CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 602Behavioral Health and InterventionsDeath Anxiety and Social ExclusionSocial and Intergroup Psychology

Self-affirmation and self-control: Affirming core values counteracts ego depletion.

Schmeichel, Brandon J., Vohs, Kathleen·2009·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
DOI 10.1037/a0014635
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Research has established that acts of self-control deplete a resource required for subsequent self-control tasks. The present investigation revealed that a psychological intervention-self-affirmation-facilitates self-control when the resource has been depleted. Experiments 1 and 2 found beneficial effects of self-affirmation on self-control in a depleted state. Experiments 3 and 4 suggested that self-affirmation improves self-control by promoting higher levels (vs. lower levels) of mental construal. Self-affirmation therefore holds promise as a mental strategy that reduces the likelihood of self-control failure.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/a0014635

Cites

21 of 21 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • 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 Schmeichel & Vohs 2009

  • Less encumbered by psychological threat, self-affirmed people can better marshal their cognitive resources to meet the demands of the task at hand.

    “Less encumbered by psychological threat, self-affirmed people can better marshal their cognitive resources to meet the demands of the task at hand, for example, solving more creative problems under pressure (Creswell et al. 2013) or exerting self-control in a depleting situation (Schmeichel & Vohs 2009).”

    From The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention (2014) · cites this paper as Schmeichel & Vohs 2009

  • Because affirmations help people postpone short-term gratifications for the sake of long-term goals, and reduce stress that people might otherwise manage by drinking and smoking, it may be important to time affirmations to moments of greatest vulnerability.

    “Because affirmations help people postpone shortterm gratifications for the sake of long-term goals (Schmeichel & Vohs 2009), and reduce stress that people might otherwise manage by drinking and smoking (Steele et al. 1981), it may be important to time affirmations to moments of greatest vulnerability (O.Fotuhi, S. Spencer, G.T. Fong, & M.P. Zanna, manuscript in preparation).”

    From The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention (2014) · cites this paper as Schmeichel & Vohs 2009

  • Affirmation produced weight-loss effects because it buffered women against weight-related stress and helped them tap into psychological resources to meet their weight-related goals.

    “Affirmation produced these effects, the authors speculated, because it buffered women against weight-related stress and thus helped them to tap into psychological resources to meet their weight-related goals”

    From The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention (2014) · cites this paper as Schmeichel & Vohs 2009

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Schmeichel, B. J., & Vohs, K.
Affiliations
  • Texas A&M University (US)
  • University of Minnesota (US)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2009-04
Volume
96
Issue
4
Pages
770-782
ISSN
  • 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1315
DOI
10.1037/a0014635
OpenAlex
W2012281587
Cited by
602
References
21
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 66 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 47 · 2012: 32
FWCI
33.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • McKnight Land-Grant Professorship
  • Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Keywords
self-affirmation, self-control, ego depletion, core values, mental construal, psychological intervention, self-control failure, resource depletion
MeSH terms
Affect, Analysis of Variance, Arousal, Cues, Ego, Female, Humans, Internal-External Control, Male, Self Concept, Social Values, Students, Task Performance and Analysis

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review