Cognitive consequences of affirming the self: The relationship between self-affirmation and object construal
Open accessAbstract
Previous research suggests that affirming one's important values is a powerful way of protecting one's general self integrity, allowing non-defensive processing of self-relevant information. In a series of four studies linking self-affirmation with construal level, we find that in addition to any self buffering effect, thinking about one's values and why they are important more generally shifts cognitive processing towards superordinate and structured thinking. Self-affirmation leads participants to perceive a greater degree of structure within their selves (Study 1), to increasingly identify actions in terms of their endstates (Study 2), to more strongly distinguish between primary and secondary object features (Study 3) and to perform better on tasks requiring abstract, structured thinking than those requiring detail-oriented, concrete thinking. Together, these findings suggest that thinking about important values helps individuals to structure information and focus on the big picture.
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When self-affirmed, people can see the many ordinary stressors of daily life in the context of the big picture.
“But when self-affirmed, people can see the many ordinary stressors of daily life in the context of the big picture (Schmeichel & Vohs 2009, Wakslak & Trope 2009).”
From The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention (2014) · cites this paper as Wakslak & Trope 2009
The General discussion reports that self-affirmation promotes a “big picture approach” and proposes that it might reduce defensiveness by helping people distinguish immediate concerns from longer-term goals. The paper does not establish that people view the many ordinary stressors of daily life in that way specifically. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention
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- Authors
- Wakslak, C. J., & Trope, Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern California (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wakslak, Cheryl J.
- ORCID
- Wakslak, Cheryl J.
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-07
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 927-932
- ISSN
- 0022-1031 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3149801
- OpenAlex
- W2053577021
- Cited by
- 105
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 7.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH059030)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- self-affirmation, construal level, self-integrity, values affirmation, abstract thinking
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