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Evidence that self-affirmation reduces body dissatisfaction by basing self-esteem on domains other than body weight and shape
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Abstract
Body satisfaction interventions have typically been multifaceted and targeted at clinical populations. The aim of the present research was to isolate the effects of self-affirmation on body satisfaction in a community sample and to see whether self-affirmation works by basing one's self-esteem on domains other than body weight and shape.
Adolescents (N = 220) were randomized to complete a self-affirmation manipulation or an equivalently active control task before rating their body shape and weight, and completing measures of perceived threat, body satisfaction and self-esteem.
Affirmed girls showed significantly greater body satisfaction and perceived significantly less threat from having to rate their body shape and weight compared with an equivalently active control group. Mediator analyses showed that the effects were due both to increases in self-esteem and shifts away from using body shape and weight as a source of self-esteem. Self-affirmation did not affect boys because they: (a) were less threatened by having to rate their body shape and weight, and (b) principally derived their self-esteem from sources other than body shape and weight.
The findings provide support for the unique effects of self-affirmation on girls' body satisfaction thereby isolating one active ingredient of programs to increase body satisfaction and identify a potential mechanism for understanding self-affirmation effects. Further research is required to establish the long-term effects of self-affirmation and test how self-affirmation interacts with other active ingredients in treatment programs.
... An important aspect of positive body image is attention to physical capability and appreciation of body functionality over appearance alone (Abbott & Barber, 2010;Webb et al., 2015). Body selfassessment that is based more on physical capability and less on external appearance has been linked with better psychosocial outcomes among youth (Armitage, 2012), yet little is known about this phenomenon among young children, or how parents might deliberately or inadvertently nurture one type of body self-concept over another. ...
... Finally, it is important to consider that parents' rejection of the notion of body image development in young children may represent an adaptive, protective rejection not of body image per se, but of the early sexualization of girls and objectification of bodies, which begins very young in US society (Calogero, Tantleff-Dunn, & Thompson, 2011;Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). They may also be wisely attempting to shift a child's focus away from weight or shape as a sole source of self-esteem, which is supported empirically (Armitage, 2012) and theoretically as in the Developmental Theory of Embodiment (Piran, 2015), which highlights the importance of developing social power independent of physical appearance. However, since parents draw upon their own experiences of body image for guidance, they may be unaware of early opportunities and effective strategies to enhance positive body image that can foster resilience against the sexualization of girls and overemphasis on outward appearance. ...
... In these ways, parents' explicit and implicit attempts to bolster body image in children may actually make their children more vulnerable to body scrutiny and self-consciousness during the preschool years and beyond. A notable exception is the four mothers who said they chose to emphasize and affirm their child for what he or she could do (body competence) rather than what he or she looked like (body appearance), a shift in focus that has been associated with better body image outcomes among adolescents (Armitage, 2012). ...
This study sought to explore parental perceptions of body image in preschoolers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 primary caregivers of preschoolers to examine knowledge, beliefs, and strategies regarding early body image socialization in families. Thematic Analysis yielded three themes highlighting knowledge gaps, belief discrepancies, and limited awareness of strategies. Findings regarding knowledge: Most participants defined body image as objective attractiveness rather than subjective self-assessment (53%) and focused on negative body image. Beliefs: Although 97% of participants believed weight and shape impact children's self-esteem, 63% believed preschoolers too young to have a body image. Strategies: Most participants (53%) said family was a primary influence on body image, but identified few effective strategies and 63% said they did not do anything to influence children's body image. Findings suggested family body image socialization in preschoolers is occurring outside the awareness of parents and the concept of positive body image is underdeveloped.
... A few studies have extended the self-affirmation paradigm to explore its effect(s) on certain self-focused variables, including body image (e.g., Armitage, 2012;Boyce, Martens, Schimel, & Kuijer, 2012;Bucchianeri & Corning, 2012). Such work is pertinent in the current context, as disgust is often associated with body dissatisfaction (Powell et al., 2014). ...
... Second, by including an index of trait selfdisgust as a covariate in the analyses, thereby improving their power and accuracy (Miller & Chapman, 2001). Based on previous work (e.g., Armitage, 2012) we hypothesized that, when controlling for trait levels of self-disgust, participants in the self-affirmed group would report lower levels of disgust towards their physical appearance than controls. ...
... Following this, participants were informed they were about to rate their appearance and behavior (i.e., the threat), and completed the perceived threat items from Armitage (2012). ...
In two studies, self-affirming the behavioral trait of kindness was examined as a method of regulating state disgust toward one's physical appearance. In Study 1, 56 participants (37 women, 19 men, Mage=33.16 years) completed either a questionnaire designed to self-affirm kindness or a control equivalent and rated their disgust, anger, sadness, and happiness toward their appearance and behavior. In Study 2, 116 individuals (83 women, 33 men, Mage=24.90 years) participated in the same experiment over the internet in an ecologically valid context. When controlling for trait self-disgust, the self-affirmed in Study 1 reported significantly less disgust toward their appearance (ηp(2)=.12, p=.011). This effect was replicated in Study 2, but driven by lower state disgust levels in those higher in trait self-disgust (f(2)=.10, p=.001). Affirming valued traits, like kindness, may be a useful tool for regulating disgust toward body image.
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... As women who experience body dissatisfaction are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviours (Gillen et al., 2006), self-affirmation interventions that simultaneously target body appreciation could be paired with health messages informing them of the risks of unprotected sex. Self-affirmation interventions have been used in body image research to promote greater body appreciation (Armitage, 2012). Consequently, a sense of greater body satisfaction may, in turn, may reduce the propensity to engage in unsafe sex, which would put their body at risk. ...
... Consequently, a sense of greater body satisfaction may, in turn, may reduce the propensity to engage in unsafe sex, which would put their body at risk. Armitage (2012) found that adolescent girls who were given a self-affirmation manipulation task in which they wrote about previous acts of kindness reported greater body satisfaction and perceived less threat in having to rate their body shape and weight compared to a control group. Similarly, self-affirmation interventions were effective in creating a greater openness to the threatening health information of body dissatisfaction and a greater intention to reduce self-criticism of their bodies in a group of young women experiencing body dissatisfaction (Bucchhianeri & Corning, 2012) ...
... The affirmation in values inherent especially in joint family and traditional religious practices to face the recent threat may be significant as self-affirmation has been suggested to cultivate positive mood (Ferrer et al., 2012), collective self-esteem (Armitage, 2012), cognitive processing, other-directed feeling and connectedness with others (Burson et al., 2012). The participants belonging to the nuclear families and believed in practising evident components of religion showed affirmation in values confined to their personal experiences and outcomes. ...
The study explored the role of two dissimilar familial and religious practices in distinctly shaping independent and interdependent self-affirmations in two value systems (individualism and collectivism) that emerged to protect self-integrity and self-worth challenged by the threats of COVID-19. A qualitative research design was employed. A heterogeneous sample of 27 participants (14 joint and 13 nuclear families) was recruited who reported in a semi-structured interview about the consequences of COVID-19 and the role of family and religious values in coping with the pandemic threats. The thematic method was used to analyse the data. Codes were generated using a priori criteria while reviewing and re-reviewing, multiple discussions and iterations helped in theme identification and ascertaining validity. Five themes were generated: perceived strong threat of COVID-19, dissimilar genesis of independent and interdependent self-affirmations, positive roles of joint familial values, significance of religious values, and traditional and modern religious routes of self-affirmation. Threats were expressed in experiences of anxiety, uncertainty and mood fluctuations. Interdependence, affiliation and support were joint familial values whereas independence and self-esteem reflected nuclear family-values. Focus on explicit attributes denoted modern while divine interpretation and will of God reflected traditional religious values. Novelty, uncertainty and incurability of COVID-19 caused threats to self-integrity that compelled them to affirm their most preferred values originating from two family forms. The pandemic posed threats to their self-worth, which in turn, activated affirmations in two distinct value systems leading to the development of independent and interdependent self-affirmations. Study findings will help surface novel features of the two self-affirmations. It provides new insights for making successful behavioural changes at individual, group and community levels for the success of social, health and educational policies.
... It appears plausible that students who did not encounter stigmatization or additional challenges in academic settings did not derive significant benefits from the interventions. A greater effect of these interventions on academic performance, interpersonal performance, and aspects of physical and psychological well-being is likely to occur when the perception of identity threat is greater [7,9,10,17,42,[144][145][146][147][148][149]. These findings corroborate the results of previous studies that observed a reduced or null effect of self-affirmation among nonthreatened students [10,46,53,56,115]. ...
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.
... There are many studies showing the effect of self-affirmation is moderated by another variable, for example stress (Creswell et al., 2013), self-esteem (Armitage, 2012;Düring & Jessop, 2015;Jaremka et al., 2011) and self-resources (Creswell et al., 2005). Possible moderating variables were not measured in this study. ...
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.
... A study suggested that young adolescents with body image self-discrepancy may benefit from cognitive-based training (Zipfel et al., 2014), and a previous intervention study (Armitage, 2012) demonstrated an increased level of self-affirmation reduced body dissatisfaction. The literature further suggests that increasing self-esteem, confidence, and self-worth may improve selfperception of body image and, consequently, may improve eating habits (Seekis et al., 2017;Moffitt et al., 2018). ...
Background: Body image self-discrepancy reflects a preference for weight loss regardless of normal body size and is a distorted cognition that may be a precursor to eating disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate factors associated with body image self-discrepancy among healthy junior high school students in Japan.
Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted at one junior high school in Saitama, Japan, in December 2016. After excluding obese participants (defined as 20% above their ideal weight), 304 students (mean age, 13.9years; n=181 girls, 59.5%) who fell into underweight (n=22, 7.2%) and normal weight categories were selected. Body image self-discrepancy was measured using the Contour Drawing Rating Scale which includes eight separate figures representing body sizes. We then calculated the difference by subtracting ideal from current body sizes and defined body image self-discrepancy if the difference >1.
Results: Girls constituted 92% (n=49) of the 53 students with body image self-discrepancy. In all students, multivariable stepwise models demonstrated that female gender (OR, 6.92, 95% CI: 2.33–20.51), a calorie-restricted diet (OR, 5.18, 95% CI: 2.22–12.05), and psychological symptoms (OR, 1.47, 95% CI: 1.15–1.87) were significantly associated with an increased risk of body image self-discrepancy. Specifically for girls, an increased risk of body image self-discrepancy was associated with calorie-restricted suppers and psychological symptoms.
Conclusion: Body image self-discrepancy among healthy adolescents in Japan was found to be closely linked to being a girl, having a calorie-restricted diet, and having psychological symptoms.
... On the one hand, selfaffirmation might reduce any negative affective consequences of self-weighing because self-integrity is buffered from another source (e.g., strengths in some other domain) and so is less threatened by negative information about weight. For example, in experimental research, Armitage (2012) found that adolescent girls who were asked to consider past acts of kindness reported being more satisfied with their bodies and were less threatened by rating their body shape and weight than those who completed a control task. Furthermore, girls who completed the self-affirmation exercise reported higher levels of self-esteem and were less likely to derive their self-esteem from beliefs about their body shape and weight. ...
We investigate whether the tendency to self-affirm in response to threat is associated with how people feel when they weigh themselves. People who were preoccupied with their weight anticipated feeling less negative (Studies 1a and 1b) and felt less negative (Study 2) when self-weighing if they typically affirmed their strengths. Study 3 experimentally manipulated self-affirmation. Although this intervention prompted affirmation of strengths it did not influence how participants felt when they subsequently weighed themselves. Together, the findings suggest that the tendency to spontaneously affirm strengths, but not values or social relations, is associated with the psychological outcomes of self-weighing and thus provide the basis for understanding how such individual differences might moderate how people respond in other self-evaluative contexts.
... Internalized biases about the self or the relationship are considered with respect to larger family and systemic contexts. In addition to Satir's therapeutic approach, this intervention is informed by research linking self-affirmations to increased self-esteem and psychological wellbeing (Armitage 2012;Emanuel et al. 2018;Zhong et al. 2014). ...
