Self-affirmation intervention for self-worth protective students

The problem. The purposes of the study were: (a) to investigate the effect of a self-affirmation exercise on the remote association word problem scores of self-worth protective students (SWPS), and (b) to investigate the effect of a self-affirmation exercise on the remote associate word problem scores of students in general.; Method. Within subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a repeated measure were conducted on 149 subjects who participated in a self-affirmation exercise and on 18 subjects identified as SWPS. Subjects were adult student volunteers.; Subjects were administered Set A of the Remote Associate Test (RAT) for the purpose of obtaining a baseline performance score. Subjects were then administered Set B (difficult set) for the purpose of inducing a failure experience. Subjects were then administered Set C (matched for difficulty to Set A) for the purpose of identifying a response to failure score. Subjects were then randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation or no-self-affirmation condition. Subjects assigned self-affirmation were administered a values rating scale and recall exercise for the purpose of inducing affirmation of global self-construct. Subjects assigned no-self-affirmation were administered a remote association word task. All subjects were then administered Set D (matched for difficulty to Sets A & C) followed by a short form of the Self-Worth Protective Scale and a demographics questionnaire.; Results. The hypothesis stating a direct relationship between SWPS' participation in a self-affirmation exercise and subsequent scores was not supported. The predicted relationship was found to be significant; however, SWPS assigned no-self-affirmation also improved scores, though not significantly. A 2 x 2 ANOVA with repeated measure did not find significant difference between score increases of SWPS assigned self-affirmation and SWPS assigned no-self-affirmation.; The hypothesis stating no inverse relationship between participation in a self-affirmation exercise and subsequent scores was supported. Subjects assigned the self-affirmation increased scores significantly. A 2 x 2 ANOVA found no significant difference between score increases of subjects who were assigned the self-affirmation and those who were not.