Self Love Club

The problem

We aimed to increase acts of self-compassion by university students in order to promote a positive self image. Positive self image aids social relationships, academic and job performance (Judge et al., 1998), whereas low self-esteem/negative self image predicts worse economic prospects, poorer mental and physical health later in life (Trzesnieski et al., 2006), as well as depression (Sowislo & Orth, 2013; Steiger, Allemand, Robins & Fend, 2014). This is particularly important for university students due to the high level of stress and pressure they are under, consequentially impeding on their wellbeing. With a disappointingly low investment into students’ mental health and wellbeing at Warwick (Pickard, 2017), interventions aimed at boosting self-esteem and self image can be preventative against mental health issues, and other negative outcomes.

Recruitment process

Individuals were recruited to take part in a week long intervention with guided self-care activities. The foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique was used during recruitment which involved asking our friends whether they believe that self-love and self-care activities are important. To gauge their self-efficacy, they were asked if they think they could see themselves make improvements in this area. We then informed them that we would be conducting a week long self-love behavioural intervention and asked whether they would be interested in taking part. If so, they were invited to like and message our Facebook page which would serve as a medium to personally send daily activities to participants via messaging. These initial tasks elicited public commitment to the cause, therefore the larger request of participation was more likely to result in compliance. Thirteen out of fifteen people who were asked subsequently joined the intervention.

Picture 1: Self Love Club typography by Frances Cannon

Consistency is a factor that contributes to the success of the FITD technique; this is based on the idea that individuals have a need to view their attitudes and behaviours as consistent, and have them appear consistent to others (Burger, 1999). Additionally, the factors of likability, familiarity and similarity came into play because participants consisted of our friends. Following recruitment, participants were contacted through the Facebook page to add the essence of credibility, which was supplemented with the page description: “a behavioural intervention aimed to increase self-love using techniques grounded in psychological research”. Furthermore, the page name “Self Love Club” elicited in-group membership. Tajfel (1981) suggests that part of our self-concept is derived from group membership, even if the basis for membership is seemingly arbitrary.

Our Intervention

The intervention was based on the self-perception theory of attitudes, which describes how the perception of our behaviour leads us to form attitudes that are consistent with that behaviour (Bem, 1972). Our intervention aimed to increase engagement in self-care activities by university students over the period of a week, in an effort to increase positive self image. Instances of self-care behaviour and self-loving thoughts were made more salient by completing small daily activities which incorporated a number of techniques. This ties in with availability heuristic theory, which suggests that individuals make judgements based on how easily examples come to mind (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973). Moreover, personalization was at the core of the intervention. Activities were sent to participants personally- we communicated via the Facebook page, replied quickly to messages and used individual’s names when addressing them, in an effort to make participants feel valued. Another technique utilised was implementation intentions; for example, on day one participants were asked to make a broad subgoal relating to their self-love journey and a smaller subgoal that they can complete by the end of the week. This is based on research that suggests goal implementation helps promote goal realization and achievement (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). Setting the when, where and how's of subgoals aided participants to be persistent with their goals and complete the activities.

Table 1: Daily activities and techniques incorporated

Activity of the day	Techniques
Creating a main goal in relation to positive self-image and a subgoal to achieve this that can be completed this week.	Implementation intentions
Being a critical viewer of social media and unfollowing those that hinder positivity.	Using belief consistent and social information for positivity
List of 5 things that they love about themselves.(unrelated to physical appearance)	Implementation intentions; self- reflection
Cooking and thanking self for taking care of one’s body.	Implementation intentions; gratitude
Doing a kind act (no matter how small), for others or self.	Every penny counts; self-benefit of altruism
Taking a scheduled 30-minute break to relax.	Implementation intentions; self-reflection
Planning an outfit for the next day that will elicit feelings of confidence and comfort. As well as reflecting on role models for goals set on day one.	Implementation intentions; role-models

Graph 1: Mean self-esteem scores pre-intervention and post-intervention

Results

We asked participants to complete Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale before and after the intervention. On average, self-esteem increased from pre-intervention (19.23) to post-intervention (22.07).

Feedback from participants suggests that the use of personalization and implementation intentions were particularly intriguing. One participant said “The very fact that someone takes the trouble to send me a message everyday in support of my wellbeing in and of itself is uplifting”. This message showcases the positive impact of personalization that an intervention like this can have on an individual.

Some of the participants met with us on the last day to discuss implementation intentions and role models for our personal self-love goals. We also did facemasks and made cookies.

Picture 2: Participants wrote their main goal in relation to positive self-image, a subgoal that can help them achieve this and role models who can serve as inspiration, while doing facemasks.

Conclusion and Future Directions

With the aim of increasing acts of self-care and self-love amongst university students, this project focused on a week long intervention using various behaviour change techniques. Amongst the ones used most frequently, those that had the largest impact on the participants were implementation intentions, salience and commitment. We hope this will encourage participants to continue to take care of themselves going forward. 

In the future, the daily activities can be tailored for specific areas of self-image (e.g. body image), which the individual chooses to suit themselves. Additionally, this can be done using an app with a built in push-notification system that automatically sends the reminders at a designated time of the day.

References 

Bem, D. J. (1972). Self-perception theory. In Advances in experimental social     psychology(Vol. 6, pp. 1-62). Academic Press.

Burger, J. M. (1999). The foot-in-the-door compliance procedure: A multiple-       process         analysis and review. Personality and social psychology   review,3, 303-325.

Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal         achievement: A meta‐analysis of effects and processes. Advances in experimental social psychology, 38, 69-119.

Judge, T.  A. (1998). The Power of Being Positive: The Relation Between Positive Self-Concept and Job Performance. Human Performance, 11,     167-187.

Pickard, L. (2017). Oxbridge now recognises the importance of mental health - it’s time for the rest to follow suit. The Telegraph. Can be accessed:     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/01/04/oxbridge-now-recognises-importance-mental-health-time-rest/

Sowislo, J. F., & Orth, U. (2013). Does low self-esteem predict depression and anxiety? A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological bulletin,       139, 213.

Steiger, A. E., Allemand, M., Robins, R. W., & Fend, H. A. (2014). Low and             decreasing self-esteem during adolescence predict adult depression two        decades later. Journal of personality and social psychology, 106, 325.

Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories: Studies in social psychology. CUP Archive.

Trzesniewski, K. H., Donnellan, M. B., Moffitt, T. E., Robins, R. W., Poulton, R., & Caspi, A. (2006). Low self-esteem during adolescence predicts poor            health, criminal behavior, and limited economic prospects during adulthood. Developmental psychology, 42, 381.

Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging      frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5,207-232.