Strategies for Mentoring Goal Acheivement
Self-affirmation: A strategy to reduce self-control failure Psychology Today Blogs
Self-affirmation: A strategy to reduce self-control failure
By Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. on March 26, 2009 - 4:04am in Don't Delay
The research evidence across four new studies reveals the importance of affirming one's sense of self to bolster our depleted self-control. I think this research underscores the deeply existential issue of self-affirmation and "courage" in relation to the self-regulation failure we know as procrastination.
Brandon J. Schmeichel (Texas A&M University) and Kathleen Vohs (University of Minnesota) report on a series of interesting studies in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. This is a long article, so my intention is only to provide a very brief overview of the rationale and main findings of their research. If you're interested in this article, you can read it here.
These psychologists have both studied with Roy Baumeister, a name familiar to readers of this blog, and anyone else interested in social psychology. Schmeichel and Vohs have extended the self-regulation depletion (willpower-is-like-a-muscle) paradigm developed by Baumeister and his students with an explicit focus on factors that can reduce the likelihood of self-control failure. Their focus was on self-affirmation as an intervention strategy.
Self-affirmation refers to behavioral or cognitive events that sustain, support and strengthen the perceived integrity of the self (Steele, 1988, cited in Schmeichel & Vohs, 2009). Examples of self-affirming events include:
- receiving positive feedback from others
- reflecting upon positive aspects of oneself
Another, and perhaps the most powerful, mode of self-affirmation is expressing one's core values. In fact, this is what Schmeichel and Vohs used in their study.
What can we take away from this in terms of procrastination?Given that procrastination is a quintessential form of self-regulation failure, a key strategy to bolster self-regulatory strength to act on our intentions is to focus on our core values. This self-affirmation, as Schmeichel and Vohs have demonstrated, can fortify the self-concept and boost self-regulatory function. Of course, it will also simply make life more worth living. It will be your life, one deeply rooted in your sense of self. As Tillich writes, "Joy accompanies the self-affirmation of our essential being . . . Joy is the emotional expression of the courageous Yes to one's own true being" (p. 14).
Read Full Article: http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/200903/self-affirmation-strategy-reduce-self-control-failure
***********************************************************************
This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment