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AbstractObjectiveMethodsResultsConclusionsCancer diagnosis represents a life crisis. It remains unclear whether/what psychosocial intervention may enhance cancer patients’ quality of life (QoL) during existential plight. This study aimed to examine preliminary efficacy of a brief writing intervention for patients newly diagnosed with advanced cancer with a focus on affirming personally important values and beliefs.This is a single-arm pilot study testing effect of a 4-week home-based self-affirmation writing intervention for patients newly diagnosed with advanced cancer using interrupted time series design (NCT 05235750). Patients were eligible if they were newly diagnosed (within 8 weeks) with advanced stage (III or IV) or recurrent cancer. Longitudinal analyses were performed using generalized linear mixed model incorporating the correlation of repeated measures. All statistical analyses were performed at 5% significance level using SAS® (version 9.4).Fifty-seven patients newly diagnosed with advanced stage cancer with a mean age of 63 years balanced in gender were enrolled. Intent-to-treat analysis revealed significant post-intervention change for Faith as measured by the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being 12 item scale (FACIT-Sp-12) (ES 0.23, p = .05) and Ge6 “I worry that my condition will get worse” as measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General (FACT-G) (ES 0.26, p = .10). When comparing changes pre- and post-intervention, Ge6 remained clinically significant (ESΔ 0.36, p = .27).Self-affirmation via writing showed initial short-term efficacy in relieving cancer-specific existential concerns (Ge6 “I worry that my condition will get worse”) and may be a promising innovative intervention approach that warrant randomized experiments to verify. Further research is also needed to find out who may most likely benefit from this intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers often ask participants to affirm positive aspects or shared values for a group important to them (a group affirmation manipulation) in order to encourage healthy behavior, acknowledge historical harm, accept group-based criticism, or diffuse the impact of social exclusion. An exploratory meta-analysis of 92 experiments that included a group affirmation manipulation and a threat to participants' self-integrity revealed an average g of −0.03, 95% CI [−0.10, 0.05], and enormous heterogeneity (I 2 = 77.15%). Group affirmations predicted a larger effect size if participants in the comparison condition completed the dependent variable immediately afterwards, compared to other comparison conditions. They also predicted stronger positive self-evaluations compared to dependent measures such as behavioral intentions or attitudes. Group value affirmations slightly reduced defensive information processing, whereas affirmations of positive group characteristics increased ingroup bias; a pattern that reflected researchers' decisions to treat group affirmation as either an opportunity to reduce defensiveness or to increase the pursuit of collective interests. Careful consideration of the intergroup context and group norms should improve the effectiveness of group-based affirmations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Theory and evidence indicate that affirming the value of the self before exposure to a threatening message fosters more open-minded appraisal of message content. We predicted that college students mandated to a computer-delivered personalized feedback intervention (PFI) and who engaged in a self-affirmation (SA) exercise would demonstrate reduce drinking and consequences relative to those who received an attention control. Method: Participants were 484 undergraduates (age 18–24, 56% male, 78% White) mandated to participate in an alcohol intervention following a first-time alcohol policy violation. After a baseline assessment, each was randomized to SA (n = 256) or attention control (n = 227) prior to a computer-delivered PFI intervention. Posttest measures included an affirmation manipulation check; primary outcomes (past month weekly quantity, peak drinks, binge frequency, consequences) were assessed at 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-ups. We used latent growth curve modeling to test study hypotheses. Results: The SA exercise increased positive self-evaluation at posttest (p <.001). Overall reductions in drinking and consequences were observed at early follow-up (all p <.05), but the SA manipulation was not associated with intercept or slope factor differences in the models. Engaging in assessments during COVID restrictions was generally associated with reduced drinking and consequences. Conclusions: The SA exercise did not differentially affect trajectories of alcohol use and consequences, despite evidence that the exercise had the predicted effect on participant's self-evaluations. The lack of SA effects could be attributed to a nonthreatening PFI intervention that is generally accepted among mandated students. Public Health Significance Statement: College student drinkers who were required to complete an online alcohol intervention drank less and reported fewer alcohol-related consequences over the next 6–12 months. Completing a self-affirmation exercise before taking an online alcohol intervention did not improve outcomes. The participants in this study experienced COVID-related life disruptions relevant to the main outcome variables in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined workplace inclusivity experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and others (LGBT) using the Self-affirmation Theory, Workplace Belongingness, and Motivation. With Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, LGBT from diverse industries in Batangas were questioned utilizing a semi-structured interview. This study aimed to explore the inclusivity experience of LGBT members in their workplace and proposed comprehensive activities that can help promote an inclusive workplace effectively. To do this, the researcher examined the responses of the LGBT members. It was found that Self-affirmation Attributes; Conditional Positive