ABSTRACT
Introduction: People use coping strategies such as self-affirmation to manage threats to their self-esteem. In empirical research, self-affirmation often involves recalling personal values, strengths, or relationships to restore moral integrity. Research shows it improves attitude adjustment, resolves cognitive dissonance, and enhances well-being. Some studies stress the importance of distinguishing between different aspects of self-affirmation, like strengths or social relations. These aspects align with concepts in psychotherapy that differentiate between internal and external resource activation, benefiting health, self-esteem, and resilience. The aim of the current study was twofold: first, to independently test the three-factor structure of the Spontaneous Self-affirmation Measure (SSAM), and second, to integrate self-affirmation strategies into a broader resource activation framework as resilience factors. It also examined associations with self-esteem and effects of age, gender, and education on spontaneous self-affirmation. Methods: 1,100 participants (72% female, age 18-65) were recruited online. The original three-factor structure of the SSAM (with the factors Strengths, Values and Social relations) was examined using structural equation modeling. Further, a theory driven two-factor structure applying an internal and external resources framework was examined, integrating the factors of the SSAM into the taxonomy of resource activation (Internal resources: Strengths and Values; External resources: Social relations). Results: The results of confirmatory factor analyses showed that both the original three-factor structure and the complementary two-factor structure with an Internal resources and External resources factor fit the data appropriately. All three factors of the original factor model showed a high reliability (Strengths: ωt = 0.91, Values: ωt = 0.91, Social relations: ωt = 0.92). We also found measurement invariance across age, gender, and education. Furthermore, group differences regarding gender, education and ethnicity in the utilization of spontaneous self-affirmation strategies were apparent. Finally, it was demonstrated that the Internal resources factor of the complementary two-factor model is significantly more strongly correlated with self-esteem than the External Resources factor [z = 12.80, p < 0.001, 95%CIdiff (0.24, 0.33)]. Discussion: The study confirms the validity of both the three-factor and two-factor structures of the SSAM. Integrating self-affirmation into the resource activation framework may facilitate applying findings from self-affirmation studies to clinical contexts.
ABSTRACT
A central experimental task in executive control research is the Stop-signal task, which allows measuring the ability to inhibit dominant responses. A crucial aspect of this task consists of varying the delay between the Go- and Stop-signal. Since the time necessary to administer the task can be long, a method of optimal delay choice was recently proposed: the PSI method. In a behavioral experiment, we show a variant of this method, the PSI marginal method, to be unable to deal with the Go-response slowing often observed in the Stop-signal task. We propose the PSI adjusted method, which is able to deal with this response slowing by correcting the estimation process for the current reaction time. In several sets of behavioral simulations, as well as another behavioral experiment, we document and compare the statistical properties of the PSI marginal method, our PSI adjusted method, and the traditional staircase method, both when reaction times are constant and when they are linearly increasing. The results show the PSI adjusted method's performance to be comparable to the PSI marginal method in the case of constant Go-response times, and to outperform the PSI marginal method as well as the staircase methods when there is response slowing. The PSI adjusted method thus offers the possibility of efficient estimation of Stop-signal reaction times in the face of response slowing.
