The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention

In the paper

“People have a basic need to maintain the integrity of the self, a global sense of personal adequacy.”

• Also stated in: § Self-Affirmation Theory · plain

  “The postulate that people are motivated to maintain self-integrity rests at the center of selfaffirmation theory (Steele 1988; see also Sherman & Cohen 2006).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Steele 1988 source
• Supported

  The Overview of Self-Affirmation Theory states that people are motivated to maintain self-integrity and defines it as a sense of being, on the whole, a good and appropriate person. The “Worth of the Self” section likewise describes the motivation to protect the self’s perceived integrity and worth. (LLM, conf=0.93)

  cites Sherman & Cohen 2006 source

In the paper

“Threats to this image evoke psychological threat (see Steele 1988, Sherman & Cohen 2006).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Steele 1988 source
• Supported

  The “Worth of the Self” section says events that challenge a person’s self-conception are threatening because they bear on overall self-integrity. “Self-Affirmation and Threats to the Individual Self” likewise describes threats to a valued self-image. Page numbers were not provided in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.91)

  cites Sherman & Cohen 2006 source

In the paper

“The postulate that people are motivated to maintain self-integrity rests at the center of selfaffirmation theory (Steele 1988; see also Sherman & Cohen 2006).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Steele 1988 source
• Supported

  In the Overview of Self-Affirmation Theory, Sherman and Cohen state that the theory begins with the premise that people are motivated to maintain the integrity of the self. The “Worth of the Self” section also calls protecting the self’s perceived integrity and worth its most basic tenet. (LLM, conf=0.95)

  cites Sherman & Cohen 2006 source

In the paper

“Reducing defensiveness.Self-affirmations also reduce defensive responses, adaptations to protect the self from threat (for a review, see Sherman & Cohen 2006).”

What the sources say

• Supported

  Section IV, “Moderator Variables and Qualifying Conditions” (page not provided), states that self-affirmations reduce the likelihood of defensive adaptations to threat. The paper also describes those responses as adaptations that protect self-integrity. (LLM, conf=0.94)

  cites Sherman & Cohen 2006 source

In the paper

“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).”

What the sources say

• Partly supported

  The Discussion reports that self-affirmation improved performance on a creativity-related problem-solving task under pressure, specifically among underperforming, chronically stressed participants. It proposes greater working-memory availability as a possible explanation to be tested in future research; it does not establish that participants marshaled cognitive resources better because they were less threatened. (LLM, conf=0.83)

  cites Creswell et al. 2013 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Schmeichel & Vohs 2009 source

In the paper

“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).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Schmeichel & Vohs 2009 source
• Partly supported

  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)

  cites Wakslak & Trope 2009 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured

In the paper

“A randomized field experiment that disentangled the effect of student social class from the effect of student race found that it could (Harackiewicz et al. 2014).”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Method (The Intervention; page not provided) describes random assignment to values-affirmation or control exercises. The Results (Supplementary Analysis; page not provided) report improved performance for first-generation students and analyze generational status separately from underrepresented-minority status, supporting the claim that the intervention could help narrow the social-class achievement gap. (LLM, conf=0.93)

  cites Harackiewicz et al. 2014 source

In the paper

“Remarkably, first-generation students also proved more likely to enroll in the second course in the biology sequence if they had been in the affirmation condition (86% did so) rather than in the control condition (66% did so).”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Results section, under “Continuation in second semester,” reports that 85.7% of first-generation students in the values-affirmation condition enrolled in the second biology course, compared with 66.2% in the control condition. The citing sentence rounds these figures to 86% and 66%. No page number is provided in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.95)

  cites Harackiewicz et al. 2014 source

In the paper

“It cut the achievement gap between them and their more financially advantaged peers in the course by 50%.”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Results (Primary Analyses, ‘Biology course grade’; page not provided) report that the values-affirmation intervention reduced the course-grade gap between first-generation and continuing-generation students by 50%. The paper describes continuing-generation students as more likely to come from middle- or upper-class backgrounds, supporting the comparison with more financially advantaged peers. (LLM, conf=0.92)