Self-View; Self-affirmation Strategies for Self-esteem; Workplace Inclusivity, and Belonging; Diverse Spectrum of Workplace Facilities and Treatment for LGBT Groups; Sustainable Approaches to Inclusivity and Gender Equality Efforts; Dualistic Workplace Experiences; Innate Motivation Perform; Diverse External Motivators and Demotivators; and Fulfillment and Motivation in Assigned roles existed as part of their workplace experience. This study also recommended a Comprehensive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Value Proposition to be adopted in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Word-of-mouth (WOM) has become one of the most important ways consumers obtain and deliver self-image. However, little research has investigated how product type influences consumers' WOM intention through self-presentation motivation. Across six studies, this research explores how, why, when, and for whom the product type matters in self-presentation and WOM. Specifically, Study 1A and Study 1B demonstrate that consumers are more likely to engage in WOM for experiential (vs material products) regardless of the type of WOM. Study 2 investigates whether this effect is mediated by promotion-oriented rather than prevention-oriented self-presentation. Finally, three moderator studies, including self-affirmation (Study 3), materialism (Study 4), and need for uniqueness (Study 5), illustrate when and whose WOM intention is more likely to be influenced. This research contributes to theory and practice in impression management and the growing literature on WOM intention. JEL Classification: M310 Marketing and M370 Advertising [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Recent data suggests significant racial disparities in police killings in the United States: Much research finds that Black men are killed by police officers at higher rates than White men, and many individuals killed by police have been unarmed. Method: Toward addressing psychological mechanisms at play in these complicated decision contexts, the current study tested the effectiveness of two writing tasks at reducing the unjustified shooting of unarmed targets using a virtual shooting-decision platform. Participants wrote either about their sense of purpose, self-affirming values, or a control topic and then played a first-person shooter video game, which randomly presented pictures of Black and White armed and unarmed targets. Participants were instructed not to shoot unarmed targets and to shoot armed targets. Results: Results indicated that relative to controls, writing about either purpose or self-affirming values reduced the probability of shooting unarmed targets, without negatively impacting shooting decision reaction time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with concealable stigmatized identities (CSIs)—identities that are devalued by society, but membership can be hidden (e.g., sexual or gender minority, mental illness, sexual assault survivor)—report high rates of negative health outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety, illness symptoms). The current literature on CSIs suggests that disclosing one's CSI may promote positive health outcomes, but this approach leaves behind individuals who are unable to disclose due to financial, safety, or personal reasons. The current integrative review examines how self‐affirmation –reaffirming a part of one's identity after a psychologically threatening experience—may buffer against negative health outcomes among people with CSIs; a technique that does not require disclosure to reap the benefits. The purpose of this article is to describe why self‐affirmation may be effective at targeting various factors of CSIs (e.g., anticipated stigma, internalization, centrality, salience) and to call for interventions examining self‐affirmations in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual essay extends decolonisation debates to the broader context of decoloniality of praxis. It acknowledges the significance of epistemological and pedagogical decolonisation but argues that these do not fully engage with the entrenched coloniality in tourism in Africa. The essay problematises the conventional explanations for Africa's underperformance in international tourism and its erasure of Africans as tourists. It proffers pragmatic arguments for decolonising tourism in Africa, given the unprecedented decline in international tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic, the historically contradictory images of Africa, the latent demand for domestic and regional tourism, the youthful population of Africa, and the possibility of Africa-wide freedom of movement emanating from implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The article emphasizes the need for concomitant representivity of Africans as producers and consumers of tourism experiences from within the continent, partly facilitated through principles of subsidiarity, although potential resistance to such a pursuit is acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of self-esteem for promoting adolescents' social, psychological, and academic adjustment and the growing importance of social identities during adolescence, this five-wave study examined whether an identity-based self-affirmation intervention attenuated declines in adolescent self-esteem following the high school transition. A sample of ninth graders in the United States (N = 388; Mage = 14.05; 60.6% female; 35.8% male; 3.6% nonbinary, trans, or identifying with another gender; 46% White, 19% Black, 17% Asian, 6% Arab, Middle Eastern, North African, 6% Biracial/Multiethnic, 3% Latinx/Hispanic, and 3% another race/ethnicity) was recruited for the study. Following completion of a baseline online survey assessing self-esteem, participants were assigned to one of three conditions and corresponding writing exercises: identity-based self-affirmation, values-based self-affirmation, or control. Participants completed the same writing exercise during the first three waves of the study, and they completed measures of self-esteem at all five waves. Results indicated that participants in the self-affirmation conditions, but not the control condition, were protected from declining self-esteem across 