aggressive reaction, particularly among boys whose motivation to be gender‐typical was pressured (vs. autonomous). Next, we explored which aspects of boys’ social environments predicted their pressured motivation to be gender‐typical. Boys’ pressured motivation was positively correlated with their perceptions that their parents and peers would be “upset” if they deviated from gender norms, as well as with their parents’ endorsement of so‐called hegemonic beliefs about masculinity (i.e., that men should hold power over women). Parents with these beliefs resided in more conservative areas, had less formal education, and had lower incomes. Our results inform theorizing on gender identity development and lay the foundation for mitigating the harmful effects of gender typicality threat among adult men.
Research Highlights
Similar to young adult men, adolescent boys in mid‐to‐late puberty (but not before) responded with aggression to perceived threats to their gender typicality.
Aggression was heightened among boys whose motivation to be gender‐typical was pressured (i.e., driven by social expectations) rather than autonomous.
Which boys showed pressured motivation? Those whose parents endorsed hegemonic beliefs about masculinity (e.g., that men should have more power than people of other genders).
Hegemonic beliefs about masculinity were strongest among parents who resided in more conservative US counties, had less formal education, and had lower incomes.
This article integrates and advances the scope of research on the role of mental time travel in bolstering the self. We propose that imagining the self in the future (prospection) or in the past (retrospection) highlights central and positive self-aspects. Thus, bringing to mind one’s future or past broadens the perceived bases of self-integrity and offers a route to self-affirmation. In reviewing corresponding research programs on self-prospection and nostalgia, we illustrate that mental time travel serves to affirm the self in terms of self-esteem, coherence, and control. Mental time travel could be implemented as a source of self-affirmation for facilitating coping and behavior change in several domains such as relationships, health, education, and organizational contexts.
Public Abstract
People can mentally travel to their future or to their past. When people imagine what they will be like in the future, or what they were like in the past, they tend to think about themselves in terms of the important and positive attributes that they possess. Thinking about themselves in such an affirming way expands and consolidates their self-views. This broader image of themselves can increase self-esteem (the extent to which one likes who they are), coherence (the extent to which one perceives life as meaningful), and control (the extent to which one feels capable of initiating and pursuing goals or effecting desirable outcomes). Mental time travel, then, has favorable or affirming consequences for one’s self-views. These consequences can be harnessed to modify one’s behavior in such life domains as relationships, health, education, and work.
The multiplication of fractions was considered an easy operation, but it posed a challenge for students. The lack of previous research on this topic, especially at the tertiary level, made it an intriguing subject for investigation. This study aimed to explore the factors contributing to these difficulties and the types of learning barriers students faced. Hermeneutics phenomenology was used as the research design. Fifteen participants, aged between 18 and 25, consisting of 7 boys and 8 girls, were selected for this study. Nine students had a background in natural sciences during high school, while six were from social studies majors. The researcher served as the main instrument, employing a fraction multiplication test with two questions developed by NCTM. Additionally, a semi-structured interview guide was used as an additional instrument. The data obtained were analyzed using NVivo-12-assisted thematic analysis for a simplified coding process. The study findings indicated that students encountered more learning difficulties when dealing with non-routine fraction multiplication problems. For routine problems, the learning obstacles were primarily ontogenic and psychological in nature (carelessness). However, when dealing with non-routine problems, students faced epistemological barriers due to their limited experience with word problems. Moreover, they encountered conceptual obstacles (inability to equivalence and convert fractions to decimal form) and psychological hurdles (doubt) during the learning process.
In this response I address criticisms raised by Ashton, Battaly, McGlynn and Simion that my account of intellectual humility (hereafter, IH), and of the vices opposed to it, is too internalistic, is insufficiently social and structural, and finally that my proposal for ameliorating vice might be not efficacious.
Racialized Sexual Discrimination (RSD), also known as ‘sexual racism,’ is pervasive within online dating venues. RSD is associated with poor mental health outcomes among young sexual minority Black men (YSMBM), and there is limited research on factors that may mitigate this association. Ethnic identity has been identified as a potential protective factor for racial/ethnic minorities who encounter racialized stressors, though some evidence suggests that ethnic identity may also intensify the negative effects of racial discrimination. Using data from a cross-sectional web-survey of YSMBM (n = 690), a series of linear regression models were estimated to examine the moderating effect of ethnic identity search and ethnic identity commitment on the relationship between RSD and depressive symptoms/feeling of self-worth. Results indicated that having moderate-to-high scores on commitment attenuated the association between being physically objectified by White men and higher depressive symptoms. However, having high scores on commitment intensified the association between being rejected by Black men and lower feelings of self-worth. Stronger identity commitment may be protective against objectification from White men, though it may also exacerbate negative outcomes related to in-group discrimination. These findings may have important implications for the development of individual and group-level interventions addressing ethnic identity among YSMBM.
The persistence of stigma of mental illness and seeking therapy perpetuates suffering and keeps people from getting the help they need and deserve. This volume, analysing the most up-to-date research on this process and ways to intervene, is designed to give those who are working to overcome stigma a strong, research-based foundation for their work. Chapters address stigma reduction efforts at the individual, community, and national levels, and discuss what works and what doesn't. Others explore how holding different stigmatized identities compounds the burden of stigma and suggest ways to attend to these differences. Throughout, there is a focus on the current state of the research knowledge in the field, its applications, and recommendations for future research. The Handbook provides a compelling case for the benefits reaped from current research and intervention, and shows why continued work is needed.
Self-affirmation theory provides a sophisticated framework to understand individual differences in receptivity to health-risk communication. Health messages are often ineffective because reminders of health risks can create dissonanc, which causes people to react negatively against the perceived threat of the information. Self-affirmation interventions offer a brief and practical means of improving health communication and promoting positive change. The primary purpose of this chapter is to highlight the promise of self-affirmation in understanding and reducing mental health stigma. The chapter aims to provide a theoretical background and practical path forward for researchers and clinicians, public health professionals, mental health activists, and any persons interested in dismantling the negative stereotypes and judgments associated with mental health and seeking professional psychological help. Specifically, the chapter aims to (1) briefly summarize the relationship between mental health stigma and psychotherapy use, (2) describe self-affirmation theory and its applied intervention effects in reducing perceptions of psychological threat across levels of measurement, (3) describe a standardized method of inducing self-affirmation by reflecting on personal values, (4) examine self-affirmation’s extension to mental health stigma and professional help seeking, (5) explore potential underlying mechanisms of change, and (6) suggest future directions for research and practical application.
Previous research has shown that narcissists demonstrate hypervigilance to self-threatening words. This research experimentally investigated whether a self-affirmation intervention, designed to reduce the psychological impact of self-threat, moderated this hypervigilance in grandiose or vulnerable narcissists. Participants (N = 188) were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group and asked to complete an implicit self-affirmation procedure, a computer-based lexical decision task, and measures of narcissism and of self-esteem. Results showed self-affirmation (1) caused a delay in the onset of hypervigilance to self-threatening words in participants with grandiose narcissism, and (2) revealed a novel finding: hypovigilance (i.e., reduced sensitivity/reactivity) to self-threatening words among participants with vulnerable narcissism. Self-affirmation (3) strengthened positive associations between self-esteem and grandiose narcissism and (4) reduced negative associations between self-esteem and vulnerable narcissism. The results show that self-affirmation moderates hypervigilance to self-threat in both grandiose and vulnerable narcissists, but in different ways.
Future work self salience (FWSS) refers to individuals having a clear and accessible image of possible self-concerning future work that encapsulates their hopes and aspirations. FWSS guides employees' work and careers and leads to many favorable work consequences, such as work engagement, organizational socialization, and job performance. However, little is known about its antecedents. This research explores how leaders can be leveraged to shape follower FWSS and suggests that follower FWSS is cultivated by future-oriented leaders who communicate visions. Moreover, leader self-integrity is identified as an important boundary condition. The results of a multi-wave, multi-source survey involving leader-follower dyads indicate that leader future orientation facilitates leader vision communication, which in turn, enhances follower FWSS. In addition, this indirect effect is contingent upon a first-stage moderator, leader self-integrity, such that the indirect effect is more salient when leaders have higher self-integrity. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are addressed.
