Chronic threat and contingent belonging: Protective benefits of values affirmation on identity development

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Volumn 102, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 479-496

  Cook, Jonathan E ^a   Purdie Vaughns, Valerie ^a   Garcia, Julio ^b   Cohen, Geoffrey L ^c  

^a Och Spine at New York Presbyterian Hospitals   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO   (United States)

^c STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

African Americans; Belonging; Identity threat; Middle school development; Values affirmation

Indexed keywords

AFRICAN AMERICAN; ARTICLE; CAUCASIAN; EDUCATIONAL STATUS; FEMALE; HUMAN; LONGITUDINAL STUDY; MALE; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; SCHOOL; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL DISTANCE; SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY;

AFRICAN AMERICANS; EDUCATIONAL STATUS; EUROPEAN CONTINENTAL ANCESTRY GROUP; FEMALE; HUMANS; LONGITUDINAL STUDIES; MALE; SCHOOLS; SOCIAL DISTANCE; SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT; SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION; SOCIAL VALUES;

EID: 84863729506     PISSN: 00223514     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/a0026312     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Aronson, J., & Inzlicht, M. (2004). The ups and downs of attributional ambiguity: Stereotype vulnerability and the academic self-knowledge of African American college students. Psychological Science, 15, 829- 836. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00763.x
2. Baguley, T. (2009). Standardized or simple effect size: What should be reported? British Journal of Psychology, 100, 603-617. doi:10.1348/000712608X377117
3. Battistich, V., & Hom, A. (1997). The relationship between students' sense of their school community and students' involvement in problem behavior. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 1997-2001. doi:10.2105/AJPH.87.12.1997
4. Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachment as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497
5. Baumeister, R. F., Twenge, J. M., & Nuss, C. (2002). Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes: Anticipated aloneness reduces intelligent thought. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 817-827. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.4.817
6. Bosma, H., van de Mheen, H. D., & Mackenbach, J. P. (1999). Social class in childhood and general health in adulthood: Questionnaire study of contribution of psychological attributes. British Medical Journal, 318, 18-22.
7. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32, 513-531. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.32.7.513
8. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9. Brown, L. M., & Dobbins, H. (2004). Students' of color and European American students' stigma-relevant perceptions of university instructors. Journal of Social Issues, 60, 157-174. doi:10.1111/j.0022-4537.2004.00104.x
10. Caspi, A., Elder, G. H., & Bem, D. J. (1987). Moving against the world: Life-course patterns of explosive children. Developmental Psychology, 23, 308-313. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.23.2.308
11. Caspi, A., Elder, G. H., & Bem, D. J. (1988). Moving away from the world: Life-course patterns of shy children. Developmental Psychology, 24, 824-831. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.24.6.824
12. Ceci, S. J., & Papierno, P. B. (2005). The rhetoric and reality of gap closing: When the "have-nots" gain but the "haves" gain even more. American Psychologist, 60, 149-160. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.60.2.149
13. Chen, E., Cohen, S., & Miller, G. E. (2010). How low socioeconomic status affects 2-year hormonal trajectories in children. Psychological Science, 21, 31-37. doi:10.1177/0956797609355566
14. Cialdini, R. B. (2009). We have to break up. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 5-6. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01091.x
15. Cohen, G. L., & Garcia, J. (2008). Identity, belonging, and achievement: A model, interventions, implications. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 365-369. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00607.x
16. Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. (2006, September 1). Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-psychological intervention. Science, 313, 1307-1310. doi:10.1126/science.1128317
17. Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Apfel, N., & Brzustoski, P. (2009, April 17). Recursive processes in self-affirmation: Intervening to close the minority achievement gap. Science, 324, 400-403. doi: 10.1126/science.1170769
18. Cohen, G. L., Steele, C. M., & Ross, L. D. (1999). The mentor's dilemma: Providing critical feedback across the racial divide. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 1302-1318. doi:10.1177/0146167299258011