1 year. Public Significance Statement: Self-esteem is a psychological phenomenon that predicts a host of important outcomes for youth but typically stagnates or even declines during adolescence. The present study developed an identity-based and values-based self-affirmation intervention to mitigate declines in ninth graders' self-esteem across 1 year. Results revealed that adolescents in the control condition exhibited declines in self-esteem, whereas those in the identity-based or values-based self-affirmation conditions were buffered from deteriorating self-esteem. The findings suggest that providing adolescents with opportunities to reflect on values and social identities of personal importance could have cascading effects on psychological adjustment following the high school transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot study tested a single-session digital values affirmation for behavioral activation (VABA) intervention. Hypotheses predicted the VABA intervention would be more effective than an active control condition in improving mood, decreasing COVID-19 fear/worry and depressive symptoms, and promoting positively reinforcing behaviors during early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were a diverse sample of undergraduate students (N = 296) under a state-wide lockdown. Students were randomized to either VABA, a 10-min values clarification and affirmation task, or Control, a time- and attention-matched task. Positive and negative affects were assessed pre- and post-intervention. At next-day follow-up, positive and negative affects were reassessed, as well as past 24-h behavioral activation and depressive symptoms. Within-group increases in positive affect were observed in both conditions (VABA d = 0.39; Control d = 0.19). However, VABA produced a significantly larger increase than Control (F[2] = 3.856, p =.022, d = 0.22). At 24-h follow-up, behavioral activation, which was significantly higher in VABA versus Control (t[294] = −5.584, p <.001, d = 0.65), predicted fewer depressive symptoms (R2 change =.019, β = -.134, p =.003). VABA is an ultra-brief intervention that appears to have acute effects on mood-enhancement and behavioral activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic, characterized by its highly contagious nature and devastating death toll, posed a dual threat to both physical and psychological well‐being. As a potential intervention to alleviate the psychological impact, values‐affirmation involves individuals engaging in the activity of writing about their core values. While its effectiveness in non‐WEIRD (i.e. Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) populations, notably among Chinese adults, has been confirmed, it remains largely unexplored whether the intervention can promote mental health in Chinese adolescents, especially in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The purpose of this study thus is to provide the first empirical evaluation of this intervention in promoting well‐being and alleviating psychological distress among Chinese adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic. A total of 2,234 students from 112 secondary schools in China were randomly assigned to an affirmation or control condition. The study found that self‐affirmation intervention improved students' life satisfaction, mental health, and self‐esteem, as well as buffered a decline of their purpose in life; however, no effects were found for clinical measures of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. The results suggest that self‐affirmation interventions, while having limited effects on clinically relevant outcomes, can be an effective approach to boost well‐being in adolescents during a major crisis, including in a more historically collectivist culture. Implications for self‐affirmation theory and cultural psychology, as well as avenues for future research, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the common strategies in the content business is the book-to-movie adaptation, where the textual content in the book medium is derived as visual and sound content in the film medium. While books include a variety of genres, the novel is most widely used as the basis for a movie. A unique feature of the novel-based movie is the presence of two types of movie consumers: “original novel fans,” who read the original novel and watch the movie because they like it, and “no-novel readers,” who watch the movie without having read the original novel. Given this unique consumer feature and the fact that electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) is the key factor in film success, it is essential to address the following questions: “Are original novel fans and non-novel readers are more active in e-WOM generation?” and “What is their mechanism of e-WOM generation?”. We aim to address these research questions through two studies. In Study 1, we examine which of the two types of movie consumers generate e-WOM and show that original novel fans are more likely to generate e-WOM. In Study 2, we focus on original novel fans, which are key consumers of e-WOM generation, and examine their e-WOM generation mechanisms; the results show that original novel fans generate e-WOM through social needs. Our study contributes to a better understanding of consumer behaviors regarding e-WOM generation. Moreover, we provide useful insights for business managers involved in the novel-to-movie adaptation.