Low self-esteem people are assumed to have more severe emotional reactions to failure than are high self-esteem people, but this assumption has not received consistent empirical support. In this article the authors report 2 investigations that found that self-esteem differences of this sort emerge for emotions that directly implicate the self (e.g., pride, humiliation) but not for emotions that do not directly implicate the self (e.g., happiness, unhappiness). Additional evidence suggested that this occurs, in part, because low self-esteem people overgeneralize the negative implications of failure. The relevance of these findings for understanding the nature and functions of self-esteem is considered.
It was predicted that high self-esteem Ss (HSEs) would rationalize an esteem-threatening decision less than low self-esteem Ss (LSEs), because HSEs presumably had more favorable self-concepts with which to affirm, and thus repair, their overall sense of self-integrity. This prediction was supported in 2 experiments within the “free-choice” dissonance paradigm—one that manipulated self-esteem through personality feedback and the other that varied it through selection of HSEs and LSEs, but only when Ss were made to focus on their self-concepts. A 3rd experiment countered an alternative explanation of the results in terms of mood effects that may have accompanied the experimental manipulations. The results were discussed in terms of the following: (a) their support for a resources theory of individual differences in resilience to self-image threats—an extension of self-affirmation theory, (b) their implications for self-esteem functioning, and (c) their implications for the continuing debate over self-enhancement versus self-consistency motivation.
This prospective study tested the self-complexity buffering hypothesis that greater self-complexity moderates the adverse impact of stress on depression and illness. This hypothesis follows from a model that assumes self-knowledge is represented in terms of multiple self-aspects. As defined in this model, greater self-complexity involves representing the self in terms of a greater number of cognitive self-aspects and maintaining greater distinctions among self-aspects. Subjects completed measures of stressful events, self-complexity, depression, and illness in two sessions separated by 2 weeks. A multiple regression analysis used depression and illness at Time 2 as outcomes, stressful life events and self-complexity at Time 1 as predictors, and depression and illness at Time 1 as control variables. The Stress × Self-Complexity interaction provided strong support for the buffering hypothesis. Subjects higher in self-complexity were less prone to depression, perceived stress, physical symptoms, and occurrence of the flu and other illnesses following high levels of stressful events. These results suggest that vulnerability to stress-related depression and illness is due, in part, to differences in cognitive representations of the self.
Discusses 4 devices developed recently to measure cognitive styles associated with depression that appear to have an underlying similarity—an attributional style questionnaire developed by M. F. Seligman et al (see PA, Vol 88:6218); a model of characterological self-blame developed by R. Janoff-Bulman (see record 1981-01320-001 ); a cognitive-bias questionnaire developed by C. Hammen (1981); and an attitudes-toward-self (ATS) scale developed by C. S. Carver and R. J. Ganellen (see record 1983-32781-001 ). Each measure appears to reflect a tendency for respondents to infer a general lack of self-worth (or a continued likelihood of bad events) on the basis of a single discrete failure. The present research was a comparative test of one of these scales against the other 3 in terms of associations with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores. Though all instruments were significantly correlated with the BDI, partial correlations revealed that the generalization (ATS) scale was a more robust predictor of BDI than were the measures of characterological self-blame, cognitive bias, and attributional style. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Three factors were identified that uniquely contribute to people's global self-esteem: (a) people's tendencies to experience positive and negative affective states, (b) people's specific self-views (i.e., their conceptions of their strengths and weaknesses), and (c) the way people frame their self-views. Framing factors included the relative certainty and importance of people's positive versus negative self-views and the discrepancy between people's actual and ideal self-views. The contribution of importance to people's self-esteem, however, was qualified in 2 ways. First, importance contributed only to the self-esteem of those who perceived that they had relatively few talents. Second, individuals who saw their positive self-views as important were especially likely to be high in self-esteem when they were also highly certain of these positive self-views. The theoretical and therapeutic implications of these findings are discussed.
According to Steele (1997), negative stereotypes about intellectual abilities can act as a threat that disrupts the performance
of students targeted by bad reputations. Previous research on stereotype threat has showed that on a stereotype-relevant test,
stigmatized group members (e.g., African Americans) performed worse than others on an intellectual verbal task. However, when
the instructions accompanying the test did not create stereotype threat, stigmatized group members' performance was equal
to that of other participants. In this paper, we present studies documenting the effect of stereotype threat and discuss ways
to counter it. Two strategies derived from Self-Categorization Theory (Turner & Oakes, 1989) and Self-Affirmation Theory (Steele,
1988) are presented, tested, and discussed.