  cites Harackiewicz et al. 2014 source

In the paper

“For these students, two in-class values affirmations improved their grades in an introductory biology course.”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Method (The Intervention; page unavailable) says first-generation students in the affirmation condition were assigned two values-affirmation writing exercises, administered in laboratory sections in weeks 3 and 8. The Abstract (page unavailable) reports that values affirmation significantly improved their final grades in the introductory biology course. (LLM, conf=0.93)

  cites Harackiewicz et al. 2014 source

In the paper

“But long-term effects on behavior have been mixed (Harris & Epton 2010).”

What the sources say

• Partly supported

  In “So, why is there only limited evidence to date about effects on behaviour?” (page not provided), the review reports one successful study but says most studies found no effect on health behaviour. That supports mixed findings on behaviour, but not specifically long-term effects: it says the longest behavioural follow-up was one month. (LLM, conf=0.86)

  cites Harris & Epton 2010 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured

In the paper

“But for self-affirmed students, these effects vanished.”

What the sources say

• Partly supported

  The Results (Process Analyses; page unavailable) say the gap in concern about academic background was completely closed in the values-affirmation condition. But the Results (Primary Analyses; page unavailable) report that the course-grade achievement gap became smaller, not that it vanished. Because the sentence does not specify which effects it means, the source supports only a narrower reading. (LLM, conf=0.76)

  cites Harackiewicz et al. 2014 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured

In the paper

“Stress can harm health, especially when it is prolonged (Sapolsky 2004, Sterling 2004, Taylor 2010).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sapolsky 2004
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sterling 2004 source
• Supported

  The passage labeled Abstract describes harmful effects of stress-related hormones over the long term, including impaired immune functioning and changes associated with chronic illness. It specifically links chronic or recurring exposure and prolonged cortisol secretion to these effects. (LLM, conf=0.93)

  cites Taylor 2010 source

In the paper

“This effect has been confirmed in many studies (for reviews, see Harris & Epton 2009, 2010;Sherman & Hartson 2011).”

What the sources say

• Partly supported

  The Summary reports promising evidence that self-affirmation can increase acceptance of health-risk information, and the Message processing section describes findings from several studies. But the Summary (p. 24) says there were relatively few studies and that even the most replicated effects rested on only a handful, so “confirmed in many studies” overstates the review’s assessment. The citing sentence does not specify which effect it means. (LLM, conf=0.84)

  cites Harris & Epton 2009 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
• Supported

  The section ‘How does self-affirming reduce resistance to relevant health-risk information?’ says self-affirmation typically increases message acceptance in at-risk groups. The paper discusses multiple studies of this effect, supporting the citing sentence as a broad reference to evidence on self-affirmation and health-risk information. The sentence does not identify what ‘this effect’ refers to, so the match cannot be more specific. (LLM, conf=0.82)

  cites Harris & Epton 2010 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sherman & Hartson 2011

In the paper

“Indeed, one psychiatric intervention reduced the number of suicide reattempts simply by sending former patients timely postcards inquiring into their well-being (see Carter et al. 2013).”

What the sources say

• Partly supported

  The Intervention section describes eight postcards sent during the year after discharge, and the Main findings report about 50% fewer repeat hospital-treated self-poisoning events over five years. But the Results report no significant difference in the proportion of patients who had any repeat episode. The paper measures self-poisoning rather than suicide reattempts specifically, so the claim overstates what was reduced. (LLM, conf=0.89)

  cites Carter et al. 2013 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured

In the paper

“Instead, they bring people together around positive, value-relevant activities such as meditation, extracurricular activities, and volunteer work (Creswell et al. 2012, Lyubomirsky & Della Porta 2010, Robinson 2010, Schreier et al. 2013, Wilson 2011).”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Methods describe eight weekly group sessions centered on meditation, and the Results report reduced loneliness among participants compared with wait-list controls. This paper supports meditation as an example of a successful group-based intervention; the other cited works need not be assessed here for the extracurricular and volunteer-work examples. (LLM, conf=0.88)

  cites Creswell et al. 2012 source
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Lyubomirsky & Della Porta 2010
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Robinson 2010 source

In the paper

“From increasing happiness to reducing loneliness and depression, from preventing teen pregnancy and academic failure to reducing childhood obesity, many successful interventions do not directly confront the problem.”

What the sources say

• Supported

  For the loneliness example, the Methods describe an intervention centered on mindfulness meditation rather than directly on loneliness or social skills. The Results report significantly reduced loneliness in older adults receiving MBSR compared with a wait-list control. This paper supports that example, not the other outcomes listed in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.89)

  cites Creswell et al. 2012 source
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Lyubomirsky & Della Porta 2010
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Robinson 2010 source

In the paper

“Second, procedural changes made the affirmation evaluative in nature.”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Methods (Procedures and Interventions; page not specified) state that the self-affirmation exercise was part of a tutor-marked, formatively assessed course assignment. Tutors judged whether submissions were suitable for a portfolio, supporting the description of the exercise as evaluative in nature. (LLM, conf=0.90)

  cites Woolf et al. 2009 source

In the paper

“First, the motive is to maintain a global narrative of oneself as a moral and adaptive actor (”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Aronson 1969 source

In the paper

“Self-affirmation interventions typically have people write about core personal values.”

• Also stated in: § What Are Self-Affirmations? · plain

  “Although many inductions of self-affirmation exist, the most studied experimental manipulation has people write about core personal values (McQueen & Klein 2006;cf. Napper et al. 2009).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites McQueen & Klein 2006 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Napper et al. 2009 source

In the paper

“A second avenue for intervention focuses on changing not people's appraisal of a specific challenge but their appraisal of themselves.”

In the paper

“Psychological threat represents an inner alarm that arouses vigilance and the motive to reaffirm the self (Steele 1988).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Steele 1988 source

In the paper

“However, the self can draw on a variety of roles and identities to maintain its perceived integrity.”

In the paper

“One avenue is to encourage people to appraise a difficult circumstance in a hopeful and nondefensive way that, in turn, sustains the perceived adequacy of the self.”

In the paper

“Thus, psychological threat can raise a barrier to adaptive change.”

In the paper

“That everyday events can bring about feelings of threat and trigger extreme responses attests to the power and pervasiveness of the self-integrity motive.”

In the paper

“However, an intervention known as self-affirmation can curb these negative outcomes.”

In the paper

“Events that threaten self-integrity arouse stress and self-protective defenses that can hamper performance and growth.”

In the paper

“Like other interventions and experiences, self-affirmations can have lasting benefits when they touch off a cycle of adaptive potential, a positive feedback loop between the self-system and the social system that propagates adaptive outcomes over time.”

In the paper

“Successful social psychological interventions help individuals access this narrative process through two avenues (see also Wilson 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Wilson 2011

In the paper

“Although the objective stakes of many of these situations seem low, the subjective stakes for the self can be high.”

In the paper

“This pattern suggests greater engagement among affirmed individuals in learning from their mistakes.”

In the paper

“Third, affirmations foster an approach orientation to threat rather than avoidance.”

In the paper

“One way that self-affirmations promote change is by curbing defensive reactions.”

In the paper

“Thus, a key aspect of the affirmation intervention is that its content is self-generated and tailored to tap into each person's particular valued identity (Sherman 2013).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sherman 2013 source

In the paper

“In some cases, the effects of the intervention even grow.”

In the paper

“Such flexibility can be adaptive.”

In the paper

“Second, the motive for self-integrity is not to be superior or excellent, but to be”

In the paper

“In summary, affirmations help people to maintain a narrative of personal adequacy in threatening circumstances.”

In the paper

“A key feature of these interventions is that their effectiveness depends on the point in the process in which they are introduced.”