Thoughts and perspectives ultimately provide the basis for how individuals understand and interpret life experiences. Failure is not the end of a journey but rather an opportunity to grow. This research discusses the process of self-affirmation through meditation to raise awareness of the minds of individuals who experience the lowest point in life, making them feel insecure, stressed, hopeless and losing character. This research uses qualitative methods with the Looking Glass Self theory. In this theory, individuals describe the process by which social reactions and evaluations can have an impact on how we see ourselves. This research aims to gain an in-depth understanding of self-affirmation through meditation in forming self-concept. The results of this research contained 3 findings, namely past trauma and its causes, self-affirmation through meditation, and self-concept. Past trauma is one of the causes for individuals to meditate, for example childhood trauma, breakups and even parental pressure. Self-affirmation through meditation has a positive impact on rising and recovering from failure, so that it can build a positive self-concept by setting boundaries to accept and respect bad social views. This shows that self-affirmation through meditation is an effective way to strengthen self-confidence and create a positive self-concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One's own voice undergoes unique processing that distinguishes it from others' voices, and thus listening to it may have a special neural basis for self-talk as an emotion regulation strategy. This study aimed to elucidate how neural effects of one's own voice differ from those of others' voices on the implementation of emotion regulation strategies. Twenty-one healthy adults were scanned using fMRI while listening to sentences synthesized in their own or others' voices for self-affirmation and cognitive defusion, which were based on mental commitments to strengthen one's positive aspects and imagining metaphoric actions to shake off negative aspects, respectively. The interaction effect between voice identity and strategy was observed in the superior temporal sulcus, middle temporal gyrus, and parahippocampal cortex, and activity in these regions showed that the uniqueness of one's own voice is reflected more strongly for cognitive defusion than for self-affirmation. This interaction was also seen in the precuneus, suggesting intertwining of self-referential processing and episodic memory retrieval in self-affirmation with one's own voice. These results imply that unique effects of one's own voice may be expressed differently due to the degree of engagement of neural sharpening-related regions and self-referential networks depending on the type of emotion regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative self-evaluative emotions arise when an individual engages in behavior that is perceived as inadequate or inconsistent with personal or societal norms and values, leading to feelings of inadequacy, shame, and dissatisfaction with oneself. These emotions are a central motivating force for changing unhealthy behaviors. However, negative evaluative emotions may also direct individuals towards defensive reactions such as reactance and avoidance. This can cause negative self-evaluative emotions to be less effective in reducing unhealthy behavior. More importantly, empirical evidence is needed to explore strategies for enhancing the effectiveness of interventions. In this study, we used an online experiment with 100 student participants to examine if increasing self-affirmation can increase the effectiveness of negative self-evaluative emotions in reducing unhealthy food consumption. We found that negative self-evaluative emotions can significantly increase healthy food consumption. However, our analysis did not reveal a significant moderating impact of self-affirmation on the effectiveness of negative self-evaluative emotions in reducing unhealthy consumption. This is the first study to explore the moderating impact of self-affirmation on the effectiveness of negative self-evaluative emotions on health behavioral change, which opens new avenues for studying how to apply the combination of stimulating negative self-evaluative emotions and increasing self-affirmation to induce behavioral change regarding healthy diets and even a broader range of fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

»Selbstoptimierung und das technologisch vermittelte Selbst: Über die Ausbalancierung von Selbstfürsorge und Selbstbeherrschung«. This paper presents an analysis of technologically mediated self-relations that materialise in the use of self-tracking (ST) devices and data to monitor and track one's bodily, emotional, habitual, or productivity-related aspects. Based on ethnographical research and postphenomenological framing, two analytical concepts are employed: self-care and self-control. While seemingly opposed, both simultaneously appear and co-exist in ST practices that transcend mere self-optimisation. The dialectic interplay between self-control and self-care provides uncertainty-reducing confirmation of prior hunches, emotionally relieving reminders and algorithmic recommendations, detailed data that might be helpful in the future for pattern recognition or treatments, and an orientation that offers safety with regard to current and future decisions. Self-tracking technologies can be seen as assisting selfand life-regulation that can ultimately support personal balance and harmony. The article contributes theoretically to ST literature by extending the concept of self-optimisation to include the balancing of needs and desires between self-responsibility and gratification, goal-tracking and self-affirmation, discipline and letting go. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual assault statistics are both widely disseminated and routinely challenged. Two studies investigated reactions to sexual assault research through the lens of ideologically motivated science denial. In particular, hostile sexism was expected to positively predict skepticism of sexual assault research. In Study 1, adult men in the United States (N = 316) reported their hostile sexism, then read one of three research summaries and reported their skepticism of the findings. Although there was no difference in skepticism across conditions, hostile sexism was a stronger predictor of skepticism regarding sexual assault research than of skepticism regarding breast cancer or alcohol abuse research. In Study 2 (N = 254), a standard self-affirmation manipulation failed to alter the hostile sexism-skepticism relation. Given that people deny science when it contradicts their ideology, it was posited that the research substantiating sexual assault had clashed with hostilely sexist views of women. Strategies beyond standard self-affirmation interventions, such as scientific literacy psychoeducation, may thus be needed to effectively communicate sexual assault-relevant science to hostile audiences. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843231215373. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Nursing students often experience anxiety due to various factors, one of which is clinical practice anxiety for fear of making mistakes, worry during clinical practice due to lack of trust in one's own abilities, lack of knowledge due to online learning and lack of experience at the first time of clinical practice. One way to overcome clinical practice anxiety is to be given a Self-affirmation technique. Selfaffirmation is converting negative thoughts into positive thoughts. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the self-affirmation technique on clinical practice anxiety in students of the nursing program at STIKes Payung Negeri Pekanbaru. Method: Design of this study was quasi-experiment pre and post-test without control. The research location is at STIKes Payung Negeri Pekanbaru. The respondents were 18 nursing students program. The study was conducted from May 31 to June 7, 2022. Self-affirmation intervention is applied twice a day morning and evening for 5 minutes for 7 days. The anxiety research instrument used the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) 42 questionnaire while self-affirmation used standard operational procedure. Result: The results of the univariate analysis showed that the anxiety score before intervention is 12.94 and decreased to 9.00 after being given self-affirmation. The results of the paired t-test showed p value is 0.000 which means that the self-affirmation technique is effective against clinical practice anxiety in nursing students at STIKes Payung Negeri Pekanbaru. Conclusion: Self affirmation can be used to address anxiety in nursing students who are running a clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' judgements and interactions may be influenced by the backgrounds of their students, yet research shows that they may be reluctant to accept evidence relating to such biases. We investigated teachers' perceptions of their own and others' biases and explored whether a brief self-affirmation manipulation—which tends to reduce defensive responding— could increase their acknowledgement of personal and institutional bias. UK-based teachers (N = 288) completed either a values affirmation or control task before reading a mildly threatening research-based article about unconscious bias in education. Overall, teachers exhibited a bias blind spot, whereby they were more likely to perceive unconscious bias as an issue for other teachers to contend with rather than as a concern for themselves. Self-affirmed teachers were more likely to agree to have their teaching filmed to explore if/where personal biases may exist. Nevertheless, the self-affirmation did not alter levels of overall acceptance of the issue or perceptions of personal relevance. Exploratory analyses suggested that greater support for equity-enhancing teaching practices among teachers was associated with increased acknowledgement of bias and support for anti-bias initiatives. The findings suggest that self-affirmation may offer limited scope for improving acknowledgement of biases and that more work needs to be done to challenge and change the narrative of prejudice in schooling, from one that concerns only a few 'bad apples' to one that is accepted as an issue for all educators to be aware of and responsible for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although reminders of mortality can induce social identity motivations, such as social status or hierarchy preference. However, the influence of Mortality Salience (MS) on consumption choices motivated by personal identity remains unclear. Using multinational datasets and experimental designs, we demonstrate that MS leads to a heightened desire for meaning in life, subsequently resulting in a stronger preference for products relevant to personal identity. Furthermore, we found that this effect can be mitigated when consumers' important values are affirmed. The current research contributes to the literature on coping with mortality salience and offering important theoretical insights into the relationship between MS and personal identity-based consumption. Furthermore, our findings hold practical implications for marketers seeking to develop more effective targeting strategies and promoting consumer well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Based on the commonality in cognitive clinical theories of OCD and cognitive dissonance theory regarding threat to self (Wright & Riskind, 2021), this preliminary study investigated whether (1) OCD-related distress catalyzed by ego-dystonic intrusive unwanted thoughts is akin to cognitive dissonance, and (2) distress and negative appraisals of the simulated intrusive thoughts can be alleviated by a values-based self-affirmation exercise developed in the dissonance literature. Methods: Nonclinical college students (N = 93) were presented with a simulated intrusive thought induction. After rating their distress from writing the simulated intrusion, they were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: neutralization used in the clinical literature, a values-based self-affirmation task, a combination of neutralization followed by self-affirmation, or a control condition. Results: The results revealed that the group that combined a neutralizing exercise followed by a self-affirmation exercise displayed a significantly greater decrease in dissonance-like distress and negative appraisals of the simulated intrusion than the other three groups. The groups that received self-affirmation alone or neutralization alone did not appear to reduce distress on their own. The combined group and other groups did not show rebound distress. Discussion: These novel analogue study findings help to bring cognitive clinical models of OCD and cognitive dissonance theory closer together. Moreover, they introduce the possibility that self-affirmation procedures could provide useful secondary ways to augment current OCD treatment protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic boredom is associated with many negative psychological outcomes, including undermining perceived meaning in life. Meanwhile, emerging