The objective of this systematic review of studies using self-affirmation manipulations was to identify research gaps and provide information to guide future research. We describe study characteristics, categories of manipulations, and report effects on various dependent variables. Our search strategies yielded 47 eligible articles (69 studies). Manipulations varied by affirmation domain (values or personal characteristics), attainment (participant- or investigator-identified), and procedure (scale, essay, feedback, etc.). Most dependent variables were cognitive. Strong effects of self-affirmation were found for attitudes and persuasion/bias, but future work is needed for variables with mixed results including risk cognitions, intentions, and behavior. Suggestions and considerations for future research involving self-affirmation manipulations are discussed.
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Drawing from self-affirmation theory (C. M. Steele, 1988) and L. L. Martin and A. Tesser's (1989, 1996) theory of ruminative thinking, the authors hypothesized that people stop ruminating about a frustrated goal when they can affirm an important aspect of the self. In 3 experiments participants were given failure feedback on an alleged IQ test. Failure feedback led to increased rumination (i.e., accessibility of goal-related thoughts) compared with no-failure conditions (Studies 1 and 2). Rumination was reduced when participants could self-affirm after failure (Studies 1 and 2) or before failure (Study 3). In Study 3, self-affirmation led to increased positive affect on a disguised mood test and more positive name letter evaluations. Moreover, the obtained increase in positive affect mediated the effect of self-affumation on rumination. It is concluded that self-affirmation may be an effective way to stop ruminative thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
People construct idiosyncratic, self-serving models of excellence or success in social domains, in part, to bolster self-esteem. In 3 studies, participants tended to articulate self-serving theories of success under experimental conditions in which pressures to maintain self-esteem were present, but not under conditions in which such pressures were absent. Participants assigned to role-play being a therapist were more self-serving in their assessments of the characteristics needed to be a "successful therapist" than were participants assigned to observe the role play (Study 1). Participants failing at an intellectual task articulated self-serving theories about the attributes crucial to success in marriage (Study 2) and evaluated targets similar to themselves more favorably than they did dissimilar targets (Study 3), tendencies not observed for participants succeeding at the task. Discussion centers on issues for future research suggested by these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors argue that self-image maintenance processes play an important role in stereotyping and prejudice. Three studies demonstrated that when individuals evaluated a member of a stereotyped group, they were less likely to evaluate that person negatively if their self-images had been bolstered through a self-affirmation procedure, and they were more likely to evaluate that person stereotypically if their self-images had been threatened by negative feedback. Moreover, among those individuals whose self-image had been threatened, derogating a stereotyped target mediated an increase in their self-esteem. The authors suggest that stereotyping and prejudice may be a common means to maintain one's self-image, and they discuss the role of self-image-maintenance processes in the context of motivational, sociocultural, and cognitive approaches to stereotyping and prejudice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Trivialization as a mode of dissonance reduction and the conditions under which it is likely to occur were explored in 4 studies. Study 1 tested and supported the hypothesis that when the preexisting attitude is made salient, participants will trivialize the dissonant cognitions rather than change their attitudes. Study 2 tested and supported the hypothesis that following a counterattitudinal behavior, participants will choose the first mode of dissonance reduction provided for them, whether it is trivialization or attitude change. Study 3 tested and supported the hypothesis that following a counterattitudinal behavior, the typical self-affirmation treatment leads to trivialization. Study 4 demonstrated that providing a trivializing frame by making an important issue salient also encourages trivialization rather than attitude change even when there was no opportunity for self-affirmation. The implications for cognitive dissonance theory and research are briefly discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Previous research has shown that low self-esteem individuals are more likely than their high self-esteem counterparts to have adverse affective, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to failure or negative feedback. The present field study tested the hypothesis that self-esteem differences in response to negative feedback are mediated by the greater tendency of low than high self-esteem persons to overgeneralize the implications of negative feedback to other aspects of their identities. The results supported the hypothesis. Theoretical and practical implications of the results and limitations of the study are discussed.
