ABSTRACT

Research on self-affirmation has potential to inform the field’s understanding of health message resistance and acceptance. However, widely used self-affirmation instruments have several disadvantages that can lead to inconsistent success in generating self-affirmation and thus may explain inconsistent self-affirmation effects, or at the very least make their use cumbersome. In a series of three sequential studies, we introduced and tested a brief attribute scale format self-affirmation induction (brief scale affirmation task, or B-SAT) that was based on the 32-item attribute scale self-affirmation induction developed by Napper, Harris, and Epton. Using different behavioral contexts, we compared the performance of the B-SAT with that of two widely used self-affirmation inductions, i.e., the value essay task and the 32-item attribute scale. From a convergent validity perspective, the B-SAT performed as effectively as the two existing inductions in making people aware of their cherished and desirable values. From a predictive validity perspective, the B-SAT reduced defensive responses to a self-relevant health message and improved instrumental attitude toward the recommended behavior.

摘要

关于自我肯定的研究可能会有助于该领域对健康信息抵抗和接受的理解。但是，广泛使用的自我肯定工具有几个缺点，这些缺陷会导致在产生自我肯定方面取得不一致的成功，从而可能解释不一致的自我肯定效果，或者至少使它们的使用繁琐。在一系列的三项连续研究中，我们引入并测试了一个简短的属性量表格式自我肯定归纳法（简短量表确认任务，即B-SAT），该归纳法基于Napper开发的32个项目的属性量表自我肯定归纳法，哈里斯和埃普顿。使用不同的行为环境，我们将B-SAT的性能与两个广泛使用的自我肯定归纳法（即价值论文任务和32项属性量表）的性能进行了比较。从收敛效度的角度来看，B-SAT在使人们意识到自己的珍视和理想价值方面，与两个现有归纳法一样有效。从预测有效性的角度来看，B-SAT减少了对自我相关健康信息的防御反应，并改善了对推荐行为的工具态度。