In the paper

“Three principles explain how and when processes propel themselves through time in cycles of adaptive potential (Cohen et al. 2012, Garcia & Cohen 2012, Yeager & Walton 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Cohen et al. 2012
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Garcia & Cohen 2012
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Yeager & Walton 2011 source

In the paper

“Although many inductions of self-affirmation exist, the most studied experimental manipulation has people write about core personal values (McQueen & Klein 2006;cf. Napper et al. 2009).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites McQueen & Klein 2006 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Napper et al. 2009 source

In the paper

“As Table 1 also illustrates, people often affirm themselves by writing about their connections to other people and to purposes and projects outside themselves (Shnabel et al. 2013; see also Crocker et al. 2008).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Shnabel et al. 2013 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Crocker et al. 2008 source

In the paper

“Third, the motive for self-integrity is not to esteem or praise oneself but rather to act in ways worthy of esteem or praise.”

In the paper

“People can thus better deal with the threat in a constructive way, rather than spend mental energy on avoidance, suppression, and rationalization (see Koole et al. 1999, Taylor & Walton 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Koole et al. 1999 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Taylor & Walton 2011 source

In the paper

“Like any formative experience, a successful intervention is not an isolated event but rather a turning point in a process (see Elder 1998).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Elder 1998 source

In the paper

“Better performance may affirm the self, leading to still better performance, further affirming the self, and so on, as improvement maintains or even builds on itself.”

In the paper

“The flexibility of the self-system can also promote adaptation, especially in dynamic social systems.”

In the paper

“Studies show that defensive denial, bias, and distortion in one domain are lessened by affirmations of self-integrity in another.”

In the paper

“However, the flexibility of the self-system can also be harnessed for positive ends.”

In the paper

“When well-timed and well-situated, it touches off a series of reciprocally reinforcing interactions between the self-system and the social system (see Figure 1).”

In the paper

“First, because of recursion, the output of a process such as self-affirmation can cycle back as its input, thus perpetuating itself (Cohen et al. 2009, Wilson & Linville 1982).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2009 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Wilson & Linville 1982 source

In the paper

“People can import into a threatened domain the sense of personal integrity that they feel in another.”

In the paper

“If a threat is seen as important and addressable (Vohs et al. 2013), affirmations make it less likely that people will shrink away from the threat or deny its importance to themselves.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Vohs et al. 2013 source

In the paper

“Second, because a threat is seen in the context of an expansive view of the self, it has less impact on psychological well-being (Cohen et al. 2009, Cook et al. 2012, Sherman et al. 2013).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2009 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cook et al. 2012 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sherman et al. 2013 source

In the paper

“An implication for intervention is that, to affirm the self, an event need foster only a sense of adequacy in a personally valued domain, not a perception of overall excellence.”

In the paper

“Thus they can sustain a global sense of adequacy while adaptively confronting a specific threat.”

In the paper

“A specific threat and its implications for the self thus command less vigilance.”

In the paper

“But several of the intervention studies to be discussed find that the effects of self-affirming writing activities can persist, for instance improving the grades of at-risk minority students years later (Cohen et al. 2009, Sherman et al. 2013).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2009 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sherman et al. 2013 source

In the paper

“Second, because of interaction, the output of a process can interact with other processes in the environment.”

In the paper

“Activities that can seem like distractions can also function as self-affirmations.”

In the paper

“In fact, social psychology has established that brief interventions can have large and long-term effects when they address key psychological processes, as pioneered in the studies of Lewin and Rokeach described in the introductory section of this review (for reviews, see Ross & Nisbett 2011, Wilson 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Ross & Nisbett 2011
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Wilson 2011

In the paper

“Because of recursion and interaction, the benefits of an intervention can maintain themselves through the progressive accumulation of their own consequences (see Caspi et al. 1987).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Caspi et al. 1987 source

In the paper

“By interacting with these processes, an intervention can trigger consequences that have causal power unto themselves.”

In the paper

“This pattern is consistent with the notion that the intervention interrupted a recursive cycle in which threat and poor performance fed on one another and worsened outcomes over time.”

In the paper

“And timely self-affirmations can help remedy them.”