Research on self-esteem has focused almost exclusively on level of trait self-esteem to the neglect of other potentially more important aspects such as the contingencies on which self-esteem is based. Over a century ago, W. James (1890) argued that self-esteem rises and falls around its typical level in response to successes and failures in domains on which one has staked self-worth. We present a model of global self-esteem that builds on James' insights and emphasizes contingencies of self-worth. This model can help to (a) point the way to understanding how self-esteem is implicated in affect, cognition, and self-regulation of behavior, (b) suggest how and when self-esteem is implicated in social problems; (c) resolve debates about the nature and functioning of self-esteem; (d) resolve paradoxes in related literatures, such as why people who are stigmatized do not necessarily have low self-esteem and why self-esteem does not decline with age; and (e) suggest how self-esteem is causally related to depression. In addition, this perspective raises questions about how contingencies of self-worth are acquired and how they change, whether they are primarily a resource or a vulnerability, and whether some people have noncontingent self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)
There are currently a large number of models which identify self-evaluation (self-esteem) as an important source of motivation. However, these models often posit qualitatively different antecedents and consequences. The present studies focus on the questions of whether these qualitatively different behavioral systems affect the same or different mediating variables, and whether the motivation is to maximize or simply maintain a particular level of self-evaluation. In Study 1 we found that providing subjects a “self affirmation” (Steele, 1988) opportunity reduced their propensity to engage in self-evaluation maintenance behaviors (SEM; Tesser, 1988). In Studies 2 and 3 we found that making salient positive SEM scenarios reduced the propensity to engage in dissonance reduction whereas making salient a threatening SEM scenario did not. These results were interpreted as indicating that these hypothetical self-systems affect the same mediating variable and that the motive is to maintain rather than maximize self-evaluation.
Drawing on the motivated cognition literature, we examine how self-affirmation processes influence self-justification needs and escalation decisions. Study 1 found that individuals with a larger pool of affirmational resources (high self-esteem) reduced their escalation compared to those with fewer affirmational resources (low self-esteem). Study 2 extended these findings by demonstrating that individuals also de-escalated their commitments when they were provided an opportunity to affirm on an important value. Finally, Study 3 found that affirming on traits that were of low relevance (e.g., creativity) to an initial decision reduced escalation, but affirming on decision-relevant traits (e.g., decision-making ability) ironically increased escalation. Across three studies, using three instantiations of self-affirmations and two measures of escalation, the results highlight the potential benefits and costs of using self-affirmation as a vehicle to de-escalate commitment.
Although screening for medical problems can have health benefits, the potentially threatening nature of the results can lead people to avoid screening. In three studies, we examined whether affirming people's self-worth reduces their avoidance of medical-screening feedback. Participants completed an online risk calculator for a fictitious medical condition and then were offered a choice to receive or not receive their risk feedback. Our results showed that affirmation decreased participants' avoidance of risk feedback (Study 1) and eliminated the increased avoidance typically observed when risk feedback might obligate people to engage in undesired behavior (Study 2) and when feedback is about risk for an untreatable disease (Study 3). These findings suggest that affirmation may be an effective strategy for increasing rates of medical screening.
Research on self-affirmation has shown that simple reminders of self-integrity reduce people's tendency to respond defensively to threat. Recent research has suggested it is irrelevant whether the self-affirmation exercise takes place before or after the threat or the individual's defensive response to it, supposedly because the meaning of threats is continuously reprocessed. However, four experiments revealed that affirmations may be effective only when introduced prior to the initiation of a defensive response. Affirmations introduced before threatening feedback reduced defensive responding; affirming after a threat was effective in reducing defensiveness only if the defensive conclusion had yet to be reached. Even though threats may activate a defensive motivation, the authors' results suggest that defensive responses may not be spontaneous and may be prompted only when suggested by the dependent measures themselves. This explains why some affirmations positioned after threats are effective in reducing defensiveness. Implications for self-affirmation theory are discussed.
Three studies test whether group members strategically shift the standard of judgment they use to decide whether a particular ingroup action was unjust. In Study 1, individuals who were highly identified with their ingroup set higher confirmatory injustice standards than low identifiers-they needed more evidence to conclude that their group acted unjustly. This led to reductions in judgments of harm and diminished collective guilt. In Study 2, group identification was experimentally manipulated and the results of Study 1 were replicated. In Study 3, stronger support is provided for the motivational nature of this process. Specifically, the motivation to shift the standard upward was decreased by providing group members with an opportunity to self-affirm at the group level. Participants who self-affirmed set lower confirmatory standards of injustice, rated the harm as more severe, and experienced greater collective guilt than, those not self-affirming. Implications of this quantitative standard shifting are discussed.
