Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Effect of Self-Affirmation on Self-Control in a Cheating Context Public Deposited
https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/3197xm47b
- Abstract
- This study examined the effect self-affirmation has on a self-control task in a novel way. A dependent measure of self-control was created that tempts participants with an opportunity to cheat. Participants were given a generous incentive to do well on the dice game task, but in order to ‘win’ they had to cheat (i.e. fail to exhibit self-control). It was hypothesized that participants would be less likely to cheat in the affirmation condition because self-affirmation will have induced a higher mental construal and therefore improved self-control. An individual differences measure was included to examine a possible moderation effect based on individual’s natural self-control levels. It was hypothesized that those with natural high self-control will be less affected by the affirmation. Results indicated that even though more non-affirmed participants did cheat than self-affirmed participants, self-affirmation did not significantly improve self-control. Secondly, participants in the two groups did not significantly differ in mental construal. Furthermore, results presented an individual difference in inhibitory self-control levels, but this was not a successful moderating variable of self-control behavior. These results provided new evidence for self-affirmation effects on self-control, but mainly suggests that further research should be conducted that includes a distinct measure of self-control (e.g. a cheating opportunity) and encompasses an individual differences covariate to account for a possible moderation effect of natural self-control levels.
- Creator
- Date Awarded
- 2017-01-01
- Academic Affiliation
- Advisor
- Committee Member
- Granting Institution
- Subject
- Last Modified
- 2019-12-02
- Resource Type
- Rights Statement
- Language
Relationships
- In Collection:
Items
Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Visibility | Actions |
---|---|---|---|---|
effectOfSelfAffirmationOnSelfControlInACheatingContext.pdf | 2019-11-21 | Public | Download |