Measuring, Predicting, and Influencing Self-Authenticity in Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Populations

Abstract

The aim of this thesis to consider how to measure, predict, and influence self-authenticity in sexual minority and heterosexual populations. Self-authenticity (defined as knowing and being oneself) is a highly relevant psychological construct, particularly as it has been associated with numerous psychological outcomes. Furthermore, preliminary research suggests that self-authenticity is related to the construct of valued living, and as valued living can be increased using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy techniques, it is hypothetical that engaging in valued action will result in an increase in self-authenticity, as well as an increase in psychological outcomes. This may be particularly helpful to sexual minority individuals. Current measures of self-authenticity demonstrate some issues with regards to initial validation and factor structure, and so a novel measure of self-authenticity was developed – The Self-Authenticity Measure. This was included in numerous mediation models which demonstrated that encouraging self-authenticity could play a small role in buffering against the negative effects of experienced discrimination and internalised homonegativity on psychological outcomes for sexual minority individuals. Self-authenticity was also included in two regression models to assess potential predictors of self-authenticity, revealing that valued action, self-efficacy, social conformity, and fear of negative evaluation were the biggest predictors. As the strongest predictor, and one that has continually demonstrated its ability to result in positive psychological change in intervention research, three tasks encouraging valued action were developed and tested for acceptability. Following this, the tasks were used in an experiment alongside a mindfulness active control condition. The study found a significant effect of time for valued living, self-authenticity, and psychological outcomes, indicating that these may have improved following engagement with the interventions, however this may have been due to a placebo. Conversely, the study did not find significant effects of condition or time by condition interaction effect, indicating that the values condition was no greater at influencing valued living, self-authenticity, and psychological outcomes when compared to the mindfulness condition. However, the design and analysis of the experiment can rule out placebo and expectation effects, adding credibility to these findings.