The Effects of Self-affirmation on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-being

A study was carried out, testing the effects of self affirmation on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Participants consisted of 540 undergraduate students (141 males and 399 females) from the university of Western Sydney, with their ages ranging from 17 to 71 years. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control condition or an experimental condition. The study utilised electronic surveys to measure hedonic and eudaimonic well-being and the results were used as baseline measures for the continuation of the study.

The Modified Differential Emotions Scale, consisting of 20 items with five-point likert scales, was used for hedonic well-being. Eudaimonic well-being was measured using an 18 item scale, with a 7-point likert scale for each item. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the experimental group and the control group for both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.

Introduction Present research provides extensive support for the idea that affirmations boosts adaptive functioning and well-being. Regardless of this fact, there is little to no recognition of the effect of affirmations, in the fields of well-being studies and positive psychology (Howell, A. 2017).

There are two main conceptions of well-being, hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being. Hedonic conception of well-being associates well-being with pleasure and happiness (McMahan, E. , & Estes, A. 2011). The eudaimonic view of well-being, however, conceptualises well-being in terms of “the cultivation of personal strengths and contributions to the greater good” (McMahan, E. , & Estes, A. 2011). This perspective heavily focuses on life’s meaning and self-realisation.

A person labeled as having high levels of satisfaction in his or her life and, who experiences greater positive (PA) than negative affect (NA) is deemed to have a high level of ‘hedonic’ well being. While a person considered to have ‘eudaimonic’ well-being maintains high levels of purposeful life engagement, lives in accordance with one’s ‘true self’ and aims to achieve a true sense of self Cohen and Sherman 2014 defines self-affirmation as “an act that manifests one’s adequacy and thus affirms one’s sense of global integrity” (p. 337)

Basically, it is the behaviour of expressing a positive attitude towards yourself by uttering positive statements, repeated each day. The current paper examines the effect of self-affirmation and positive utterings on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. People want to be healthy, they want to grow, learn and have positive relationships but “psychological threat can impede their ability to do so” (Cohen and Sherman 2014. p. 354). Hence, the theorisation that affirmations can battle the inner alarm of psychological threat. Epton and Harris (2008) demonstrated the effectiveness of self-affirmation in increasing eudaimonic and hedonic well-being through experimentation with students.

They found that students who engaged in a self-affirmation intervention (e. g. writing about past acts of kindness that had completed) had extremely high ratings of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being than students assigned to the control group. MethodParticipantsA total of 540 undergraduate students (141 Males and 399 Females) from Western Sydney University were recruited via convenience sampling and participated in a study investigating the effects of self-affirmation on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. The participants age ranged from 17 to 71 years, and a mean age of 21. 30 years (SD = 5. 84). Participation was completed voluntarily as part of an assessment task. Materials and ApparatusHedonic Well-being. The Modified Differential Emotions Scale (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2003) is a 20-item scale that asked participants to rate the degree to which they felt a variety of positive emotions (e. g. , "I have felt interested, alert, curious") and negative emotions (e. g. , “I have felt scared, fearful, afraid”). Participants were asked to rate each item on a five-point Likert scale (1 = Never, 5 = Most of the time). A higher score indicated more hedonic well-being. Eudaimonic Well-being.

Participants completed an 18-item scale that measured meaning, relatedness, autonomy, flow, and competence. Sample items included “In the last seven days, I felt my choices were based on my true interests and values” and “In the last seven days, I felt close and connected with other people who are important to me”. Participants were asked to rate each item on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much). A higher score indicated higher levels of eudaimonic well-being. The surveys were completed on the participant’s own personal electronic device using the Qualtrics Survey Platform. These personal electronic devices included, but were not limited to: computers, tablets, and mobile phones. Additionally, in the event that a participant did not have access to an electronic device then a pen and a printed paper version of the survey was provided.

Procedure

Before testing began, participants were given an experiment information sheet and consent form to read then electronically signed via ticking a check box and typing their full name.

Following this, demographic information (i. e. , sex and age) was recorded and then participants were tested at the start of their Psychology: Behavioural Science Week Two Tutorials. This initial testing involved completing a number of surveys that included measures of eudaimonic and hedonic well-being which constituted the baseline measures.

At the start of Psychology: Behavioural Science’s Week Three Tutorial, the participants were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation (n = 257) or control (n = 284) condition depending on whether their student number ended with an even or odd number. The self-affirmation condition requested participants to choose an important value and to describe three or four experiences that demonstrated that value for at least eight minutes. The control condition requested participants to write about what they had done yesterday and to be as detail-orientated as possible, but try to leave out emotions, feelings or opinions for at least eight minutes. Following this, participants then underwent the same measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being that they had previously completed in Week Two.

At the start of Psychology: Behavioural Science’s Week Four Tutorial, the participants were reallocated (using Week Three’s randomisation method) into the same condition as the one they were in for Week Three’s tutorial and then they repeated the same task again. Afterwards, the participants completed the same measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being that they had completed previously in Week Two and Three. The Unit Coordinator then analysed the data using SPSS version 22 (IBM Corp, 2013).

Results

An independent samples t-test was conducted on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. For hedonic well-being assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance were met, and the t-test indicated a non-significant difference between the control and self-affirmation groups, t(539) = 0. 30, p = 0. 76. For eudaimonic well-being assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance were met, and the t-test indicated a non-significant difference between the control and self-affirmation groups, t(539) = 0. 36, p = 0. 72.