Self-affirmation and motivational interviewing: integrating perspectives to reduce resistance and increase efficacy of alcohol interventions

Abstract

To promote efforts at reducing problematic alcohol use and improving health outcomes, the present review proposes an integration of a social psychological approach - self-affirmation theory - with a clinical psychology intervention - motivational interviewing. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a popular empirically-designed treatment approach that has shown moderate success at reducing drinking and improving health, especially with resistant drinkers. Experiments informed by self-affirmation theory have found that people exhibit reduced defensiveness to threatening health messages and increased intentions to reduce alcohol consumption when affirmed. This review focuses on the mechanisms by which self-affirmation reduces resistance and how these mechanisms are complementary to the MI approach. Further, the review outlines suggestions for conducting and integrating self-affirmation into a MI intervention and provides recommendations for future empirical research.

Keywords: alcohol interventions; intervention efficacy; message processing; motivational interviewing; resistance; self-affirmation theory.