Exploring the Relationship Among Self-Affirmation, Self-Concept Clarity and Reduced Defensiveness to Threats

Two studies were designed to explore the effect of self-affirmation on self-concept clarity and assess the potential mediational role of self-concept clarity in the relationship between self-affirmation and reduced defensiveness to threatening health information. It was predicted that self-affirmed participants would experience higher levels of self-concept clarity than their non-affirmed counterparts (Experiment 1). Moreover, consistent with prior research, it was hypothesized that self-affirmation would result in reduced defensiveness for people faced with a health threat relative to non-affirmed, threatened participants and to non-threatened participants (Experiments 1 and 2). Lastly, it was predicted that this relationship would be mediated by self-concept clarity (Experiments 1 and 2). In Experiment 1, 297 male and female college students wrote a self-affirming or control essay and were then exposed to a message suggesting that engaging in sexual activity increases the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. In Experiment 2, 249 female college students self-affirmed in a manner that was designed to result in either low or high self-concept clarity and then read a message highlighting the link between alcohol and breast cancer risk. In both studies, defensive reactions were assessed by measuring variables such as risk perceptions, emotional responses, intentions and actual engagement in risk-reducing behavior. Experiment 1 illustrated that self-affirming did result in a small but statistically significant increase in self-concept clarity relative to those who did not self-affirm, but not reduced defensiveness. In Experiment 2, participants who self-affirmed in a manner that resulted in low or high self-concept clarity did not differ in consistent ways. Participants who consumed the most alcohol and completed the high self-concept clarity self-affirmation in the lab reported engaging in less unhealthy behavior (i.e., consuming fewer alcoholic drinks) in the seven to ten days after their participation relative to those who completed the low self-concept clarity self-affirmation, providing evidence that self-affirmation may result in behavioral change for some groups. The theoretical and practical implications of these experiments, as well as future directions for research on the mediators of the effects of self-affirmation will be discussed

Effects of Emotional State on Reactions to Health Risk Feedback

The influence of emotion on reactions to a subsequent emotion-inducing event, receiving health feedback, was investigated. 208 male and female undergraduate students were given a film emotion induction procedure intended to elicit happiness, sadness, or neutral affect. They then received false feedback indicating that their risk of getting a fictional type of influenza was high or low. Reactions to the feedback were assessed by measuring affect, risk perceptions, and worry. In addition, intentions to engage in health behaviors and actual health information-seeking behavior were assessed. Receiving high risk feedback resulted in less positive affect, more negative affect and worry, and higher risk perceptions than getting low risk feedback. Risk feedback influenced one measure of behavioral intentions. For low risk participants, experiencing an emotion (happy or sad) resulted in taking more pamphlets than those in the neutral condition who received the same feedback. High risk participants who experienced an emotion took fewer pamphlets than neutral people receiving the same feedback. Increased positive affect, worry, and risk perceptions after receiving feedback predicted intentions to engage in health behavior, and people who worried more were more likely to take pamphlets about the flu. However, these reactions to feedback did not mediate the relationship between feedback and behavior. Behavioral intentions did mediate the relationship between feedback and placing contact information in a box to receive more information about the flu. Overall, the findings have implications for how potentially threatening personal feedback will be interpreted and acted upon depending on the receiver's emotional state at the time of getting feedback

A framework for conceptualizing how narratives from health-care consumers might improve or impede the use of information about provider quality

Consumers choosing a health-care provider have access to diverse information including narratives by patients about their prior experiences. However, little research has examined how narratives might improve or impede the use of information about the quality of providers’ performance. This paper describes a conceptual framework for examining mechanisms by which narrative information might influence consumer judgments and decisions about providers. We conducted a conceptual review of risk communication and behavioral decision research. We synthesized the literature to form the foundation of a conceptual framework for assessing how narrative information about provider quality impacts consumer decisions about providers. We identified four key characteristics of narratives (convey emotion; explain logic; provide relational information; and capture naturalistic experience) that may address four consumer needs (avoid surprise and regret; recognize dominant options; motivate to act or not act; and make multi-attribute tradeoff decisions). We also identified three main functions of narratives (provide a simple, powerful cue; imbue quality information with meaning; and stimulate cognition and behavior) in four decision contexts (short-term treatments; external disruptions; chronic illness; problematic experiences). A rigorous research program can be derived from the conceptual framework to generate evidence-based recommendations about whether and how patient narratives might encourage: (1) more reasoned decisions; (2) consistency with a patient’s own values/preferences; and (3) engagement with provider quality information. Research results can be used then to develop robust guidance for health communicators reporting diverse and often incommensurate performance metrics

Effects of the integrated behavioral health projects efforts to promote integrated care under funding from the California Mental Health Services Authority /

JSTO

Ability, chance, and ambiguity aversion: Revisiting the competence hypothesis

Individuals are often ambiguity-averse when choosing among purely chance-based prospects (Ellsberg, 1961). However, they often prefer apparently ambiguous ABILITY-based prospects to unambiguous chance-based prospects. According to the competence hypothesis (Heath & Tversky, 1991), this pattern derives from favorable perceptions of one's competence. In most past tests of the competence hypothesis, ambiguity is confounded with personal controllability and the source of the ambiguity (e.g., chance vs. missing information). We unconfound these factors in three experiments and find strong evidence for independent effects of both ambiguity aversion and competence. In Experiment 1, participants preferred an unambiguous chance-based option to an ambiguous ability-based option when the ambiguity derived from chance rather than uncertainty about one's own ability. In Experiments 2 and 3, which used different operationalizations of ambiguity in choice contexts with actual consequences, participants attempted to avoid both ambiguity and chance insofar as they could. These findings support and extend the competence hypothesis by demonstrating ambiguity aversion independent of personal controllability and source of ambiguity.ambiguity, control, competence, choice.