TY - JOUR
AU - Dijksterhuis, Ap
AB - Drawing from self-affirmation theory (C. M. Steele, 1988) and L. L. Martin and A. Tesser's (1989, 1996) theory of ruminative thinking, the authors hypothesized that people stop ruminating about a frustrated goal when they can affirm an important aspect of the self. In 3 experiments participants were given failure feedback on an alleged IQ test. Failure feedback led to increased rumination (i.e., accessibility of goal-related thoughts) compared with no-failure conditions (Studies 1 and 2). Rumination was reduced when participants could self-affirm after failure (Studies 1 and 2) or before failure (Study 3). In Study 3, self-affirmation led to increased positive affect on a disguised mood test and more positive name letter evaluations. Moreover, the obtained increase in positive affect mediated the effect of self-affirmation on rumination. It is concluded that self-affirmation may be an effective way to stop ruminative thinking.
TI - The Cessation of Rumination Through Self-Affirmation
JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
DO - 10.1037/0022-3514.77.1.111
DA - 1999-07-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/american-psychological-association/the-cessation-of-rumination-through-self-affirmation-YeWWsGJykR
SP - 111
EP - 125
VL - 77
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -