It's called an affirmation exercise, and it's previously been validated in race stereotype-threat studies in elementary school classrooms. The effects are very long lasting - two scientists found that they last over an entire academic year for African American kids in mixed-race classrooms. The black kids who did the exercise had consistently higher grades than the ones who did not, and their grades were about on par with the white kids in their classroom.
The interesting thing about the affirmation exercise, though, is that you can't let people know what they're doing or what the purpose of the exercise is! Then it doesn't work as well. Researchers are currently working on ways to make it just as effective when people do know what they're doing, and they're studying people who use affirmations intuitively before difficult tasks (you know, the people who take deep breaths and talk to themselves and say "I can do this!", like me lol)
Interestingly enough, for the affirmations to work they also have to be in a different domain. Affirming yourself about the task at hand ("I'm really good at physics") only serves to up your stress about performing well on the task. It's affirming yourself about other things and other roles that works.
I'm psychology PhD student and one of my research areas is racial disparities and cultural psychology (I'm actually kind of interested in how stereotype threat works in health, particularly HIV transmission). I'm working with someone who worked with Claude Steele at Stanford, who is the originator of this theory, and he's the provost at my university, so I heart him and this research :)
I only have a BA in psych, but for my 4th year experimental class, my partner and I did our project on the effect of journalling exercises on mood, and it had the same kind of effect as the affirmation exercises. People who journalled even a few times a week, even if they weren't writing positive things, felt some elevation in mood. It was really cool.
And that's really interesting that the affirmations need to be in a different domain. Are there any studies that touch on why that might be?
Oh no! I was all set to try this strategy on myself. Too bad it won't work as well now... On the other hand, it's bound to make some difference, so I'll do it anyway. Hopefully they'll find that way to make it just as effective when people know what they're doing soon.
It might make a difference. Psychologists study averages; I'll amend my statement to say that they found is on average it doesn't work in the majority of people on a statistically significant level. You may not be in that majority. The other problem with statistical significance is that it's an arbitrary number; you have to be 95% confident that the results you got (in this case, higher scores) didn't just happen by chance. If you're only 80% sure or even only 94% sure, by the stats, you can't report a result as significant. I've don't know what their values were, but I will say that some people have found that saying "I can do this" before a test or difficult task helps build their confidence, at least. And anyway, trying can't hurt!
The interesting thing about the affirmation exercise, though, is that you can't let people know what they're doing or what the purpose of the exercise is! Then it doesn't work as well. Researchers are currently working on ways to make it just as effective when people do know what they're doing, and they're studying people who use affirmations intuitively before difficult tasks (you know, the people who take deep breaths and talk to themselves and say "I can do this!", like me lol)
Interestingly enough, for the affirmations to work they also have to be in a different domain. Affirming yourself about the task at hand ("I'm really good at physics") only serves to up your stress about performing well on the task. It's affirming yourself about other things and other roles that works.
I'm psychology PhD student and one of my research areas is racial disparities and cultural psychology (I'm actually kind of interested in how stereotype threat works in health, particularly HIV transmission). I'm working with someone who worked with Claude Steele at Stanford, who is the originator of this theory, and he's the provost at my university, so I heart him and this research :)
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And that's really interesting that the affirmations need to be in a different domain. Are there any studies that touch on why that might be?
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