Self‐affirmation theory in educational contexts

Abstract

Self-affirmation, operationalized as value-affirmation interventions, can have long-term beneficial effects on the academic performance and trajectories of members of negatively stereotyped groups, thus reducing achievement gaps. Yet, there is significant heterogeneity in the effectiveness of value affirmations, and we do not yet have a clear understanding of why. In this introduction to the special issue, we review the literature on self-affirmation theory in educational contexts, providing overviews of the heterogeneity in the effectiveness of affirmation interventions, the methods of implementation, potential moderators, and underling processes. We identify several questions that are important for researchers to address, the answers to which would progress the field towards being able to more confidently implement value-affirmations in contexts in which, and/or for groups for whom, they are most likely to produce benefits. We then introduce the articles included in this special issue, which showcase several of the latest theoretical and empirical advances to self-affirmation theory in educational contexts. Some groups of students-typically members of groups who have low status in wider society, such as some ethnic or racial groups, those from lower social classes, or those with immigrant backgrounds-have, on average, worse educational outcomes than others. Across societies, such inequalities in educational outcomes (henceforth educational inequalities) exist from the earliest years through to tertiary education, and their effects continue throughout the lifespan (Department for Education in England, 2020; Nation's Report Card, 2019;OECD, 2015). Indeed, an individual's level of education is a key predictor of a range of life outcomes (Hout & DiPrete, 2006),This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

‘People like me don’t do well at school’: The roles of identity compatibility and school context in explaining the socioeconomic attainment gap

“…These sociocultural factors should therefore help to explain any observed heterogeneity in the associations between students’ group memberships and a sense of threat and identity compatibility across contexts. Indeed, the model and this initial test of its predictions can be seen as efforts to incorporate and quantify the role of the local educational context in educational inequalities, and were in part inspired by the context sensitivity of ‘wise’ psychological intervention effects (Borman et al, 2018; Goroff, Lewis, Scheel, Scherer, & Tucker, 2018; Walton & Wilson, 2018) and the predicted heterogeneity revolution in behavioural science (Bryan, Tipton, & Yeager, 2021; Easterbrook, Harris, & Sherman, 2021). From this perspective, heterogeneity of effects is not a failure of psychological science, as the replication crisis often frames it, but an opportunity for developing theories and studies that account for contextual moderators of effects.…”

A self-support approach to satisfy basic psychological needs during difficult situations

“…That is, making the value of basic needs salient in awareness and explicit as goals helped students to experience greater need satisfaction, mindfulness, and vitality, as well as decreased their need frustration, and both test and coronavirus anxiety. Importantly, it is possible that when individuals made the value of basic needs in this way, it helped them to gain confidence in their abilities and see themselves as adequate (Cohen & Sherman, 2014 ) and important/good individuals, so that they experience higher self-integrity (Easterbrook et al, 2021 ). In this way, people can become more flexible, and when they adapted to a flexible system, they can set goals and regulate their behaviors in difficult situations (Cohen & Sherman, 2014 ).…”

“…From a self-affirmation theory, individuals can boost adaptive functioning and experience well-being under difficult situations when they gain confidence in their abilities and develop relationships with others (Cohen & Sherman, 2014 ; Howell, 2017 ). When individuals can see themselves as adequate and good persons, they can value the important aspects of the self to experience higher self-integrity (Easterbrook et al, 2021 ). In other words, a more expansive view of the self by given choice would enhance positive functioning over time (Cohen & Sherman, 2014 ).…”

Cognitive bias toward the Internet: The causes of adolescents’ Internet addiction under parents’ self-affirmation consciousness

“…Such self-affirmation aims to alleviate the negative effect of threats on individuals (Steele, 1988). Generally, the effects of self-affirmation are constrained by two conditions, specifically, self-affirmation is effective only for threatened individuals itself and it has no effect on other defense mechanism that already functioning (Chen H. C. et al, 2020;Easterbrook et al, 2021;10.3389/fpsyg.2022.891473 Zhang et al, 2021). The self-affirmation theory holds that when an event or information that threatens self-integrity appears, the individual will activate the self-defense mechanism and reallocate cognitive resources to event processing.…”