The Satir Growth Model (SGM) is one of the foundational models in the couple/marriage and family therapy (C/MFT) field. Satir’s model lacks the overt use of a critical lens for conceptualizing power related to the intersection of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Retrospective analyses of Satir’s work suggest that she did not avoid gendered issues of power in practice yet the SGM model does not offer specific instruction on how to work with these constructs in systemic therapy. This paper delineates the application of intersectional feminism onto Satir’s growth model as a critical lens for conceptualizing systems of power and oppression and the resulting impact on client lives. Intersectional feminism modernizes Satir’s Growth Model by bringing a foundational C/MFT model into alignment with the present emphasis on diversity and social justice in the systemic therapy fields. This manuscript provides a concise summary of SGM and highlights the need for infusing SGM with intersectional feminism to produce the Intersectional Growth Model (IGM). An overview of the key critically-informed tenets and assumptions of the intersectional growth model (IGM) is provided. Practices related to goals, the therapeutic relationship, assessment, diagnosis, interventions, and the change process are described.
... The affirmation in values inherent in especially joint family and traditional religious practices to face the current threat may be significant as self-affirmation has been suggested to cultivate positive mood (Ferrer et al., 2012), collective self-esteem (Armitage, 2012;G. L. Cohen et al., 2000;Jaremka et al., 2011), cognitive processing, other-directed feeling and connectedness with others (Burson et al., 2012;Wakslak & Trope, 2009). ...
The study explored the role of two dissimilar familial and religious practices in distinctly shaping independent and interdependent
self-affirmations in two value systems surfaced to protect self-integrity and self-worth challenged by the threats of COVID-19. A
qualitative method was employed which recruited a heterogeneous sample of 19 participants (10 joint and 9 nuclear families) who
reported the consequences of COVID-19 and the roles of familial and religious values in facing the pandemic threats through a
semi-structured interview. Five themes were generated: the perceived strong threat of COVID-19, positive roles of joint familial
values and the religious values, dissimilar roles of individualistic and collectivistic values as well as traditional and modern
religious values. Threats were expressed in the experiences of anxiety, uncertainty and mood fluctuations. Interdependence,
affiliation and support were joint familial values whereas worshipping, divine interpretation and spiritual practices denoted
traditional religious values. Independence, scientific interpretations and personal focus were individualistic family values. Focus
on explicit attributes denoted modern while divine interpretation, will of God and dependency on God reflected traditional
religious values. Coexistence of independent and interdependent self-affirmations originating from two distinct familial and
religious value systems was observed possibly due to the current transitions in the Indian society.
... Self-esteem as an evaluative component of one's self seems to be modifiable. Several promising approaches for changing selfrelated affective associations are emerged such as evaluative conditioning [21][22][23] or self-affirmation [33]. However, a wave of new developments in the behavioural and cognitive therapies [24] that focus on processes such as acceptance, mindfulness, attention, or values may be better suitable. ...
Objective:
In psoriasis, taking steps to improve emotional health is important to bring lasting benefits to patients' physical health and overall well-being. We aimed to identify factors that relate to anxiety in psoriasis and are potentially modifiable and that thus qualify as targets for future planned interventions for improving mental health. In this study, the importance of coping strategies and self-esteem as potential targets were tested.
Methods:
A total of 102 patients diagnosed with psoriasis, aged 26–65 years (M = 43.39 years, SD = 10.56) and 98 healthy controls (with an overall age, gender, educational attainment distribution similar to that of the cases) completed the Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.
Results:
Patients with psoriasis compared to healthy controls reported significantly higher rates of anxiety and emotion- and avoidance-oriented coping strategies, presented lower rates of task-oriented coping strategies, and significantly lower levels of self-esteem. Importantly, our results revealed that self-esteem in psoriasis patients was strongly related to anxiety. Moreover, the increased rates of anxiety in psoriasis were not significantly associated with the coping strategies, suggesting that in patients with psoriasis coping strategies are secondary to other factors such as self-image and self-esteem.
Conclusions:
The results identify self-esteem as a target to adopt in further interventions for psoriasis patients. Recommendations for future research and intervention development are discussed.
... While the majority of studies have examined this effect in an academic setting, von Hippel et al. (von Hippel, Wiryakusuma, Bowden, & Shochet, 2011) showed that the reduction of stereotype threat through self-affirmation also pertains to gender stereotypes -women who self-affirmed experienced and displayed less stereotype threat. Demonstrating the general underlying principle, Armitage (2012) demonstrated that self-affirmation could allow an individual to base their positive selfevaluations on domains other than those that might be potentially threatened by evaluations of others. This study showed that self-affirmed girls were both more satisfied with their body self-image and were less likely to base it on highly evaluative criteria such as body weight and shape compared to non-affirmed girls in the control condition. ...
In this chapter, we will outline the basic tenets of self-affirmation theory and how self-affirmation has been shown to affect different contexts of human functioning. We will address commonly studied psychological benefits of self-affirmation as potential pathways of increasing well-being, discuss ways to induce self-affirmation, and detail how people may spontaneously choose to self-affirm. We will also discuss whether or not self-affirmation can truly be considered a self-regulation strategy or whether people need to be largely unaware of self-affirmation in order for it to produce beneficial effects. We will conclude the chapter by addressing boundary conditions and potential mechanisms of self-affirmation while discussing its role as a potential resource to increase well-being—after all, self-affirmation is an area of research and theorizing that has only recently been considered and picked up in the literature on subjective well-being.
... For many young women, emotional wellbeing is linked to body dissatisfaction and the internalization of cultural expectations of thinness. Beginning in early adolescence, girls place much of their value and emotional health on personal appearance, rather than on other more controllable domains [1]. Studies report high levels of body dissatisfaction among adolescent girls in the US [2], along with increased loneliness, sadness, and depression during adolescence generally [3]. ...
Purpose
To further understand the association between body dissatisfaction and sadness/loneliness among adolescent girls, we examine how this association, as reported by pre-teen and adolescent girls, is mediated or moderated by the quality of peer and family relationships.
Methods
Our data are from the Health Behavior of School-Aged Children 2009–2010, a nationally representative survey of school-aged children in the US. We analyze a sample of 5658 girls in Grades 5 through 10. We utilize ordinary least squares (OLS) regression techniques and adjust for the complex sampling design. We explore how the link between body dissatisfaction and sadness/loneliness is mediated or moderated by family and peer relationships and also include controls for age, race, media exposure, and physical health.
