Et propter vitam vivendi perdere

Self-affirmation theory is an important area of study in social psychology that proposes individuals possess a flexible self-system. According to this theory, people have the ability to respond to threats in one domain of life by affirming self-worth in other domains. This has been examined in numerous studies where people affirm important values in the context of self-threatening events or information. The goal of this blog post is to review the literature demonstrating the effects of values affirmations and propose a theoretical account that explains how self-affirmations reduce defensiveness in response to threats to individuals' health, attenuate physiological stress responses to laboratory and naturalistic stressors, and improve academic performance among individuals experiencing identity threat. The Effects of Values Affirmations Research has shown that values affirmations can have powerful effects on individuals. When people are asked to reflect on important values, such as ...