In numerous self-affirmation studies, Claude Steele and colleagues have demonstrated that self-affirmations reduce the need to justify dissonant behavior even when the affirmation is unrelated to the dissonance-evoking action. However, research has not sufficiently examined the impact of reaffirming self-aspects that are related to the dissonance. The authors argue that relevant affirmations of this sort can make salient the standards that are violated in the course of dissonant behavior; thereby increasing dissonance and the need for self justification. In a laboratory study using the induced-compliance paradigm, it was demonstrated that dissonance can be exacerbated by reaffirming standards that are violated in the course of the dissonant behavior. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68836/2/10.1177_0146167297237002.pdf
Three studies investigated whether self-affirmation can proceed without awareness, whether people are aware of the influence of experimental self-affirmations, and whether such awareness facilitates or undermines the self-affirmation process. The authors found that self-affirmation effects could proceed without awareness, as implicit self-affirming primes (utilizing sentence-unscrambling procedures) produced standard self-affirmation effects (Studies 1 and 3). People were generally unaware of self-affirmation's influence, and self-reported awareness was associated with decreased impact of the affirmation (Studies 1 and 2). Finally, affirmation effects were attenuated when people learned that self-affirmation was designed to boost self-esteem (Study 2) or told of a potential link between self-affirmation and evaluations of threatening information (Study 3). Together, these studies suggest not only that affirmation processes can proceed without awareness but also that increased awareness of the affirmation may diminish its impact.
Everyday stressors can threaten valued aspects of the self. Self-affirmation theory posits that this threat could be attenuated if individuals affirm alternative self-resources. The present study examined whether self-affirmation would buffer cumulative stress responses to an ongoing academic stressor.
Undergraduate participants provided 15-hr urine samples on the morning of their most stressful examination and baseline samples 14 days prior to the examination. Participants were randomly assigned to the self-affirmation condition where they wrote two essays on important values over the 2-week period prior to exam, or a control condition.
Samples were analyzed for urinary catecholamine excretion (epinephrine, norepinephrine), an indicator of sympathetic nervous system activation. Participants also indicated their appraisals of the examination experience.
Participants in the control condition increased in cumulative epinephrine levels from baseline to examination, whereas participants in the self-affirmation condition did not differ from baseline to examination. The buffering effect of self-affirmation was strongest among individuals most concerned about negative college evaluation, those most psychologically vulnerable.
The findings demonstrate that sympathetic nervous system responses to naturalistic stressors can be attenuated by self-affirmation. Discussion centers on psychological pathways by which affirmation can reduce stress and the implications of the findings for health outcomes among chronically stressed participants.
In 4 experiments, the authors showed that concurrently making positive and negative self-relevant stereotypes available about performance in the same ability domain can eliminate stereotype threat effects. Replicating past work, the authors demonstrated that introducing negative stereotypes about women's math performance activated participants' female social identity and hurt their math performance (i.e., stereotype threat) by reducing working memory. Moving beyond past work, it was also demonstrated that concomitantly presenting a positive self-relevant stereotype (e.g., college students are good at math) increased the relative accessibility of females' college student identity and inhibited their gender identity, eliminating attendant working memory deficits and contingent math performance decrements. Furthermore, subtle manipulations in questions presented in the demographic section of a math test eliminated stereotype threat effects that result from women reporting their gender before completing the test. This work identifies the motivated processes through which people's social identities became active in situations in which self-relevant stereotypes about a stigmatized group membership and a nonstigmatized group membership were available. In addition, it demonstrates the downstream consequences of this pattern of activation on working memory and performance.
Evidence shows that self-affirmation has a positive effect on message acceptance and other variables that motivate health behavior change; however, this has not been translated into actual behavioral change. We propose that particular features of the previous studies may account for this failure; the current study addresses this. It is designed to test whether a self-affirmation manipulation can increase a health-promoting behavior (fruit and vegetable consumption). It also explores the extent to which efficacy variables mediate the self-affirmation and behavior relationship.
