Reflecting on personal values offers protection from effects of stress, UCLA psychologists report

Reflecting on meaningful values provides biological and psychological protection from the adverse effects of stress, UCLA psychologists report in the November issue of the journal Psychological Science.

“Our study shows that reflection on personal values can buffer people from the effects of stress, but the implications are broader than that,” said Shelley E. Taylor, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology, and an expert in the field of stress and health. “Any positive self-affirmation can act as a buffer against stressful events; that can include values, personal relationships and qualities that are a source of pride.”

In the study, 80 UCLA undergraduates completed stressful tasks. They delivered five-minute speeches about their qualifications for an office job in front of “speech evaluators” trained to be non expressive, who would coldly tell them during pauses, “You still have time remaining. Please continue.” After a short break, they were instructed to subtract 13 from 2,083 under harassing conditions. They were told to go faster and at each mistake, they were told, “That is incorrect. Please start over from 2,083.”

Prior to these stress tests, one group of students (a randomly assigned “value affirmation” group) reflected on values they had identified in advance as especially meaningful to them, answering 10 written questions. These could have been religious values, in which case they were asked a series of questions about their religion, the Bible and God. In other cases, they reflected on meaningful secular values — such as their political beliefs or social values — answering questions about, for example, Abraham Lincoln or community service work.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 5 Nov 2005
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