Lecture 3 - Self-affirmation theory
• Toma, C. L., & Hancock, J. T. (2013). Self-affirmation underlies Facebook use.
o Popularity of social media sites is from the fulfilment of ego needs o Facebook profiles are self-affirming in the sense of satisfying users' need for self-worth and self-integrity. o Facebook users gravitate toward their online profiles after receiving a blow to the ego, in an unconscious effort to repair their perceptions of self-worth.
• Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychological intervention.
o Self-affirmation interventions typically have people write about core personal values. The interventions bring about a more expansive view of the self and its resources, weakening the implications of a threat for personal integrity.
• Harris, P. R., & Epton, T. (2010). The impact of self‐affirmation on health‐related cognition and health behaviour: Issues and prospects
o Self-affirming can reduce resistance to health-risk information
• Harris, P. R., Mayle, K., Mabbott, L., & Napper, L. (2007). Self-affirmation reduces smokers' defensiveness to graphic on-pack cigarette warning labels.
o Tested whether smokers respond defensively to graphic images depicting the health consequences of smoking and whether self-affirmation reduces their defensiveness o Relative to controls, self-affirmed participants rated the images as more threatening and personally relevant o At follow-up, motivation to reduce consumption remained higher in self-affirmed participants, but there were no differences in reported consumption o Self-affirmation can promote less defensive responding even to visual material about well-established health risks such as smoking.
• Armitage, C. J., Harris, P. R., Hepton, G., & Napper, L. (2008). Self-affirmation increases acceptance of health-risk information among UK adult smokers with low socioeconomic status.
o Tests whether self-affirmation can overcome defensive processing of risk information in adult smokers with low SES o Self-affirmation condition significantly increased message acceptance of anti-smoking leaflets o Practical application to using self-affirmation manipulations to enhance the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions
self-affirmation and health psychology
• Fielden et al. (2016) conducted online intervention using self-affirmation to increase fruit & veg consumption • If you think about something good of yourself, raises your self-esteem, when you are criticised you can then take it as it lowers your self-esteem to the norm • Particularly interested in low SES mothers and young adults o Measured baseline fruit & veg consumption for low SES and not low SES o Half randomly assigned to self-affirmation in a non-relevant domain, e.g. think about a time you forgave someone - chose something that was important to the self o Other half asked to think about something irrelevant - reflected on life experiences in the past o Measured fruit & veg consumption in following 7 days to see if self-affirmation group ate healthier • Predict that Ps will generally be defensive towards health message and resist change. Self-affirmation will restore self-integrity and promote change. • Results o A mixed 2 x 7 ANCOVA (ANOVA with covariant involved) o Analysis revealed a significant main effect of condition on behaviour across all participants F(1, 69) = 49.466, p < .001, ηp2= .418 o Y = no. of fruit and veg portions X = days o Straight line = non-affirmed group dotted line = self-affirmed group o Self-affirmed condition ate significantly more fruit and veg, suggesting self-affirmation lead to increased consumption o Low SES mothers: self-affirmed mothers ate more fruit and veg o The analysis revealed a significant main effect of condition on behaviour F(1, 21) = 19.170, p < .001 o At lower levels of baseline fruit and vegetable consumption, self-affirmation led to greater increases in post manipulation consumption than at higher levels of baseline consumption o For people who already at a lot of fruit and veg, they had a little more if they self-affirmed. For those who rarely ate fruit and veg (low baseline), almost doubled their intake by self-affirming o Self-affirming works best for those most at risk
goal achievement and self-discrepancy theory
• Goal achievement is linked with self-regulation • Self-regulation = process by which people initiate, alter and control their behaviour in the pursuit of goals o Involves delayed gratification: the ability to resist short-term rewards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals • Self-regulation is important for rational behaviour (e.g. 5-a-day) as well as more ambiguous goals (e.g. being a good person) • Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) = behaviour is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selves. o If there is a large discrepancy between the actual self and the ideal self or the ought self, this will have negative emotional consequences. o Ideal self - best version of you o Actual self - the actual version of you o Ought self - who you think you should be • Ideal and ought selfs serve as self-guides, motivating people to regulate their behaviour in order to close the gap between their actual self and ideal/ ought self • Falling short of these standards produces specific emotions: o Dejection-related emotions for actual-ideal discrepancies e.g. judges critique your singing ability creates discrepancy between actual self (poor singer) and ideal self (rock star) and has feelings of shame o Agitation-related emotions for actual-ought discrepancies e.g. losing patience with your grandmother (actual self) feels agitation-related emotions like guilt if your ought self includes being patient • SDT is important in understanding goal behaviour. If we focus on achieving our ideal self, this leads to a promotion focus. If we focus on maintaining our ought self, this leads to a prevention focus. o Promotion focus = self-regulation of behaviour with respect to ideal self-standards, or a focus on attaining positive outcomes and approach-related behaviours o Prevention focus = self-regulation of