Results
We find that body dissatisfaction is predictive of sadness/loneliness for girls at all grade levels and that the quality of peer and family relationships mediates 27%–38% of this association, particularly among early adolescent girls. Positive peer relationships also moderate or help mitigate the association between body dissatisfaction and sadness/loneliness among pre-teens.
Conclusion
Our findings underscore the association between body dissatisfaction and sadness/loneliness among early adolescent girls. In addition, our results highlight the importance of quality peer and family relationships in terms of how girls think about their bodies and respond emotionally to them. To evaluate feelings of sadness and loneliness among early adolescent girls, health care professionals need to consider not only body dissatisfaction but also the context of peer and family relationships.
... Interventions could also aim to reduce body dissatisfaction and preoccupation with thinness directly, thereby mitigating the effects of interpersonal sexual objectification. For example, evidence suggests that engaging in self-affirmation can reduce body dissatisfaction by improving self-esteem and shifting focus away from body shape and weight and toward other aspects of one's self-image like kindness (Armitage 2012). ...
Interpersonal sexual objectification, or being treated as an object by others, is linked to poorer body image and in turn, engagement in weight management behaviors that promote conformity to unrealistic appearance standards while simultaneously undermining health. Although these associations emerge consistently among women, the evidence has been less clear among men. The present study introduced a novel weight control behavior, food-restricted alcohol consumption (i.e., limiting food intake prior to alcohol consumption), and examined whether sexual objectification was associated with this phenomenon and whether this association differed among women and men. During the fall of 2012 and the spring of 2013, 410 undergraduates reported how often they felt objectified by others and restricted what they ate before drinking alcohol in the past month. Controlling for past drinking, sexual objectification was significantly and positively associated with food-restricted alcohol consumption for women; however, sexual objectification was unrelated to food-restricted alcohol consumption for men. Results suggest sexual objectification might operate differently across the sexes and particularly be related to this specific health-risk behavior in among women.
... As mentioned previously, one commonly studied mediator of self-affirmation effects is selfesteem. While Napper, Harris, and Epton (2009) and Armitage and Rowe (2011) did not find any evidence for the mediating role of self-esteem-or in fact, that self-affirming was associated with higher levels of self-esteem than a control task-another study by Armitage (2012) suggested that rather than affecting overall levels of self-esteem, self-affirmation may change the specific domain a person's self-esteem is derived from. The study showed that instead of deriving their self-esteem from body shape and weight, girls in the self-affirmation condition were more likely to derive self-esteem from other domains. ...
Many messages that aim at changing people’s health behaviors highlight the negative consequences of continuing to engage in current behaviors (insufficient physical activity and smoking). However, such messages are often less effective than desired because people respond defensively to threatening communication by ignoring or derogating it. In this chapter, we discuss how self-affirmation theory can assist both in understanding individual defensive responses and in improving the effectiveness of health messages. Self-affirmation theory proposes that messages that highlight negative consequences of current behavior provoke defensive responses because they threaten a person’s view of themselves as being good and adequate. However, the theory also poses that if people affirm an unrelated domain of their self-system, defensive responses decrease and more adaptive behavior ensues.
In this chapter, we provide an updated review of the evidence for self-affirmation effects on health behavior change, discuss circumstances under which self-affirmation might work better or worse, outline the psychological processes mediating self-affirmation effects and present some recommendations for the use of self-affirmation in interventions to change health behaviors.
... This seems especially pertinent when women have had longer to reflect on being scanned, though longitudinal assessment with the same group of women tested repeatedly over time will confirm or refute this. Although the results of this study suggest that whole-body scanning alone is unlikely to improve body image, it is possible that combining scanning with strategies to promote positive body image, such as the self-affirmation techniques and body appreciation exercises suggested by Tylka (2011), might enable us to capitalize on the perceived information value of the scans (see also Armitage, 2012). ...
This study investigated long-term impacts of whole-body scanning. Ninety-one women completed a retrospective on-line questionnaire. Quantitative data revealed that 31 (34%) reported greater body dissatisfaction since the scan, and only six (7%) reported increased satisfaction. Positive change in satisfaction was predicted by current body satisfaction but not by body mass index (BMI) at time of scanning or by age. BMI did not predict satisfaction with the scanner process or likelihood of being rescanned, though a longer gap between scanning and questionnaire completion predicted satisfaction with the process. Inductive thematic analysis of responses to an open-ended question suggested that although women were comfortable being scanned, and wanted to see an accurate and objective view of their size and shape, they also felt threatened and vulnerable when seeing their bodies on the printed output. It is concluded that whole-body scanning should be used with caution, particularly with women with existing body concerns.
... For example, Armitage (2012) applied a different approach to self-affirming than was used in this study, finding that self-affirmation reduces body dissatisfaction among adolescent females. The self-affirmation effects were mediated by changes in young women's self-esteem and body image (Armitage, 2012). In future studies, testing whether different approaches to self-affirming affect young women's responses to IT prevention messaging can help to clarify this issue. ...
To investigate the effects of gain- and loss-framed indoor tanning (IT) prevention messages among young adult women, and examine the potential moderating effect of self-affirmation.
Young adult women ages 18 to 30 who reported IT at least once in the past year (n = 475) participated in an online experiment. Participants first completed assessments of IT behavior and related constructs and were randomized to either a self-affirmation manipulation or control condition. Then, participants were randomized to either a gain-framed message emphasizing the benefits of avoiding IT or a loss-framed message emphasizing the risks of IT. Participants completed outcome measures of intentions to IT, intentions to quit IT, and emotional and cognitive responses to the framed messages.
Compared with gain-framed messages, loss-framed messages led to weaker intentions to IT and stronger intentions to quit IT. Self-affirmation did not moderate message framing effects, but had a main effect increasing intentions to IT. Mediation analyses indicate that loss-framed messages affect IT behavioral intentions by increasing fear, and self-affirmation may have increased intentions to IT by producing defensive reactions to the framed messages.
Loss-framed messages were more effective for reducing intentions to IT and promoting intentions to quit IT among young women after a brief exposure, and emotional response appears to be 1 pathway through which loss-framed messages affect behavioral outcomes. Messages emphasizing the risks of IT may be optimal as a public health intervention strategy. Unlike other behavioral domains, self-affirmation did not reduce defensive processing of loss-framed messages. (PsycINFO Database Record
(c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
... Powell, Simpson, and Overton (2015) found that self-affirming the trait of kindness lowered adults' disgust toward their appearances. Finally, inducing adolescent girls to self-affirm increased their body satisfaction and made them feel less threatened by the prospect of having to rate their bodies' shape and weight (Armitage, 2012). Importantly, follow-up mediational analyses revealed that these effects were attributable to both increases in their self-esteem and movement away from relying on their bodies as a source of their self-esteem-that is, holding a more diversified sense of self shifted away from body weight and shape. ...
... Reducing appearance-related prejudices and specifically obesity stigmatization, emphasizing less physical appearance and accepting body shape diversities, 55 and promoting body acceptance 58 could help reduce negative appearance-related feedback during social interactions. At the individual level, they could help to not base self-esteem on physical appearance but on other domains, 59 like academic competence. Given that appearance teasing is widespread and more subtle and less overt ways of appearance teasing could persist, intervention initiatives should strength children's coping strategies and self-efficacy to buffer the impact of these experiences, especially among girls and overweight adolescents. ...
BACKGROUND
Some adolescents are victims of negative appearance-related feedback, and this may have lasting adverse effects on their self-evaluation. The aim of this study was to examine the frequency and impact of appearance teasing across sex and weight status.METHODS
The participants were 570 Czech adolescents (47.9% girls) evaluated at age 13 during the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood. Instruments used were body mass index and an adapted version of the Physical Experiences Survey that measures appearance teasing sources (parents, peers, among others), body part teased, and the impact of teasing. Chi-square test and multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to compare groups by sex and weight status. Logistic regression was then used for adjusted analyses.RESULTSGirls were more likely to report appearance teasing than boys. Overweight adolescents, both girls and boys, were more likely to be teased than non-overweight adolescents. Overweight adolescents compared with non-overweight adolescents reported higher levels of impact of body-related teasing.CONCLUSIONS
Czech adolescents continue to adopt the societal standards of Western countries, stigmatizing overweight peers. This may affect more obese adolescents. Future research has to evaluate different sources of appearance-related teasing. Interventions in schools are suitable for the reduction of appearance-related prejudices.
... Higher scores indicate more self-esteem. The SSES has been used in multiple recent investigations with ethnic minorities, including Asian American, African American, and Hispanic American participants (Armitage, 2012;Mendoza-Denton, Goldman-Flythe, Pietrzak, Downey, & Aceves, 2010;Paukert, Pettit, Perez, & Walker, 2006;Townsend, Markus, & Bergsieker, 2009;Zeigler-Hill, Besser, & King, 2011). Cronbach's alpha indicated excellent reliability (α = .92). ...
This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify acculturation profiles. A three-profile solution fit the data best, and comparisons on demographic and psychosocial outcomes as a function of profile yielded expected results. The findings support using LPA as a parsimonious way to model acculturation without anticipating profiles in advance.
The aim of this research was to compare spinal posture, mobility and body image perception between healthy women and women with primary dysmenorrhoea. A total of 120 women, 57 healthy and 63 with Primary dysmenorrhoea, were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 22 years in the group with primary dysmenorrhoea and 21 years in the healthy group; BMI results were 23.05 and 21.45, respectively. Participants' pain severity, attitudes towards menstruation and menstrual symptoms, physical activity levels and body image perceptions were assessed with the corresponding questionnaires. Participants' spinal posture and mobility were assessed with Spinal Mouse device. In our study, pain score of women with Primary dysmenorrhoea was higher than healthy women (p<0.001). Sacrum-hip angle (p=0.005), inclination angle (p=0.014) and mobility of these regions ((p=0.006), (p=0.001)) were lower in the Primary dysmenorrhoea group compared with the healthy group. Menstrual symptoms were more severe in women with Primary dysmenorrhoea (p<0.001) and their attitudes towards menstruation were more negative (p=0.013, p=0.003, p=0.034, p=0.023, p<0.001, p<0.001). Physical activity levels (p=0.294) and body image perceptions of Primary dysmenorrhoea and healthy women were similar (p=0.225). As a result we found that the spinal posture and mobility of women with Primary dysmenorrhoea differed negatively from healthy women and that they approached menstruation cognitively worse. These results may be important for women with Primary dysmenorrhoea to be aware of their own bodies. We think that women with Primary dysmenorrhoea should be educated about this issue.
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.
We expected power – the perceived capacity to influence others – to be an antecedent of positive body image because power is closely linked to self-esteem, which in turn is linked to body image. In a cross-sectional study ( N = 318), sense of power was positively related to body appreciation and satisfaction with one’s appearance. Self-esteem partially mediated this effect. In an experimental study ( N = 114), participants assigned to a high-power group indicated more body appreciation, reported more body satisfaction, and estimated themselves to be taller than participants assigned to a low-power group. Self-esteem mediated all the effects. Altogether, power affected body image directly but also indirectly through elevated self-esteem. Implications refer to clinical prevention and intervention programs.
Fitspiration (fitness inspiration) exposure on Instagram has been associated with body dissatisfaction, but minimal research has investigated interventions to protect against its negative effects. Values affirmation interventions, in which individuals reflect on a higher value to affirm their sense of personal worth, could be helpful in this context. This online study’s aim was to examine the impact of a values affirmation intervention on body dissatisfaction and negative mood in women exposed to fitspiration images from Instagram. Participants consisted of 238 female college students (Age M = 19.89, SD = 1.25) in the U.S. who were randomized into three groups: Values Affirmation Intervention + Fitspiration (described importance of top value and viewed fitspiration images), Control Intervention + Fitspiration (described their daily activities and viewed fitspiration images), and Travel (control—viewed travel images only). State body dissatisfaction and negative mood were completed pre- and post-exposure for all groups. Body dissatisfaction and negative mood significantly increased in the Control Intervention + Fitspiration, did not change in the Values Affirmation Intervention + Fitspiration group, and decreased in the Travel group from pre-exposure to post-exposure. These findings suggest that a values affirmation intervention could partially protect college women from the negative effects of fitspiration exposure.
