Familial Self as a Potent Source of Affirmation

Abstract

Does affirmation of familial self have a distinct buffering function compared to affirmation of close other (friend, partner) self or individual self? We addressed this question in an East-Asian culture (China) that places particularly high value on familial self. Familial self-affirmation (compared to other forms of self-affirmation as well as low affirmation) curtailed the mortality salience-induced intolerance to birth-control policy (Experiment 1), reduced female participants' performance detriments-due to stereotype threat-on mental rotation (Experiment 2), and diminished the disadvantageous influence of negative feedback on further interest in information about one's weaknesses (Experiment 3). Close other self-affirmation, devoid of family context, was no more potent than individual self-affirmation or low affirmation. The findings underscore the utility of distinguishing among different sources of self-affirmation, highlight the relevance of familial self-affirmation to self-affirmation theory, and call for research testing the germaneness of familial self (and, more generally, the construct of family) in other Eastern, as well as Western, cultures.

Disowning the Self: The Cultural Value of Modesty can Attenuate Self-Positivity

“…For example, Chinese participants show less of a self-other distinction than Westerners (Sui, Liu, & Han, 2009;Zhu, Zhang, & Han, 2007; see also Cai, Sedikides, & Jiang, 2013). Our findings complement this view.…”

The power of affirming group values: Group affirmation buffers the self-esteem of women exposed to blatant sexism

“…A relatively small body of work has explored the advantages of affirming other social aspects of the self, such as the relational self or “self-as-close-other” (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Chen & Boucher, 2008), the familial self or “self-as-family-member” (Cai, Sedikides, & Jiang, 2013), and the interdependent self or culturally collectivistic self (Hoshino-Browne et al, 2005; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). For example, Hoshino-Brown et al (2005) developed an interdependent self-affirmation (participants selected a value for themselves and their families and explained why they shared the value) and an independent self-affirmation (participants selected a value and explained why it uniquely described who they were).…”

Be Strong Enough to Say No: Self-Affirmation Increases Rejection to Unfair Offers

“…The self-affirmation procedure was derived from Cai et al (2013). In the self-affirmation condition, participants chose one value that they and their family cherished most from four domains (financial wealth, social network, art/creativity, and knowledge).…”

“…In particular, self-affirmation counteracts self-depletion (Schmeichel and Vohs, 2009). Our previous research showed that self-affirmation functions similarly in China as it does in the West (Cai et al, 2013). Unlike in the West, the operative component in China is the affirmation of a familial self (writing about core values shared by oneself and his/her family) rather than the individual self (writing about personal core values; Cai et al, 2013).…”