19. Connell, J., Halpern-Flesher, B., Clifford, E., Crichlow, J., & Usinger, B. (1995). Hanging in there: Behavioral, psychological, and contextual factors affecting whether African American adolescents stay in high school. Journal of Adolescent Research, 10, 41-63. doi:10.1177/0743554895101004
20. Creswell, J. D., Welch, W. T., Taylor, S. E., Sherman, D. K., Gruenewald, T. L., & Mann, T. (2005). Affirmation of personal values buffers neuroendocrine and psychological stress responses. Psychological Science, 16, 846-851. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01624.x
21. Crocker, J., Niiya, Y., & Mischkowski, D. (2008). Why does writing about important values reduce defensiveness? Self-affirmation and the role of positive other-directed feelings. Psychological Science, 19, 740-747. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02150.x
22. Crocker, J., Sommers, S. R., & Luhtanen, R. K. (2002). Hopes dashed and dreams fulfilled: Contingencies of self-worth and graduate school admissions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1275-1286. doi:10.1177/01461672022812012
23. Crocker, J., Voelkl, K., Testa, M., & Major, B. (1991). Social stigma: The affective consequences of attributional ambiguity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 218-228. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.2.218
24. Dickerson, S. S., & Kemeny, M. E. (2004). Acute stressors and cortisol responses: A theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 355-391. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.355
25. Eccles, J. S., Lord, S., & Midgley, C. (1991). What are we doing to early adolescents? The impact of educational contexts on early adolescents. American Journal of Education, 99, 521-542. doi:10.1086/443996
26. Epton, T., & Harris, P. R. (2008). Self-affirmation promotes health behavior change. Health Psychology, 27, 746-752. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.27.6.746
27. Furrer, C., & Skinner, E. (2003). Sense of relatedness as a factor in children's academic engagement and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 148-162. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.95.1.148
28. Heckman, J. J. (2006, June 30). Skill formation and the economics of investing in disadvantaged children. Science, 312, 1900-1902. doi: 10.1126/science.1128898
29. Judd, C. M., McClelland, G. H., & Ryan, C. S. (2009). Data analysis: A model comparison approach (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
30. Kaiser, C. R., Vick, S. B., & Major, B. (2006). Prejudice expectations moderate preconscious attention to cues that are threatening to social identity. Psychological Science, 17, 332-338. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01707.x
31. Lepper, M. R., Ross, L., & Lau, R. (1986). Persistence of inaccurate and discredited personal impressions: Attributional perseverance in the classroom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 482-491. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.3.482
32. Major, B., Spencer, S., Schmader, T., Wolfe, C., & Crocker, J. (1998). Coping with negative stereotypes about intellectual performance: The role of psychological disengagement. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 34-50. doi:10.1177/0146167298241003
33. McClelland, G. H., & Judd, C. M. (1993). Statistical difficulties of detecting interactions and moderator effects. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 376-390. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.114.2.376
34. Mendoza-Denton, R., Downey, G., Purdie, V. J., Davis, A., & Pietrzak, J. (2002). Sensitivity to status-based rejection: Implications for African American students' college experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 896-918. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.4.896
35. Miller, G. E., & Chen, E. (2010). Harsh family climate in early life presages the emergence of a proinflammatory phenotype in adolescence. Psychological Science, 21, 848-856. doi:10.1177/0956797610370161
36. Miller, G. E., Chen, E., Fok, A. K., Walker, H., Lim, A., Nicholls, E. F., . . . Kobor, M. S. (2009). Low early-life social class leaves a biological residue manifested by decreased glucocorticoid and increased proinflammatory signaling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 106, 14716-14721. doi:10.1073/pnas.0902971106
37. Murphy, M. C., Steele, C. M., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Signaling threat: How situational cues affect women in math, science, and engineering settings. Psychological Science, 18, 879-885. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280 .2007.01995.x
38. Obradovic, J., Burt, K. B., & Masten, A. S. (2009). Testing a dual cascade model linking competence and symptoms over 20 years from childhood to adulthood. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 39, 90-102. doi:10.1080/15374410903401120
39. Osterman, K. F. (2000). Students' need for belonging in the school community. Review of Educational Research, 70, 323-367.
40. Pedhazur, E. J. (1997). Multiple regression in behavioral research: Explanation and prediction (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
