The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory

In major league baseball, a hitter could have a long and productive career by maintaining a .300 average, that is, by getting a base hit 30% of the time. A great deal of money could be earned and fame accrued. Yet the other 70% of the time, this player would have failed. The vast majority of attempts to hit the ball would result in "making an out" and thus pose a potential threat to the player's sense of personal worth and social regard. Like major league baseball players, people in contemporary society face innumerable failures and self-threats. These include substandard performance on the job or in class, frustrated goals or aspirations, information challenging the validity of long-held beliefs, illness, the defeat of one's political party in an election or of one's favorite sports team in a playoff, scientific evidence suggesting that one is engaging in risky health behavior, negative feedback at work or in school, rejection in a romantic relationship, real and perceived social slights, interpersonal and intergroup conflict, the misbehavior of one's child, the loss of a loved one, and so on. In the course of a given day, the potential number of events that could threaten people's "moral and adaptive adequacy"-their sense of themselves as good, virtuous, successful, and able to control important life outcomes (Steele, 1988)-seems limitless and likely to exceed the small number of events that affirm it. A major undertaking for most people is to sustain self-integrity when faced with the inevitable setbacks and disappointments of daily life-the 70% of the time "at bat" when they do not get a base hit. How do individuals adapt to such threats and defend self-integrity? Much research suggests that people have a "psychological immune system" that initiates protective adaptations when an actual or impending threat is perceived (Gilbert, Pinel, Wilson, Blumberg, & Wheatley, 1998). Psychological adaptations to threats include the various cognitive strategies and even distortions whereby people come to construe a situation in a manner that renders it less threatening to personal worth and well-being.