In the paper

“For long-term effects to occur, a process need not recur, as in recursion, but can instead feed into altogether different processes.”

In the paper

“An early advantage can thus channel people into subsequent experiences that perpetuate and broaden the advantage.”

In the paper

“However, a moment of validation at a threatening transition could improve a trajectory (Cohen et al. 2009, Yeager & Walton 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2009 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Yeager & Walton 2011 source

In the paper

“Together, the results of these field experiments suggest that affirmation removed a barrier that prevented the full expression of students' potential (Walton & Spencer 2009).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Walton & Spencer 2009 source

In the paper

“For instance, the affirmation halved the percentage of African American students who received a D or F in the first term of the course in which the intervention was given (Cohen et al. 2006).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2006 source

In the paper

“Promisingly, lab studies demonstrate that affirmations can improve the performance of students working under the specter of a negative stereotype (Martens et al. 2006, Shapiro et al. 2012, Taylor & Walton 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Martens et al. 2006 source
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Shapiro et al. 2012
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Taylor & Walton 2011 source

In the paper

“Also suggestive of a recursive process, the most threatened subgroup, those who would be most undermined by threat and its accumulating consequences, derived the greatest lasting benefit from affirmation.”

In the paper

“Effects then reverberate through the interconnected forces in a social system (Caspi et al. 1987;Caspi & Moffitt 1995;Elder 1974Elder , 1998;;Lewin 1997Lewin /1948;;Wilson 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Caspi et al. 1987 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Caspi & Moffitt 1995
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Elder 1974

In the paper

“The consequences of the intervention can thus break free of their origin and propagate change through time.”

In the paper

“An intervention need not create new processes but may simply interface with these existing ones.”

In the paper

“Values affirmation has also helped another group of students who contend with social identity threat: female college students enrolled in introductory physics, a gateway science course (Miyake et al. 2010).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Miyake et al. 2010 source

In the paper

“Third, because of subjective construal, an intervention can trigger an enduring shift in perception (Sherman et al. 2013; see also Ross & Nisbett 2011, Wilson 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sherman et al. 2013 source
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Ross & Nisbett 2011
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Wilson 2011

In the paper

“In another field experiment, self-affirmation increased prosocial behavior among students with a history of antisocial behavior, as assessed by their teachers (Thomaes et al. 2012).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Thomaes et al. 2012 source

In the paper

“Like a fortuitous event, even a brief intervention can have a lasting impact if it is appropriately situated and timed.”

In the paper

“School can be especially threatening for members of historically marginalized groups such as African Americans and Latino Americans (Steele 2010).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Steele 2010 source

In the paper

“Affirmation lessened the extent to which students with grandiose self-views, a risk factor for aggression, reacted to threat (i.e., a drop in their self-esteem) by hitting, name calling, rumor spreading, or committing other antisocial acts as assessed by their classmates.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Thomaes et al. 2009 source

In the paper

“Two years later, affirmed African Americans and Latino Americans continued to earn higher GPAs than their nonaffirmed peers (Cohen et al. 2009, Sherman et al. 2013).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2009 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sherman et al. 2013 source

In the paper

“The processes that the intervention set in motion in the first year sufficed to explain its continuing effect in the second year (Cohen et al. 2009).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2009 source

In the paper

“The values affirmation intervention significantly improved the grade point average (GPA) of the identity-threatened groups, African American students in one school (Cohen et al. 2006(Cohen et al. , 2009) ) and Latino American students in two others (Sherman et al. 2013), in their core courses (English, math, social studies, and science).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2006 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2009 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sherman et al. 2013 source

In the paper

“Even if the objective environment remains constant, the subjective experience of it may change.”

In the paper

“When affirmed, people tend to narrate adversity as an isolated event rather than an indictment of their adequacy (Cohen et al. 2009).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen et al. 2009 source

In the paper

“But in contrast to the lab, in real-world academic and work settings, social identity threat is not acute but chronic (Cohen & Garcia 2008, Garcia & Cohen 2012, Yeager & Walton 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cohen & Garcia 2008 source
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Garcia & Cohen 2012
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Yeager & Walton 2011 source

In the paper

“An intervention may thus have lasting effects by changing the way people filter information about themselves and their environment.”

