Self-Affirmation: Protecting the Self and Protecting Subjective Well-Being

In this chapter, we will outline the basic tenets of self-affirmation theory and how self-affirmation has been shown to affect different contexts of human functioning. We will address commonly studied psychological benefits of self-affirmation as potential pathways of increasing well-being, discuss ways to induce self-affirmation, and detail how people may spontaneously choose to self-affirm. We will also discuss whether or not self-affirmation can truly be considered a self-regulation strategy or whether people need to be largely unaware of self-affirmation in order for it to produce beneficial effects. We will conclude the chapter by addressing boundary conditions and potential mechanisms of self-affirmation while discussing its role as a potential resource to increase well-being—after all, self-affirmation is an area of research and theorizing that has only recently been considered and picked up in the literature on subjective well-being.