The Effects of Self-Affirmation on Responses to Threats: A Psychophysiological Approach

Session I, Virtual Room 4: The ABC's of Psych

Psychological threats to one’s self trigger feelings of threat and defensive behavior. Reflecting on what one values in life—a common means of self-affirmation—can mitigate these feelings and behaviors (Steele, 1988). This talk will focus on research into how self-affirmation reduces psychological defenses and increases processing of threatening information. My previous research has found that affirming one’s values reduces the intensity of the startle eye-blink response, a psychophysiological measure of defensiveness, to threatening emotional stimuli (Experiment 1; Crowell, Page-Gould, & Schmeichel, 2015), and increases the late positive potential, an upward going brainwave known to indicate processing of stimuli to threatening images (Experiment 2; Finley, Crowell, & Schmeichel, 2018). I will also discuss an experiment in progress that is investigating the effects of self-affirmation on memory for threatening stimuli, and future research extending this work to the effects of self-affirmation on college students’ physiological responses (e.g., heart rate and skin conductance) to threatening information about the negative health effects of stress.