To affirm is to improve? Exploring self-affirmation’s effects on self-en hancement and self-improvement moti
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2019-07-01
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
Previous research has linked self-affirmation (SA) to numerous beneficial outcomes such are
health-related behavior change and increased well-being. However, despite favorable outcomes,
direct causal effects of SA remain under-researched. In this research, we propose that SA’s
benefiting effects are enabled by immediate changes in self-enhancement (SE) and self improvement (SI) motive. We tested our assumptions with two experiments. Experiment 1
findings indicate that SA does not influence SE. Marginally significant effect on SI indicated that
in the face of threat, SA participants report more SI than non-affirmed participants. Experiment 2
constituted a replication study whose analyses suggest that the findings from Experiment 1 did
not replicate. Although our hypotheses were not supported, exploratory analyses provide some
evidence that SA indeed evokes SI changes under specific circumstances. Further research is
needed to optimize the methodological approach and determine the exact direction of the effects.
Keywords: self-affirmation, self-evaluation, self-improvement, self-enhancement, ego threat
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen