Brady et al., 2016: Affirming values increases academic performance and positive self-views, while reducing threat among Latino college students over two years
Reference:
Brady, S. T., Reeves, S. L., Garcia, J., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Cook, J. E., Taborsky-Barba, S., ... & Cohen, G. L. (2016). The psychology of the affirmed learner: Spontaneous self-affirmation in the face of stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3), 353.
Download PDFSummary:
Latino and White students in the first or second year of a predominantly White college completed a values-affirmation intervention or control materials as part of a laboratory study. This improved the college grade-point-average of Latino students over the next two years, reducing the ethnic achievement gap by 90%. At the end of this period, Latino students who had received the values-affirmation intervention showed evidence of greater spontaneous self-affirming thoughts and fewer self-threatening thoughts in response to an academic stressor, and reported greater sense of adequacy and self-integrity, belonging.
Psychological Process:
What Desired Meaning is At Stake?
What is the Person Trying to Understand?
To See the Self as AdequateApproach to Desired Meaning
What about it?
Remedy Threats to Self-Integrity that Undermine FunctioningHow?
Psychological Question Addressed
Am I under threat, because could I be seen or treated negatively because of my group identity?Am I under threat, because could I be seen or treated negatively because of my group identity?Psychological Question Addressed
Am I under threat, because could I be seen or treated negatively because of my group identity?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Social Area:
Education
Intervention Technique:
Active reflection, values-affirmation