Professional Documents
Culture Documents
“Self-affirmation theory posits that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-view and that threats to perceived self-
competence are met with resistance. When threatened, self-affirmations can restore self-competence by allowing individuals to
reflect on sources of self-worth, such as core values.”
Through comparing the functional MRI’s a group of participants who were thinking positive affirmations with a control group who
were not given specific affirmations they found the following:
“Results demonstrate that activity in hypothesized reward/valuation regions… are primary pathways associated with self-
affirmation. Furthermore, regions associated with self-related processing… are associated with self-affirmations that are future
oriented. These neural correlates of self-affirmation were further associated with objectively measured behavior change,
suggesting the external validity of the affirmation task.”
Cascio, C. N., O’Donnell, M. B., Tinney, F. J., Lieberman, M. D., Taylor, S. E., Strecher, V. J., & Falk, E. B. (2015). Self-affirmation
activates brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is reinforced by future orientation. Social Cognitive and
Affective Neuroscience,11(4), 621-629. doi:10.1093/scan/nsv136
Does it work?
(raise your hand if you think it does)
3.5%
A study at the Palo Alto Research Center and Computer Science Department at the
University of of California Santa Cruz studied the efficacy of health care promotion
affirmations through participants who used an app for better eating habits. They wrote,
“Analysis of 3556 observations from 127 participants indicated that higher doses of self-
affirmation resulted in improved adherence to mHealth intervention goals”
A technique involving the repetition of
Autogenic a set of visualizations that cause one
to enter into a relaxed state, it’s based
training upon the mind’s passive
concentration of self-suggested
What is it? bodily perceptions.
A desensitization-relaxation
technique
My right arm is
heavy and warm.
My heartbeat is
calm and regular.
My head is cool.
History and Development of Autogenic Training
Stetter, F; Kupper, S (2002). "Autogenic training: a meta-analysis of clinical outcome studies". Applied
Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. 27 (1): 45–98. doi:10.1023/A:1014576505223. PMID 12001885.
Can we see how
Affirmations
relate to
Autogenic
Training ?
Louise Hay
The Queen of Affirmations