 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
This paper reports two field studies in which students
were led to self-affirm to assess the consequences on
academic performance. In these studies (separated
by a year and comprised of a separate set of students),
seventh grade students at a racially-diverse middle
school in the Northeast U.S. were randomly assigned to
self-affirm or not to self-affirm as part of a brief
classroom exercise. Students who
self-affirmed did so by indicating values that
were important to them and writing a brief essay
indicating why those values were important. For
students who did not self-affirm, they indicated their
least important values and wrote an essay regarding why those
values might be important to others. The effects
on academic performance during the semester were
dramatic. African-American students who had been
led to self-affirm performed .3 grade points better
during the semester than those who had not, and those
benefits occurred both in the class where the
intervention took place as well as other classes. Moreover, benefits occurred regardless of
pre-intervention levels of demonstrated ability. The self-affirmation intervention appears to have
attenuated the drop in performance that typically occurs
for African-American students over time.
Back to top | Previous
Page
|
|
|
|