Women (N = 93) were randomly allocated to a self-affirmation or control task prior to reading a message regarding the health-promoting effects of fruit and vegetables. MAIN OUTCOME-MEASURES: Response-efficacy, self-efficacy, and intention measures were taken immediately after exposure to the message, followed by a 7-day diary record of fruit and vegetable consumption.
Self-affirmed participants ate significantly more portions of fruit and vegetables, an increase of approximately 5.5 portions across the week, in comparison to the control group. This effect was mediated by response-efficacy.
Self-affirmation interventions can successfully influence health-promoting behaviors.
The complexity of people's self-concept appears to be inversely related to the intensity of their reactions to evaluative feedback about present goals and abilities (Linville, 1985, 1987). The idea that the complexity of individuals' possible self-concept similarly mediates reactions to feedback regarding future goals was investigated. Two preliminary studies suggested that complexity of the actual self only explains 20% to 30% of the variance in possible self-complexity. Three studies were conducted. Support was found for the idea that possible self-complexity mediates affective reactions to evaluative feedback about future goals and actual self-complexity mediates affective reactions to evaluative feedback about present goals. The findings underscore the independent roles of the organization of actual and possible self-concepts in affective processes.
It is proposed that motivation may affect reasoning through reliance on a biased set of cognitive processes--that is, strategies for accessing, constructing, and evaluating beliefs. The motivation to be accurate enhances use of those beliefs and strategies that are considered most appropriate, whereas the motivation to arrive at particular conclusions enhances use of those that are considered most likely to yield the desired conclusion. There is considerable evidence that people are more likely to arrive at conclusions that they want to arrive at, but their ability to do so is constrained by their ability to construct seemingly reasonable justifications for these conclusions. These ideas can account for a wide variety of research concerned with motivated reasoning.
Three factors were identified that uniquely contribute to people's global self-esteem: (a) people's tendencies to experience positive and negative affective states, (b) people's specific self-views (i.e., their conceptions of their strengths and weaknesses), and (c) the way people frame their self-views. Framing factors included the relative certainty and importance of people's positive versus negative self-views and the discrepancy between people's actual and ideal self-views. The contribution of importance to people's self-esteem, however, was qualified in 2 ways. First, importance contributed only to the self-esteem of those who perceived that they had relatively few talents. Second, individuals who saw their positive self-views as important were especially likely to be high in self-esteem when they were also highly certain of these positive self-views. The theoretical and therapeutic implications of these findings are discussed.
Low self-esteem people are assumed to have more severe emotional reactions to failure than are high self-esteem people, but this assumption has not received consistent empirical support. In this article the authors report 2 investigations that found that self-esteem differences of this sort emerge for emotions that directly implicate the self (e.g., pride, humiliation) but not for emotions that do not directly implicate the self (e.g., happiness, unhappiness). Additional evidence suggested that this occurs, in part, because low self-esteem people overgeneralize the negative implications of failure. The relevance of these findings for understanding the nature and functions of self-esteem is considered.
The complexity of people's self-concept appears to be inversely related to the intensity of their reactions to evaluative feedback about present goals and abilities (Linville, 1985, 1987). The idea that the complexity of individuals' possible self-concept similarly mediates reactions to feedback regarding future goals was investigated. Two preliminary studies suggested that complexity of the actual self only explains 20% to 30% of the variance in possible self-complexity. Three studies were conducted. Support was found for the idea that possible self-complexity mediates affective reactions to evaluative feedback about future goals and actual self-complexity mediates affective reactions to evaluative feedback about present goals. The findings underscore the independent roles of the organization of actual and possible self-concepts in affective processes.
Three studies investigated whether individuals preferentially allocate attention to the spatial location of threatening faces presented outside awareness. Pairs of face stimuli were briefly displayed and masked in a modified version of the dot-probe task. Each face pair consisted of an emotional (threat or happy) and neutral face. The hypothesis that preattentive processing of threat results in attention being oriented towards its location was supported in Experiments 1 and 3. In both studies, this effect was most apparent in the left visual field, suggestive of right hemisphere involvement. However, in Experiment 2 where awareness of the faces was less restricted (i.e. marginal threshold conditions), preattentive capture of attention by threat was not evident. There was evidence from Experiment 3 that the tendency to orient attention towards masked threat faces was greater in high than low trait anxious individuals.
Self-affirmation processes are being activated by information that threatens the perceived adequacy or integrity of the self and as running their course until this perception is restored through explanation, rationalization, and/or action. The purpose of these constant explanations (and rationalizations) is to maintain a phenomenal experience of the self-self-conceptions and images as adaptively and morally adequate—that is, as competent, good, coherent, unitary, stable, capable of free choice, capable of controlling important outcomes, and so on. The research reported in this chapter focuses on the way people cope with the implications of threat to their self-regard rather than on the way they cope with the threat itself. This chapter analyzes the way coping processes restore self-regard rather than the way they address the provoking threat itself.
The present experiment measured the speed with which people escaped from a highly self-focusing situation after an initial failure or success. Consistent with predictions, the fastest escapes were found among people who were low in self-complexity and who experienced initial failure. These results support the notion that high self-complexity serves as a buffer against the threatening implications of failure, presumably because many aspects of the self-concept remain untouched by the failure. Additional findings showed that failure impaired the subsequent performance (in writing an essay about the self of people with low self-complexity, but it actually improved the performance of people with high self-complexity. These results suggest that an identical failure may have different levels of global aversiveness and may elicit different coping styles as a function of self-complexity.
This research develops and tests a model relating complexity of self-representation to affective and evaluative responses. The basic hypothesis is that the less complex a person's cognitive representation of the self, the more extreme will be the person's swings in affect and self-appraisal. Experiment 1 showed that those lower in self-complexity experienced greater swings in affect and self-appraisal following a failure or success experience. Experiment 2 showed that those lower in self-complexity experienced greater variability in affect over a 2-week period. The results are discussed, first, in terms of self-complexity as a buffer against the negative effects of stressful life events, particularly depression; and, second, in terms of the thought patterns of depressed persons. The results reported here suggest that level of self-complexity may provide a promising cognitive marker for vulnerability to depression.
Results of 2 experiments with a total of 221 housewives support the prediction that name-calling, by conveying a negative judgment, would enhance Ss' willingness to comply and their actual compliance with a later request for help. Negative names produced more compliance behavior than positive names. Also, whether or not the negative name was related to the help request made no difference in the percentage of Ss who agreed to comply. Exp II also demonstrated that it was the name's impugnment of the S's general character and not its impugnment of a specific behavior that was needed to increase later compliance. Implications for experiments using negative judgments as independent variable manipulations and for the relationship between self-esteem and consistency processes are discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two experiments tested the prediction that stigmatized individuals can avoid backlash when they confront others about bias if they first ask questions designed to activate self-affirmation processes. Experiment 1 showed that compared to a no-strategy control condition, highly prejudiced perceivers tended to express less desire to meet an Arab-American when he asked them to take his perspective on prejudice, but they expressed more desire to meet him when he asked self-affirming questions prior to making the perspective-taking request. Experiment 2 replicated this effect with a different affirmation and revealed that asking self-affirming questions reduced perceptions that the target was being confrontational when asking others to take his perspective. Together, these studies show that stigmatized targets can effectively challenge prejudiced individuals to reduce their biases if they first use a subtle strategy that reduces defensiveness.
This chapter provides an overview of self-affirmation theory. 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. When this image of self-integrity is threatened, people respond in such a way as to restore self-worth. The chapter illustrates how self-affirmation affects not only people's cognitive responses to threatening information and events, but also their physiological adaptations and actual behavior. It examines the ways in which self-affirmations reduce threats to the self at the collective level, such as when people confront threatening information about their groups. It reviews factors that qualify or limit the effectiveness of self-affirmations, including situations where affirmations backfire, and lead to greater defensiveness and discrimination. The chapter discusses the connection of self-affirmations theory to other motivational theories of self-defense and reviews relevant theoretical and empirical advances. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of self-affirmations theory for interpersonal relationships and coping.
The existence of cognitive biases in anxiety is now well established, and we summarize evidence demonstrating attentional vigilance to cues associated with threat, pessimistic interpretation of ambiguous items and an increased perception of the likelihood of occurrence of negative events. We explore how these reactions can be understood within an evolutionary context, and present a descriptive model consistent with the experimental findings, conducive to modification of responses through learning. A computational implementation of aspects of the model successfully simulates changes in reaction time for a simple task as anxiety levels increase. Future directions include pursuing the causal nature of biases in anxiety and examining the potential for change through training techniques.