Rationale
Using indoor tanning devices is associated with substantial health consequences, such as an increased risk of melanoma and other skin cancers. Many people including minors and some at high risk of skin cancer continue to use these devices. In the absence of effective restrictions on use, it is important that behaviour change interventions are designed to reduce indoor tanning.
Objective
To explore reasons for use of indoor tanning devices and the acceptability of alternatives in adult users residing in North-West England.
Methods
Participants were required to be current indoor tanners aged 18 years and above and were recruited online. Twenty-one participants took part in either a focus group or semi-structured interview. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted.
Results
Six themes were identified: psychological benefits; improving physical health; denial of health risks; alternatives do not meet psychological needs; alternatives do not meet physical needs; and perceived side-effects. Participants used indoor tanning devices to improve their self-esteem and to prevent sun damage to their skin (by gaining a ‘base tan’). Participants appeared to justify their usage by responding defensively to avoid accepting they were at risk, exaggerating the benefits of indoor tanning, and discounting alternatives to indoor tanning. Alternatives to indoor tanning were perceived as risky for health, inadequate to provide the desired aesthetic, and incapable of meeting their self-esteem needs.
Conclusions
Interventions to reduce indoor tanning behaviour should increase sources of self-esteem other than appearance, increase media literacy and address defensive responses to information around indoor tanning and alternatives. Further research is needed to develop these interventions and assess their feasibility.
Positive Psychological Interventions are activities that have been demonstrated to cause a positive change in a population by increasing a positive variable (e.g., optimism). Although these activities come in a variety of forms and focus on a wide range of positive variables, researchers tend to concentrate their efforts on seven popular and well-researched categories of PPIs that are as follows: meaning, gratitude, strengths, savoring, optimism, empathy, and kindness. Collectively, the PPIs in these domains have been shown to alleviate depressive symptoms, increase pro-social spending and social connectedness, reduce suicidal ideation, increase subjective well-being or happiness, and many other positive changes across diverse populations. Still, there are many questions that warrant discussion for future research such as sex and cultural differences, long-term effects, and antithetical or unexpected reactions to activities. Along with examining these benefits and critiques of PPIs, we discuss the background and state of replicability for each domain.
This study examined the longitudinal relationship between self-esteem and body image distress, as well as the moderating effect of relationships with parents, among adolescents in Korea, using nationally representative prospective panel data. Regarding causal direction, the findings supported bi-directionality for girls, but for boys the association was unidirectional, in that their self-esteem predicted body image distress, but not vice versa. A gender difference also emerged in the moderating effect of quality of relationships with parents. For girls, relationships with parents moderated the effect of body image distress on self-esteem, such that when relationships with parents were better, the effect of greater body image distress on subsequent lower self-esteem was stronger than when relationships with parents were less positive. For boys, relationships with parents moderated the influence of self-esteem on body image distress, such that self-esteem reduced body image distress more when boys had better relationships with parents.
Process simulations--mental simulations that ask people to imagine the process of completing a task--have been shown to decrease anxiety in students facing hypothetical or psychological threats in the short term. The aim of the present study was to see whether process simulations could reduce anxiety in a sample of the general population attending a dental practice, and whether these effects could be sustained throughout treatment. Participants (N=75) were randomized to an experimental condition where they were asked to simulate mentally the process of seeing the dentist, or to a control condition where they were asked to simulate mentally the outcome of seeing the dentist. Findings showed that participants in the experimental condition were significantly less anxious both before and after their consultations. Self-efficacy and self-esteem remained unchanged. This study suggests that process simulation is one active ingredient in anxiety treatment programs and further research is required to enhance its effects.
An experiment tested whether a positive experience (the endorsement and recall of one's past acts of kindness) would reduce biased processing of self-relevant health-risk information. Women college students (N = 66) who reported high or low levels of daily caffeine use were exposed to both risk-confirming and risk-disconfirming information about the link between caffeine consumption and fibrocystic breast disease (FBD). Participants were randomly assigned to complete an affirmation of their kindness via questionnaire or to a no-affirmation condition. Results indicated that the affirmation manipulation made frequent caffeine drinkers more open, less biased processors of risk-related information. Relative to frequent caffeine drinkers who did not affirm their kindness, frequent caffeine drinkers in the affirmation condition oriented more quickly to the risk-confirming information, rated the risk-confirming information as more convincing than the risk-disconfirming information, and recalled less risk-disconfirming information at a 1-week follow-up. They also reported greater perceived personal control over reducing their level of caffeine consumption. Although frequent caffeine drinkers in the affirmation condition initially reported lower intentions to reduce their caffeine consumption, there was no evidence that they were less likely to decrease their caffeine consumption at the follow-up. The possibility that positive beliefs and experiences function as self-regulatory resources among people confronting threats to health and well-being is 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.
Research has demonstrated that adult attachment style affects symptom reporting, yet relatively little is known about the variables that mediate this relationship. Participants (N ¼ 202) completed a series of measures designed to tap psychosocial variables associated with both attachment style and symptom reporting, namely, social support, self-esteem, positive affect, negative affect, and emotional expressivity. As predicted, people with secure attachment styles differed significantly from those with insecure attachment styles (i.e., avoidant and anxious/ambivalent) on all dependent variables. Negative affect was the principal mediator of the effects of secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent attachment styles on symptom reporting. The discussion focuses on the practical and theoretical implications of this work, and in particular on the role of negative affect on symptom reporting. The association between attachment style and health behaviour, most notably symptom reporting, is well-established (e.g., Taylor, Mann, White, & Goldberg, 2000). More recently, however, researchers have turned their attention away from simply quantifying the magnitude of the relationship between attachment style and symptom reporting in favour of identifying variables that are potentially more amenable to change (e.g., Wearden, Cook, & Vaughan-Jones, 2003).
