Paper
The Role of the Self in Physical Health
Published Jan 1, 2012 · Christine Logel, Geoffrey L. Cohen
Psychological Science
116
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6
Influential Citations
Abstract
Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic disease (World Health Organization, WHO, 2000). Maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI) requires two things: the ability to cope with stress, which increases caloric consumption (Dallman, 2009), and the ability to maintain self-control, which is needed to avoid overeating in a society with an abundance of caloriedense food. Given these requirements, an intervention that bolsters psychological resources for well-being and selfcontrol could promote healthful weight loss. One such intervention is a values affirmation. Participants write about self-defining values, such as relationships or religious beliefs. This affirms their sense of personal worth or self-integrity (Sherman & Cohen, 2006; Steele, 1988). Affirmations can bolster self-control by focusing people on higher values rather than on immediate impulses (Schmeichel & Vohs, 2009; Sherman & Cohen, 2006). By reminding people of what is really important, affirmation also buffers people against mundane stressors that might otherwise sap mental resources, which are needed for self-regulation and effective coping (Creswell et al., 2005; Koole, Smeets, Van Knippenberg, & Dijksterhuis, 1999). Even when brief, affirmations can have lasting effects if they interrupt ruminative cycles that worsen outcomes over time (Cohen, Garcia, Purdie-Vaughns, Apfel, & Brzustoski, 2009). Because women are likely to be especially vulnerable to weight-related stress (Miller & Downey, 1999), this study focused on females. Participants completed either an affirmation or a control exercise, and BMI was assessed at baseline and 2.5 months later. Working memory, a critical component of self-control (Hofmann, Friese, Schmeichel, & Baddeley, 2010), was also assessed, on the assumption that an affirmation of a person’s values should free his or her working memory from stressful preoccupations (Klein & Boals, 2001).
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