research suggests that spontaneous self-affirmation, that is, an inclination to self-affirm, is linked to greater well-being and buffers against psychological threats. We investigated the relationship between spontaneous self-affirmation, perceptions of meaning in life, and boredom proneness with four correlational studies. Study 1a (N = 166) demonstrated that people inclined to self-affirm experience greater perceptions of meaning in life. Study 1b (N = 170) confirmed that spontaneous self-affirmation is associated with lower levels of boredom proneness. Study 2a (N = 214) and Study 2b (N = 105) provided evidence for our central hypothesis, showing that spontaneous self-affirmation predicts lower levels of boredom proneness via greater perceptions of meaning in life. These findings confirm that elevating meaning in life through psychological resources, like spontaneous self-affirmation, may limit boredom. Our work extends the emerging well-being benefits of spontaneous self-affirmation, by demonstrating associations with higher meaning in life and lower boredom proneness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractObjectiveMethodsResultsConclusionTo investigate the effect of two brief self-affirmation interventions, immediately prior to reading standard information about bowel cancer screening, on state anxiety, message acceptance and behavioural intention to screen for bowel cancer.242 adults aged 49 were randomised to one of two self-affirmation interventions (health or values) or one of two control conditions, before reading an NHS England bowel cancer screening leaflet. Participant friend and family history of bowel cancer, state anxiety, message acceptance, behavioural intention to screen, trait self-esteem and spontaneous self-affirmation were measured. Data were analysed using between-participants analysis of variance, planned contrasts and moderated regression.No main effects of experimental condition on levels of state anxiety, message acceptance and behavioural intention were found. However, planned contrasts showed participants who self-affirmed about their health or values (conditions-collapsed) were significantly less anxious and reported significantly higher behavioural intentions compared to participants in the controls (conditions-collapsed). Irrespective of condition, higher levels of spontaneous self-affirmation and trait self-esteem were correlated with lower anxiety, higher intentions, and message acceptance.There was some evidence of the effect of health-based self-affirmation on lowering anxiety; however, further research is needed to explore the effectiveness of different self-affirmation interventions in larger samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers whether a loving embodied self-relation is of theological relevance and the possibility of a metaphorical conception of self-love as an inherent part of faith by means of Paul Tillich read through a phenomenology with a strong awareness of human embodiment. Additionally, it reflects on whether a theological focus on true self-love sheds light on a predominant and larger problem of normativity in the relationship between self and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested the effectiveness of three brief, online manipulations theorised to have beneficial effects on wellbeing: a social cure manipulation priming important group memberships, a self‐affirmation manipulation priming important values, and a group‐affirmation manipulation priming values important to one's group. A control condition required respondents to reflect on films. Study 1 (N = 201) had no explicit stressor, whereas study 2 (N = 379) had an acute stressor immediately before the manipulations. The outcomes were a set of hedonic, evaluative, and eudaimonic wellbeing measures. With no acute stressor, all three manipulations boosted wellbeing perceptions, but in diverse ways. After a stressor, the social cure manipulation was the most frequent predictor. In all cases, main effects of the manipulations boosted wellbeing perceptions; however, where effects were moderated by baseline anxiety or stress induced by the stressor, the benefits were restricted to those lower in anxiety and stress. Overall, the results lend support to the idea that brief online manipulations, especially ones priming collective identities, can be beneficial for wellbeing. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers across theoretical traditions have long recognized the need for people to monitor and modulate certain aspects of their subjective experiences (such as their thoughts and feelings) in response to situational challenges that interfere with the attainment of important goals. Comparatively less attention has been devoted to understanding the beliefs and mechanisms necessary to regulate motivational states—i.e., metamotivation, even though motivational states are often integral to people's subjective experiences of events. As particular types of motivational states are more adaptive in some contexts than in others, flexibly instantiating the right motivational state at the right time may be key to achieving one's goals. The current paper reviews the principles of the metamotivational approach to studying motivation regulation and briefly reviews supporting research. In addition, we highlight metamotivation research conducted in the context of self‐affirmation theory to demonstrate the generative potential of this approach for researching phenomena that have traditionally been treated as separate from self‐regulation. We conclude by discussing some of the novel questions that the metamotivational approach has prompted, both in and outside of the self‐regulatory domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I offer an overview of Alessandra Tanesini's discussion of how best to educate for intellectual virtue in the final chapter of her book The Mismeasure of the Self. I identify the unifying theme behind most of her objections to existing approaches, namely that they fail to instil the proper motivations for intellectual virtue, and I raise an issue about whether Tanesini's preferred approach, self-affirmation, avoids this worry. I argue that it is not clear that it