The Influence of Self-Affirmation on Executive Functioning in a Frustrating Situation

  • SUN Hongmei ,
  • SUN Xiaoyue ,
  • HAO Yu
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  • School of Management, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617

Received date: 2022-04-01

  Online published: 2022-09-20

Abstract

The current study aimed to assess the performance on executive functioning tasks following value affirmation in frustrating situations. The tasks measured core executive functioning aspects, that is, inhibition (assessed by a Stroop word-color naming task) and working memory (assessed by a 2-back task). The results revealed that: frustrated participants reacted slower in the Stroop task and 2-back task than non-frustrated participants. The self-affirmed participants in a frustrating situation reacted faster than non-affirmed participants. However, there was no significant difference between the response time of self-affirmed and non-affirmed participants in non-frustrating situation. The interaction between context and affirmative conditions was not significant in Stroop task. These findings suggest that the induced frustration can reduce aspects of performance on executive functioning and the self-affirming may improve performance on tasks related to executive functioning in frustrating situations which then improves updating of working memory and the achievement in Stroop task. However, self-affirmation does not improve inhibitory control.

Cite this article

SUN Hongmei , SUN Xiaoyue , HAO Yu . The Influence of Self-Affirmation on Executive Functioning in a Frustrating Situation[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2022 , 20(5) : 615 -621 . DOI: 10.12139/j.1672-0628.2022.05.006

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