The Cessation of Rumination Through Self-Affirmation

Drawing from self-affirmation theory ( C. M. Steele, 1988 ) and L. L. Martin and A. Tesser's (1989 , 1996 ) theory of ruminative thinking, the authors hypothesized that people stop ruminating about a frustrated goal when they can affirm an important aspect of the self. In 3 experiments particip...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 1999-07, Vol.77 (1), p.111-125
Main Authors: Koole, Sander L, Smeets, Karianne, van Knippenberg, Ad, Dijksterhuis, Ap
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Processes
Failure
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Male
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self image
Self representation
Self-Concept
Self-Esteem
Self-perception
Social psychology
Thinking
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Summary:Drawing from self-affirmation theory ( C. M. Steele, 1988 ) and L. L. Martin and A. Tesser's (1989 , 1996 ) theory of ruminative thinking, the authors hypothesized that people stop ruminating about a frustrated goal when they can affirm an important aspect of the self. In 3 experiments participants were given failure feedback on an alleged IQ test. Failure feedback led to increased rumination (i.e., accessibility of goal-related thoughts) compared with no-failure conditions (Studies 1 and 2). Rumination was reduced when participants could self-affirm after failure (Studies 1 and 2) or before failure (Study 3). In Study 3, self-affirmation led to increased positive affect on a disguised mood test and more positive name letter evaluations. Moreover, the obtained increase in positive affect mediated the effect of self-affirmation on rumination. It is concluded that self-affirmation may be an effective way to stop ruminative thinking.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.77.1.111