behaviour with respect to ought self-standards, or a focus on avoiding negative outcomes and avoidance-related behaviours • SDT predicts a 'positive' outcome for a promotion approach and a 'negative' outcome for a prevention approach o Higgins et al. (1997, 2001) ask people to do take a personality test of their actual self, then get them to think of their ideal self Ps tend to feel positive mood. o But, if Ps feel that their actual self is far from their ideal self negative emotions, e.g. feeling upset o If Ps feel that their actual self has 'fallen' from their ought self guilty emotions avoidance type behaviours • Westerners are more likely to have a promotion focus as they're more interested in attaining personal goals and more likely to feel their own efforts are sufficient to achieve them. East Asians exhibit prevention focus as they're more concerned with the possible negative consequences of their actions for their relations with others (Lee, 2000)
self-affirmation in other contexts
• In theory, self-affirmation can be applied to any context where the individual might resist a message e.g. in educational psychology • Cohen et al (2006) conducted a study in a school with approximately 50% white students and 50% ethnic minority students (black and Hispanic) o Ethnic minority students performed worse in school than white students o Half were assigned to SA interventions and half did a control activity in first year o GPA over 3 years was tracked o There was an increase in academic performance for the ethnic minority students in the SA condition (no difference for those in non-SA or for white students) o Theory was that ethnic minorities found studying threatening as they normally performed badly at school so didn't see the point in trying o SA made them value education more o Suggests that SA can have lasting effects • Harris & Napper (2005) tested the use of SA in the context of health messages designed to highlight the link between excessive alcohol consumption and breast cancer o Participants who self-affirmed were more influenced by the health campaign (e.g. better intentions, reported more fear of cancer) o No effect on non-SA group and results stronger for those at most risk o Self-affirmed group had more intentions to cut down their drinking o Measured how much participants believed in the scientific evidence before the study - results not explained by belief in link or evidence strength: there was no correlation
self-regulation
• Self-regulation is difficult • Ego-depletion = a state, produced by acts of self-control, in which people lack the energy/ resources to engage in further acts of self-control o Refers to the idea that self-control is a limited resource that can be drained. • Baumeister et al. (1998) - Ps that have unhealthy option gave up on a task more easily. o Make participants complete a long computer task, interested in how long participants took to give up o No breakfast before the study: either had a bowl of radishes or cookies next to you o Cookie condition gave up sooner o Willpower is depleted: trying to complete a task and not think of the food, give up • Muraven et al. (1998) - Ps that watched an emotionally draining movie couldn't squeeze a handgrip for as long. o However, could be more of a distraction not a loss of willpower • But, is merely motivational? Ps that believe in ego-depletion tend to show its effects, while others don't. Moreover, Ps highly motivated or incentivised don't show the effects o People's opinions on self-control also matter as if you believe self-control is a limited resource, you tend to show the standard ego depletion effect (Job, 2010) • Gailliot et al. (2007) link ego-depletion to blood glucose levels and show that self-control tasks lead to lower glucose levels and poorer performance. o But rinsing one's mouth with a sugar solution without actually ingesting it removes these effects • Worth noting that much of this research comes out of the same lab, i.e. by colleagues who work together and that attempts to replicate some of these studies have been mixed.
self-affirmation and mormons
• Sense of community is very important in religion, particularly Mormons o They care about what others think about them • Steele (1975) study in Salt Lake City where a caller poses as conducting a poll for helping out in the local community. • Caller told subjects that they were known in the community as: o Cooperative o Uncooperative o No call o Bad driver (condition that is irrelevant to cognitive dissonance) • 2 days later, a different experimenter asked subjects to take part in a community project. o Identifying if their more compliant based on the earlier phone call • Cooperative around 65% complied • Uncooperative over 90% complied (to disprove that people think they're uncooperative) • No call condition around 48% complied (baseline: no sense of community created) • Bad driver over 90% complied (unrelated to community project but highest compliance) o Criticised view of themselves so they balance/ restore their self-esteem by doing something proactive • Self-integrity is global and fluid. Affirmation in one domain can affect global self compliance
Self-Affirmation Theory and the Smoker's Dilemma
• Smoker's dilemma - around the 1950s, health dangers of smoking were figured out, yet people continue to smoke despite the evidence of how bad it is and it's addictive, some people don't even want to quit • Festinger (1957) conducted research on cognitive dissonance. Argued that the smokers' dilemma was due to cognitive inconsistencies rationalisations o Cognitive dissonance in you enjoying smoking and the health dangers saying its bad o To resolve this conflict, come up rationalisation (justify doing something) and resistance • • Steele (1988) argued that the dilemma could also be explained by how these health messages threatened the self. Health messages can be interpreted as a criticism negative feelings and avoidance behaviour. o Being a smoker is part of your self o Health messages to quit smoking ask you to change your self, criticising your self-integrity o This leads to resistance •
