Incorporating Self-Affirmation in Clinical Settings

Self-affirmation – a process by which individuals reflect on cherished personal values and how they fulfill or embody such values – has been shown to be an effective therapeutic intervention. For example, self-affirmation has been demonstrated to be particularly effective in reducing defensiveness to risk-related health communications. This is an important set of findings, because reduced defensiveness to such messages translates into increased disease risk perceptions and self-efficacy for preventive behaviors, as well as intentions to engage in preventive behavior, actual behavior change at extended follow-up, and improved behavior-related biological outcomes (e.g., reduced BMI). Self-affirmation has also been widely successful in reducing anxiety related to threatening academic testing situations, thereby improving performance. These robust effects of self-affirmation suggest that it could be a potent intervention for improving behavioral outcomes in a variety of clinical settings. This online course provides an empirical overview of the literature linking self-affirmation to positive outcomes relevant to clinical care. Different methods of encouraging self-affirmation in patients are addressed, providing a roadmap for implementing self-affirmation interventions within the therapeutic context. In addition, the course discusses situations in which self-affirmation may be particularly effective in motivating behavior change, as well as those in which self-affirmation may be less promising.