Four studies examined the construct validity of two global self-esteem measures. In Studies 1 through 3, the Single-Item Self-Esteem Scale (SISE) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) showed strong convergent validity for men and women, for different ethnic groups, and for both college students and community members. The SISE and the RSE had nearly identical correlations with a wide range of criterion measures, including domain-specific self-evaluations, self-evaluative biases, social desirability, personality, psychological and physical health, peer ratings of group behavior, academic outcomes, and demographic variables. Study 4 showed that the SISE had only moderate convergent validity in a sample of children. Overall, the findings support the reliability and validity of the SISE and suggest it can provide a practical alternative to the RSE in adult samples. More generally, the findings contribute to the research literature by further elaborating the nomological network of global self-esteem.
This article examines the measurement of short-lived (i.e., state) changes in self-esteem. A new scale is introduced that is sensitive to manipulations designed to temporarily alter self-esteem, and 5 studies are presented that support the scale's validity. The State Self-Esteem Scale (SSES) consists of 20 items modified from the widely used Janis-Field Feelings of Inadequacy Scale (Janis & Field, 1959). Psychometric analyses revealed that the SSES has 3 correlated factors: performance, social, and appearance self-esteem. Effects of naturally occurring and laboratory failure and of clinical treatment on SSES scores were examined; it was concluded that the SSES is sensitive to these sorts of manipulations. The scale has many potential uses, which include serving as a valid manipulation check index, measuring clinical change in self-esteem, and untangling the confounded relation between mood and self-esteem.
In Western cultures, girls' self-esteem declines substantially during middle adolescence, with changes in body image proposed as a possible explanation. Body image develops in the context of sociocultural factors, such as unrealistic media images of female beauty. In a study of 136 U.K. girls aged 11–16, experimental exposure to either ultra-thin or average-size magazine models lowered body satisfaction and, consequently, self-esteem. Self-esteem was also lower among older than among younger girls. Structural equation modeling showed that this age trend was partially accounted for by a corresponding downward trend in body satisfaction; this, in turn, was fully accounted for by upward age trends in awareness and internalization of sociocultural attitudes toward appearance, and in social comparison with media models. Results support calls for early educational interventions to help girls to deconstruct advertising and media images.
The purpose of this study was to establish the psychometric properties of the Shape and Weight Based Self-Esteem (SAWBS) Inventory, a newly-developed measure of the influence of shape and weight on feelings of self-worth. The results from a nonclinical sample of young women indicated that SAWBS scores were stable over time (N = 24), and correlated moderately with one of two measures of shape and weight schemata (N = 50). In a sample of 84 women, SAWBS scores also correlated moderately with two measures of eating disorder symptomatology, and in regression analyses contributed statistically significant unique variances to both measures of symptomatology, even after the effects of body mass index, depression, and global self-esteem were controlled. Finally, SAWBS scores discriminated between women reporting few or no disturbed eating symptoms and possible/probable eating disorder cases. In sum, the SAWBS Inventory is a reliable and valid measure, and may be a useful tool in the assessment of eating disorders.
To test the ability of a new, brief means of affirming the self (the "self-affirming implementation intention") to decrease alcohol consumption against a standard means of self-affirmation (the self-affirming "kindness" questionnaire) and an active control condition; to test whether self-affirmation effects can be sustained beyond the experimental session; and to examine potential moderators of the effects.
Two hundred seventy-eight participants were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: control questionnaire, self-affirming questionnaire, and self-affirming implementation intention. All participants were exposed to a threatening health message, designed to inform them about the health risks associated with consuming alcohol.
The main outcome measure was subsequent alcohol intake.
There were significant public health gains and statistically significant decreases (>1 unit/day) in alcohol consumption in the two experimental conditions but not in the control condition. At the end of the study, participants in the control condition were consuming 2.31 units of alcohol per day; people in the self-affirming questionnaire condition were consuming 1.52 units of alcohol per day; and people in the self-affirming implementation intention condition were consuming 1.53 units of alcohol per day. There were no significant differences between the self-affirming questionnaire and self-affirming implementation intention, and adherence did not moderate the effects. Self-affirmation also improved message processing, increased perceived threat, and led to lower message derogation.
The findings support the efficacy of a new, brief self-affirmation manipulation to enhance the effectiveness of health risk information over time. Further research is needed to identify mediators of the effects of self-affirmation on health behavior change.
One possible reason for the continued neglect of statistical power analysis in research in the behavioral sciences is the inaccessibility of or difficulty with the standard material. A convenient, although not comprehensive, presentation of required sample sizes is provided. Effect-size indexes and conventional values for these are given for operationally defined small, medium, and large effects. The sample sizes necessary for .80 power to detect effects at these levels are tabled for 8 standard statistical tests: (1) the difference between independent means, (2) the significance of a product-moment correlation, (3) the difference between independent rs, (4) the sign test, (5) the difference between independent proportions, (6) chi-square tests for goodness of fit and contingency tables, (7) 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and (8) the significance of a multiple or multiple partial correlation.
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
The ubiquitous Barbie doll was examined in the present study as a possible cause for young girls' body dissatisfaction. A total of 162 girls, from age 5 to age 8, were exposed to images of either Barbie dolls, Emme dolls (U.S. size 16), or no dolls (baseline control) and then completed assessments of body image. Girls exposed to Barbie reported lower body esteem and greater desire for a thinner body shape than girls in the other exposure conditions. However, this immediate negative impact of Barbie doll was no longer evident in the oldest girls. These findings imply that, even if dolls cease to function as aspirational role models for older girls, early exposure to dolls epitomizing an unrealistically thin body ideal may damage girls' body image, which would contribute to an increased risk of disordered eating and weight cycling.
This study reports an experiment designed to test whether self-affirmation can overcome defensive processing of risk information in a sample of UK adult smokers with low socioeconomic status. Participants (N = 57) were randomized to either a self-affirmation or control condition before reading a government-sponsored antismoking leaflet and completing measures of message acceptance, intention, and self-efficacy. Participants' subsequent behavior (taking leaflets) was recorded surreptitiously. Results showed that the manipulation significantly increased message acceptance, intention and behavior, and that the effects of the manipulation on behavior were mediated through message acceptance and intention. The practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the possible use of self-affirmation manipulations to enhance the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions.
