Reconceptualizing Self-Affirmation With the Trigger and Channel Framework: Lessons From the Health Domain. (August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ferrer, Rebecca A.; Cohen, Geoffrey L.
• Is Part Of: Personality and social psychology review. Volume 23:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 285
• Page End: 304
• Publication Date: 2019-08
• Subjects: self-affirmation -- behavior change -- recursive processes -- social psychological intervention; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; 155.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1088868318797036
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1088-8683

Abstract

Self-affirmation—a theory-based technique to affirm the adaptive adequacy of the self—can promote positive behavior change and adaptive outcomes, although effects are variable. We extend a novel framework (Trigger and Channel), proposing three conditions that facilitate self-affirmation-induced behavior change: (a) presence of psychological threat, (b) presence of resources to foster change, and (c) timeliness of the self-affirmation with respect to threat and resources. Using health behavior as a focus, we present meta-analytic evidence demonstrating that when these conditions are met, self-affirmation acts as a psychological trigger into a positive channel of resources that facilitate behavior change. The presence of a timely threat and the availability of timely resources independently predicted larger self-affirmation effects on behavior change, and the two interacted synergistically to predict still larger effects. The results illustrate the conditionality of self-affirmation effects and offer guidelines for when, where, and for whom self-affirmation will be most effective.