Self-Affirmation: Understanding the Effects

Self-affirmation theory proposes that individuals possess a flexible self-system, such that they can respond to threats in one domain of life by affirming self-worth in other domains. In social psychology research, this has been examined in studies where people affirm important values in the context of self-threatening events or information. This paper reviews the literature demonstrating the effects of values affirmations and proposes a theoretical account to understand how self-affirmations reduce defensiveness in response to threats to individuals’ health, attenuate physiological stress responses to laboratory and naturalistic stressors, and improve academic performance among individuals experiencing identity threat. The proposed model has three components: Self-affirmations boost self-resources, broaden the perspective with which people view information and events in their lives, and lead to an uncoupling of the self and the threat, reducing the threat’s impact in affecting the self. This model helps explain what occurs when individuals affirm values in the context of threats, and how self-affirmations may instantiate lasting effects through changing the nature of ongoing experience. Over the past 30 years, psychological researchers have induced people to affirm their values in the context of self-threatening events and information. When affirmed, smokers are more open to anti-smoking information (Crocker et al., 2008; Harris et al., 2007), athletes take more responsibility for their teams’ defeats and less credit for their successes (Sherman & Kim, 2005), and minority students experiencing stereotype threat feel greater belonging in school and show improved academic performance over a substantial period of time (Cohen et al., 2009; Cook et al., 2012; Sherman et al., 2013). Self-affirmation theory has evolved from an alternative explanation for cognitive dissonance phenomena (Steele & Liu, 1983; Steele, 1988; see also J. Aronson et al., 1999) to a theory that informs intervention in a wide range of settings (see Cohen & Sherman, forthcoming; Harris & Epton, 2009; Garcia & Cohen, 2012 for reviews). The question of precisely what it is that causes such effects is still – in many psychologists’ eyes – unresolved and the topic of continued research attention. The purpose of the present review is to (i) summarize self-affirmation theory; (ii) review major new discoveries in affirmation research with an emphasis on how affirmations affect defensiveness, stress, and academic performance under identity threat; and (iii) present a general theoretical account of how these effects occur. I propose that affirming important values enhances the psychological resources available to an individual to confront a threat. With this enhanced perception of self-resources, a focal threat can be viewed from a broader perspective, as individuals will view events more generally from a higher level of construal. This broader perspective enables people to experience the threat such that it does not affect, to the same extent, overall self-evaluation. This theoretical account identifies the general “psychological shifts” that occur at a higher level than specific mediating mechanisms and thus apply well to the positive findings across disparate problem domains. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Self-Affirmation: Understanding the Effects 835 Self-Affirmation Theory Self-affirmation theory begins with the premise that people are motivated to maintain the perceived worth and integrity of the self, a global perception of adequacy rather than their perceived worth in specific domains and in response to particular threats (Steele, 1988; see also Cohen & Sherman, forthcoming; McQueen & Klein, 2006; Sherman & Cohen, 2006). Stressful or threatening events and information – those that call into question perceptions of global adequacy – focus attention and an immediate need to mobilize physiological and psychological resources to combat them (Sapolsky, 2004; S. E. Taylor, 1991). Threatening events and information can prompt rationalizations or other defensive responses aimed to lessen the threat. For example, being reminded of one’s hurtful actions toward others could be threatening, but the threat could be reduced if one rationalizes the victims as deserving it (E. Aronson, 1999). What is central to affirmation theory is that the self-system is flexible, and people have many responses in their “psychological immune system” that they can draw on (Gilbert et al., 1998). When people affirm their overall self-integrity, their view of the self as being capable and adaptive, they will have less need to rationalize away threatening information (Sherman & Cohen, 2006; Steele, 1988). Reminded of who they are and what is important to them, such selfaffirmations can reduce stress by putting threats in the context of an overall narrative of self-integrity. A self-affirmation is an act that demonstrates a person’s adequacy (Cohen & Sherman, forthcoming), and there are many experimental operationalizations of self-affirmation (McQueen & Klein, 2006). These include positive feedback on a personally important skill (e.g., Cohen et al., 2000, Study 2), purchasing of status goods (Sivanathan & Pettit, 2010), and updating one’s Facebook page (Toma & Hancock, 2013). This review focuses on values affirmations, as the focal outcomes reviewed have all been assessed most reliably as a function of values affirmations; moreover, other manipulations may operate through different processes (e.g., positive feedback may introduce mood effects, which have generally not been observed to result from values affirmations). In addition, this review speaks to how values affirmations affect people under threat, as the process for those not experiencing threat is likely to be different (Briñol et al., 2007). In a standard affirmation induction, people write about central values such as relationships with friends or family or complete questionnaires that evoke their central values such as religion or social values. What is key about these manipulations is that they are self-generated and enable people to express what is important to them and why in terms of their own personal values, the standards they use to evaluate personal integrity (Rokeach, 1973). When timed to threatening circumstances, such values affirmations can serve as turning points for an individual’s narrative, and catalyze changes in the person and in the person’s interaction with the environment, resulting in more adaptive responses to threat (Cohen & Sherman, forthcoming). Self-Affirmation Effects In the sections that follow, I provide a brief review of recent self-affirmation research on defensive responses, physiological stress responses, and academic performance under identity threat.