In the paper

“Indeed, changes in attitude and motivation seldom suffice for long-term behavioral change (Lewin 1997/1948, Ross & Nisbett 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Lewin 1997/1948
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Ross & Nisbett 2011

In the paper

“Given this, values affirmations may help buffer people against stress by allowing them to anchor their sense of adequacy in another domain where it is less subject to question.”

In the paper

“However, timely self-affirmation can open people up to threatening health information.”

In the paper

“One encourages people to form realistic, concrete plans for how to implement their new health-related goals in specific situations (Gollwitzer & Sheeran 2006).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Gollwitzer & Sheeran 2006 source

In the paper

“The effects of affirmation on attitude and motivation tend to persist, even one month later (Harris et al. 2007, Harris & Napper 2005).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Harris et al. 2007 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Harris & Napper 2005 source

In the paper

“First, affirmation enables more balanced information processing.”

In the paper

“With their self-integrity less on trial, self-affirmed individuals can better confront threatening information and evaluate it in a manner less tethered to their needs for self-integrity (Klein et al. 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Klein et al. 2011 source

In the paper

“This effect on motivation persisted one week later.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Harris et al. 2007 source

In the paper

“Consistent with this, several findings suggest that self-affirmed minorities were more likely to see adversity as an isolated event rather than a threat to self (see Cook et al. 2012;Sherman et al. 2013, study 2).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cook et al. 2012 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sherman et al. 2013 source

In the paper

“Once again, the stress-reduction effect of the intervention was concentrated among the most threatened: students worried about being disliked and seen as unintelligent.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sherman et al. 2009

In the paper

“Stress, especially when chronic, can threaten the integrity of the self (Keough & Markus 1998).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Keough & Markus 1998 source

In the paper

“By the morning of their midterm, nonaffirmed students showed a marked increase in epinephrine, as measured by urinary catecholamines, hormones involved in the fight-or-flight response.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sherman et al. 2009

In the paper

“Among affirmed participants, 59% took leaflets about how to quit smoking, compared with only 37% of nonaffirmed participants.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Armitage et al. 2008 source

In the paper

“When self-affirmed, participants ate more portions of fruits and vegetables over the following week, as assessed by a validated daily diary instrument.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Epton & Harris 2008 source

In the paper

“Affirmed students did not show an increase in epinephrine.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sherman et al. 2009

In the paper

“Physiological evidence of the stress-buffering effect of affirmation was found among college undergraduates facing a real-world stressor-the midterm exam that they had singled out as most stressful (Sherman et al. 2009; see also Creswell et al. 2005).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sherman et al. 2009
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Creswell et al. 2005 source

In the paper

“Like education outcomes, health outcomes are also driven by recursive, interactive processes.”

In the paper

“However, in some studies, affirmed participants fail to make the behavioral changes that they predict they will (Harris et al. 2007, Harris & Napper 2005, Reed & Aspinwall 1998; for a review, see Harris & Epton 2010).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Harris et al. 2007 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Harris & Napper 2005 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Reed & Aspinwall 1998 source

In the paper

“To achieve long-term benefits with an affirmation, it may be essential to ensure early behavioral wins.”

In the paper

“Relative to a control condition, both affirmations reduced consumption of alcohol, as assessed by self-reports on a validated measure one month later.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Armitage et al. 2011 source

In the paper

“Affirmation has increased openness to information about the life-threatening habit of smoking.”

In the paper

“Two strategies to promote long-term behavior change, and spur a cycle of adaptive potential, have received suggestive support.”

In the paper

“Indeed, the aspects of the exchange that affirmation improved are predictive of patients' adherence to their doctors' prescribed care”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Havranek et al. 2012 source

In the paper

“Content analyses suggested that the active ingredient in women's essays was the act of affirming the self.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Creswell et al. 2007 source