41. Purdie-Vaughns, V., Steele, C. A., Davies, P. G., Ditlmann, R., & Crosby, J. R. (2008). Social identity contingencies: How diversity cues signal threat or safety for African Americans in mainstream institutions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 615-630. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.4.615
42. Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
43. Raudenbush, S. W., Bryk, A. S., Cheong, Y. K., & Congdon, R. T. (2004). HLM 6: Hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling [Computer software]. Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software International.
44. Resnick, M. D., Bearman, P. S., Blum, R. W., Bauman, K. E., Harris, K. M., Jones, J., . . . Udry, J. R. (1997). Protecting adolescents from harm: Findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. Journal of the American Medical Association, 278, 823-832. doi:10.1001/jama.278.10.823
45. Schafer, J. L., & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: Our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147-177. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.7.2.147
46. Schimel, J., Arndt, J., Banko, K. M., & Cook, A. (2004). Not all selfaffirmations were created equal: The cognitive and social benefits of affirming the intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) self. Social Cognition, 22, 75-99. doi:10.1521/soco.22.1.75.30984
47. Schmeichel, B. J., & Vohs, K. (2009). Self-affirmation and self-control: Affirming core values counteracts ego depletion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 770-782. doi:10.1037/a0014635
48. Sherman, D. K., Bunyan, D. P., Creswell, J. D., & Jaremka, L. M. (2009). Psychological vulnerability and stress: The effects of self-affirmation on sympathetic nervous system responses to naturalistic stressors. Health Psychology, 28, 554-562. doi:10.1037/a0014663
49. Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2006). The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 183-242). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
50. Sherman, D. K., Nelson, L. D., & Steele, C. M. (2000). Do messages about health risks threaten the self? Increasing the acceptance of threatening health messages via self-affirmation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1046-1058. doi:10.1177/01461672002611003
51. Simmons, R. G., Black, A., & Zhou, Y. (1991). African-American versus White children and the transition into junior high school. American Journal of Education, 99, 481-520. doi:10.1086/443995
52. Singer, J. D., & Willett, J. B. (2003). Applied longitudinal data analysis. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152968.001.0001
53. Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equation models. In S. Leinhart (Ed.), Sociological methodology 1982 (pp. 290-312). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. doi: 10.2307/270723
54. Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 261-302). New York, NY: Academic Press.
55. Steele, C. M. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 613-629. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.52.6.613
56. Steele, C. M., Spencer, S. J., & Aronson, J. (2002). Contending with group image: The psychology of stereotype and social identity threat. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 34, pp. 379-440). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
57. Thomaes, S., Bushman, B. J., de Castro, B. O., Cohen, G. L., & Denissen, J. J. A. (2009). Reducing narcissistic aggression by buttressing selfesteem: An experimental field study. Psychological Science, 20, 1536-1542. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02478.x
58. Wakslak, C. J., & Trope, Y. (2009). Cognitive consequences of affirming the self: The relationship between self-affirmation and object construal. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 927-932. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.05.002
59. Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2007). A question of belonging: Race, social fit, and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 82-96. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.82
60. Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011, March 18). A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and health outcomes of minority students. Science, 331, 1447-1451. doi:10.1126/science.1198364
61. Wayman, J. C. (2002). Student perceptions of teacher ethnic bias: A comparison of Mexican American and non-Latino White dropouts and students. The High School Journal, 85(3), 27-37. doi:10.1353/hsj.2002.0006
62. Wilkinson, L., & the Task Force on Statistical Inference. (1999). Statistical methods in psychology journals: Guidelines and explanations. American Psychologist, 54, 594-604. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.54.8.594
63. Yeager, D. S., & Walton, G. M. (2011). Social-psychological interventions in education: They're not magic. Review of Educational Research, 81, 267-301. doi:10.3102/0034654311405999