does; in particular, it's left unclear how self-affirmative interventions are meant to encourage a person's evaluations of their own intellectual achievements and capacities to be motivated by accuracy or knowledge, as Tanesini requires them to be if they are to be intellectually virtuous rather than vicious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jilong Yang,1,&ast; Yue Zhao,2,&ast; Yuexin Ji,2 Jiaxin Ma,2 Lanyu Li,2 Xiaoyong Hu2 1The Open University of Guangdong, Guangdong Polytechnic Institute, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510091, People’s Republic of China; 2Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xiaoyong Hu, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, 2 Tiansheng Road, Chongqing, 400715, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 177 8472 7339, Email huxiaoyong@swu.edu.cnPurpose: Drawing from the sociocultural-self model, this study aims to examine the influence of self-affirmation on the academic outcomes of lower-class migrant students, as well as the psychological mechanism underlying this phenomenon.Patients and Methods: A field experiment was conducted at a comprehensive secondary school in the southern region of China. Our study sample comprised 1534 immigrant students from diverse regions across the country, with an average proportion of 59.6% of students registered with a rural hukou. The hukou system plays a pivotal role in measuring social class in China, thus it was used as a proxy for lower and higher social class, with rural hukou students considered to be lower-class and urban hukou students considered to be higher-class. Prior to the English test, students in the self-affirmed group were engaged in a brief writing exercise that focused on their core values, whereas the control group wrote about a neutral topic.Results: The primary outcome of interest was the effect of self-affirmation on English test scores, whereas the secondary outcome was the students’ survey stereotype threat. The results exhibit that self-affirmation more significantly improved the English test performance of lower-class students compared to higher-class students, and this positive effect was mediated by reducing stereotype threat.Conclusion: Our findings unravel the impact of self-affirmation on the academic performance of migrant students from different social classes and signify the mediating role of stereotype threat in this process. The present study extends previous findings to students from immigrant families in the Chinese cultural context, and these findings demonstrate that self-affirmation can constitute a promising intervention for stereotype threat and achievement gaps due to social class differences in immigrant family groups. Considering that this intervention takes only about 15 minutes of time, entails almost zero cost, does no harm, and that it focuses on disadvantaged immigrant students, it may provide valuable insights for educational policies to be implemented in a new type of migrant city such as Shenzhen.Keywords: social class, self-affirmation, stereotype threat, academic performance

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of historically advantaged groups are often unwilling to support actions or policies aimed at reducing inequality between advantaged and disadvantaged groups, even if they generally support the principle of equality. Based on past research, we suggest a self-affirmation intervention (an intervention in which people reflect on a positive trait or value in order to affirm their positive self-image) may be effective for increasing the willingness of advantaged group members to address inequality. Importantly, while self-affirmation has been only operationalized as a written exercise in the past, in this project, we adapt it into video messages for use in public campaigns. In Study 1, we experimentally tested an initial video adaptation of self-affirmation and found that it was effective in increasing the willingness of advantaged group members to address inequality in the context of Jewish–Arab relations in Israel. Based on this study, two NGOs developed a real campaign video and used it in their public campaign, and we tested this applied intervention (in Study 2) and found it to be effective compared to a control condition that only presented information about inequality. Together, these studies represent the first implementation of self-affirmation in real-world campaigns and indicate that it can be an effective way to increase support for action to address inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tourism Tribune / Lvyou Xuekan is the property of Tourism Institute of Beijing Union University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: Self-affirmation theory proposes that defensive processing prevents people from accepting health-risk messages, which may explain university students' dismissal of risk-information about binge drinking. SA-interventions may encourage non-biased processing of such information through impacting on interpersonal feelings and self-esteem. This study compared two self-affirmation manipulations on interpersonal feelings, self-esteem, message processing, message acceptance and subsequent alcohol consumption. Participants: UK university students (N = 454). Methods: Participants were randomly allocated to one of three conditions (Self-affirmation Implementation Intention, Kindness Questionnaire, Control) before reading health-risk information about binge drinking. This was followed by measures of interpersonal feelings, self-esteem, message processing, acceptance and behavioral intentions. Alcohol consumption was assessed one week later. Results: The self-affirmation manipulations had non-significant effects on all outcome variables. Conclusion: Consistent with previous research, the results indicate that self-affirmation interventions are not effective for reducing alcohol consumption in university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although individuals have different kinds of defensive strategies towards identity threat, the relationship between identity threat and unethical behavior is still unclear. In the current study, according to identity threat and self-affirmation theory, we