Adolescent girls with body dissatisfaction (N = 481, SD = 1.4) were randomized to a dissonance-based thin-ideal internalization reduction program, healthy weight control program, expressive writing control condition, or assessment-only control condition. Dissonance participants showed significantly greater decreases in thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, negative affect, eating disorder symptoms, and psychosocial impairment and lower risk for eating pathology onset through 2- to 3-year follow-up than did assessment-only controls. Dissonance participants showed greater decreases in thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, and psychosocial impairment than did expressive writing controls. Healthy weight participants showed greater decreases in thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, negative affect, eating disorder symptoms, and psychosocial impairment; less increases in weight; and lower risk for eating pathology and obesity onset through 2- to 3-year follow-up than did assessment-only controls. Healthy weight participants showed greater decreases in thin-ideal internalization and weight than did expressive writing controls. Dissonance participants showed a 60% reduction in risk for eating pathology onset, and healthy weight participants showed a 61% reduction in risk for eating pathology onset and a 55% reduction in risk for obesity onset relative to assessment-only controls through 3-year follow-up, implying that the effects are clinically important and enduring.
Difference scores have been widely used in studies of fit, similarity, and agreement. Despite their widespread use, difference scores suffer from numerous methodological problems. These problems can be mitigated or avoided with polynomial regression analysis, and this method has become increasingly prevalent during the past decade. Unfortunately, a number of potentially damaging myths have begun to spread regarding the drawbacks of difference scores and the advantages of polynomial regression. If these myths go unchecked, difference scores and the problems they create are likely to persist in studies of fit, similarity, and agreement. This article reviews 10 difference score myths and attempts to dispel these myths, focusing on studies conducted since polynomial regression was formally introduced as an alternative to difference scores.
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.
This study examined dimensional personality and temperamental characteristics in women with eating disorders. Clinical symptoms, personality, and temperament were examined in 30 women with anorexia nervosa (AN), 32 women with bulimia nervosa with no history of anorexia nervosa (BN), and 20 women with comorbid anorexia and bulimia nervosa (AB). Temperament differed markedly across the groups on the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) with AN women showing greater reward dependence, BN women scoring higher on novelty seeking subscales, and AB women showing high harm avoidance. The TPQ subscales also displayed higher classification accuracy than other personality and symptom measures. Temperamental features are distinct across eating disorder subtypes. Temperament could reflect differential vulnerabilities for the development of specific eating disorder symptom clusters. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Optimism, personality, and coping styles may alter the effects of stressful events through appraisal and stress reduction. The 1999 Kosovo crisis offered an opportunity to test this proposition under real-life, traumatic stress conditions. Dispositional optimism, personality, and coping contributions were predicted based on geographical distance and degree of reported stress for 3 groups: Kosovar refugees, Albanian citizens helping the refugees in Albania, and Albanian immigrants living in the United States. Results showed Kosovars significantly higher on all stress measures, and on maladjustment. Reduced optimism and reduced control coping were related to higher levels of maladjustment. Pessimism and escape coping showed no relation to psychological adjustment. Resilience was related to a combination of higher optimism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and control coping, paired with lower neuroticism.
There are few topics so fascinating both to the research investigator and the research subject as the self-image. It is distinctively characteristic of the human animal that he is able to stand outside himself and to describe, judge, and evaluate the person he is. He is at once the observer and the observed, the judge and the judged, the evaluator and the evaluated. Since the self is probably the most important thing in the world to him, the question of what he is like and how he feels about himself engrosses him deeply. This is especially true during the adolescent stage of development.
The effects of self-affirmation manipulations are not yet well understood because several different affirmation manipulations have been tested using multiple dependent variables. The aim of the present research was to establish whether global self-feelings and self-esteem, or interpersonal positive feelings are affected by affirming the self. Experiment 1 showed that completing a kindness questionnaire led to adolescent girls reporting more positive interpersonal feelings, but no greater self-feelings or self-esteem than completing an opinions (control) questionnaire. Experiment 2 showed again that self-affirmation did not affect self-esteem, and that there were few differences between writing an essay about a cherished value, writing an essay about kindness, or completing a questionnaire about kindness in boosting positive interpersonal feelings. The findings are discussed in relation to self-affirmation theory and the possible practical implications of self-affirmation for aiding the delivery of social and health messages.
One possible reason for the continued neglect of statistical power analysis in research in the behavioral sciences is the inaccessibility of or difficulty with the standard material. A convenient, although not comprehensive, presentation of required sample sizes is provided here. Effect-size indexes and conventional values for these are given for operationally defined small, medium, and large effects. The sample sizes necessary for .80 power to detect effects at these levels are tabled for eight standard statistical tests: (a) the difference between independent means, (b) the significance of a product-moment correlation, (c) the difference between independent rs, (d) the sign test, (e) the difference between independent proportions, (f) chi-square tests for goodness of fit and contingency tables, (g) one-way analysis of variance, and (h) the significance of a multiple or multiple partial correlation.
Hypotheses involving mediation are common in the behavioral sciences. Mediation exists when a predictor affects a dependent variable indirectly through at least one intervening variable, or mediator. Methods to assess mediation involving multiple simultaneous mediators have received little attention in the methodological literature despite a clear need. We provide an overview of simple and multiple mediation and explore three approaches that can be used to investigate indirect processes, as well as methods for contrasting two or more mediators within a single model. We present an illustrative example, assessing and contrasting potential mediators of the relationship between the helpfulness of socialization agents and job satisfaction. We also provide SAS and SPSS macros, as well as Mplus and LISREL syntax, to facilitate the use of these methods in applications.
To the extent that cultural worldviews provide meaning in the face of existential concerns, specifically the inevitability of death, affirming a valued aspect of one's worldview should render reminders of death less threatening. The authors report two studies in support of this view. In Study 1, mortality salience led to derogation of a worldview violator unless participants had first affirmed an important value. In Study 2, self-affirmation before a reminder of death was associated with reduced accessibility of death-related thoughts a short while thereafter. The authors propose that actively affirming one's worldview alters reactions to reminders of mortality by reducing the accessibility of death-related thoughts, not by boosting self-esteem. These studies attest to the flexible nature of psychological self-defense and to the central role of cultural worldviews in managing death-related concerns.
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