propose and test the role of publicness of identity threat in determining whether identity threat will lead to unethical behavior. One online experiment with 197 participants (mixed design) and one laboratory experiment with 86 participants (between-subject design) are used to test our hypotheses. Our findings reveal that when individuals' identity threat is from the public sphere, it will increase their unethical behavior, but when such a threat is from the private sphere, it will reduce their unethical behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-affirmation—reflecting on a source of global self-integrity outside of the threatened domain—can mitigate self-threat in education, health, relationships, and more. Whether people recognize these benefits is unknown. Inspired by the metamotivational approach, we examined people's beliefs about the benefits of self-affirmation and whether individual differences in these beliefs predict how people cope with self-threat. The current research revealed that people recognize that self-affirmation is selectively helpful for self-threat situations compared with other negative situations. However, people on average did not distinguish between self-affirmation and alternative strategies for coping with self-threat. Importantly, individual differences in these beliefs predicted coping decisions: Those who recognized the benefits of self-affirmation were more likely to choose to self-affirm rather than engage in an alternative strategy following an experience of self-threat. We discuss implications for self-affirmation theory and developing interventions to promote adaptive responses to self-threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There remains an urgent need for effective communication about the importance of widespread adherence to behavioral recommendations to control the COVID-19 pandemic that will also reduce resistance to such guidance. We examined two strategies for COVID-19 communication— (1) self-affirmation (reflecting on a personal value in order to boost self-integrity and reduce defensiveness to potentially threatening information); and (2) manipulating self/other message framing – and moderation of these strategies by COVID-19 risk. 600 participants (Mage = 32.55, 51% female) were recruited for an online study and, after assessment of risk factors for severe COVID-19 infection, were exposed to the experimental manipulations. Three classes of defensive responses were considered as outcomes of interest: reactance, attitudinal responses, and behavioral responses. We found that participants derogated the self-focused message more than the other-focused message. Further, other-focused messaging and/or self-affirmation were more likely to elicit positive responses among individuals at higher risk for COVID-19 complications. Our findings suggest having individuals affirm values prior to viewing COVID-19 messages, and framing messages in terms of the importance of protecting others, may be beneficial strategies for encouraging responsiveness – particularly if the targets of such messages are at risk of COVID-19 complications themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Theoretical Educational Science / Kuramsal Eğitimbilim Dergisi is the property of Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We test an intervention aiming to increase condom usage and HIV testing in a stigmatized population at high risk of contracting HIV: female sex workers (FSWs) in Senegal. Some sex work is legal in Senegal, and condoms and HIV tests are freely available to registered FSWs—but FSWs may be reluctant to get tested and use condoms, in part because doing so would entail acknowledging their risk of contracting HIV and potentially expose them to stigma. Drawing on self-affirmation theory, we hypothesized that reflecting on a source of personal pride would help participants acknowledge their risk of HIV, intend to use condoms more frequently, and take an HIV test. Prior research suggests that similar self-affirmation interventions can help people acknowledge their health risks and improve their health behavior, especially when paired with information about effectively managing their health (i.e., self-efficacy information). However, such interventions have primarily been tested in the United States and United Kingdom, and their generalizability outside of these contexts is unclear. Our high-powered experiment randomly assigned participants (N = 592 FSWs; N = 563 in the final analysis) to a self-affirmation condition or a control condition and measured their risk perceptions, whether they took condoms offered to them, and whether (after randomly receiving or not receiving self-efficacy information) they took an HIV test. We found no support for any of our hypotheses. We discuss several explanations for these null results based on the stigma attached to sex work and HIV, cross-cultural generalizability of self-affirmation interventions, and robustness of previous findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The use of image and performance enhancement drugs (IPEDs) in recreational sport represents an emerging public health and societal problem. The present study investigated whether self-affirmation changed exercisers' intentions to use IPEDs, via the effects of mental construal and message acceptance. Method: Sixty-eight exercisers who self-reported IPEDs use participated in the study and were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation or a control group. All participants read a health-related message about the 10 consequences of IPEDs and subsequently completed a survey measuring message acceptance, mental construal, doping intentions and IPEDs-related social cognitive variables. Results: There were no significant differences between the self-affirmed and the control groups. Hierarchical linear regression analysis further showed that message acceptance, subjective norms, and situational temptation were significantly associated with intentions to use IPEDs. Conclusion: Our findings raise the possibility that for recreational exercisers IPED's use is seen mostly as a health-related matter than a socio-moral transgression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]