Self-evaluation of abilities: accurate self-assessment versus biased self-enhancement

Past research indicates that individuals are keenly aware of the diagnostic implications of their performance. Theories differ, however, in regard to how this awareness influences task choice. According to the self-assessment view, individuals choose tasks that are maximally informative of abilities, regardless of self-esteem implications. According to the self-enhancement view, task choice is often mediated by a concern for self-esteem protection. In the first study, subjects chose among eight forms of a cognitive abilities test that varied in their diagnosticity of success, diagnosticity of failure, and difficulty. In accordance with the self-assessment view, test choice was found to be positively related to diagnosticity of success and, to a lesser extent, diagnosticity of failure. Test choice was also dependent on the interaction of diagnosticity and difficulty in a manner that was more consistent with the self-assessment view. In a second study that provided more precise measurement of perceived diagnosticity and expected success, results indicated that the motives for self-assessment and self-enhancement were each reliably related to task preference. Of the two, self-assessment motivation was a stronger determinant of task preference. Taken together, these results suggest that task choice is governed largely by a concern for accurate self-appraisal. Additional results, however, indicate that current models may require revisions that take into account the less-than-accurate appraisal of diagnosticity.     

The empirical base of Trope's position on achievement-task choice: A critique

The empirical base of Trope's position on achievement-task choice is critiqued here. Attention is focused on Trope's earliest studies (Trope, 1975; Trope & Brickman, 1975) because they provide this position's most critical tests. Support for the following three propositions of the position is assessed: (1) diagnosticity information, rather than task difficulty information, is the basis of task selection; (2) desire for information about one's ability, not the wish for certain affective consequences, is what motivates achievement-task choice; and (3) the success of the Atkinson model is owed to the adventitious confounding existing between task diagnosticity and task difficulty, and the resulting confounding between ability-informational and affective consequences. The major findings are that (1) the tests of all propositions have such serious logical flaws that they cannot answer the questions they seek to answer, (2) the task choice situation containing the diagnosticity manipulation employed by Trope is so different from real-life task choice situations as to call into question the relevance of Trope's findings for the latter situations, (3) Trope's diagnosticity manipulation is a meaningless one as it gives rise to situations that are logical impossibilities (e.g., skill tasks that are performed equally well by high- and low-skilled people), and (4) the tests of Atkinson's position are invalidated by a serious misinterpretation of that position by Trope.     

Self-assessment and task performance

The present study tested the idea that the amount of effort expended in task performance is a function of the amount of uncertainty in one's ability level the resulting outcomes are expected to reduce. Two determinants of expected uncertainty reduction were manipulated: prior uncertainty about one's ability level and the diagnosticity of the task. Subjects first performed an initial task and then received fictitious feedback to manipulate their prior uncertainty. To induce low uncertainty, the feedback implied that the subjects are highly likely to have either low, intermediate, or a high level of ability. To induce high uncertainty, the feedback implied that the various ability levels were equally probable. Subjects then performed a task whose perceived diagnosticity regarding the ability under consideration was varied. As expected, subjects who were highly uncertain about their ability level performed better than subjects who were relatively certain they possessed either low, intermediate, or a high level of ability. Performance also improved with task diagnosticity, and the effect of task diagnosticity on performance was more pronounced when prior uncertainty was high than when it was low. Past research on the relationship between prior feedback and subsequent performance was discussed in light of the present results and a self-assessment model of achievement behavior.     

Effects of difficulty and diagnosticity on choice among tasks in relation to achievement motivation and perceived ability.

The experiment is a partial replication of a study conducted by Trope. It investigates the effects of two person characteristics (achievement motive and perceived own ability) and two task characteristics (difficulty and diagnostic value about own ability) on choice among achievement tasks. In accordance with the results of Trope, it was found that high-diagnostic tasks were preferred to low-diagnostic tasks, independent of their difficulty. Trope's finding that high resultant achievers choose high-diagnostic tasks over low-diagnostic tasks to a greater extent than low resultant achievers was not replicated. However, the perceived degree of own ability affected choice behavior: When easy and difficult tasks were both high in diagnosticity, subjects high in perceived ability preferred difficult over easy tasks, whereas subjects low in perceived ability preferred easy over difficult tasks. From this latter finding it is concluded that a self-informational conception of choice behavior has to include the subjective probability of success at tasks as a determinant of choice, in addition to objective difficulty and diagnostic value.     

Self-assessment,self-enhancement,and task preference

If task choice depends on a person's interest in the accurate assessment of his or her abilities, task attractiveness should be positively related to the diagnosticities of all performance outcomes with regard to one's ability level. In contrast, the view that people are primarily interested in maximizing pride or mininizing shame would predict that task attractiveness is positively related to the diagnosticity of success but negatively related to the diagnosticity of failure. To test these predictions, subjects were presented with tasks that varied orthogonally in the extent to which success was diagnostic of high ability level and the extent to which failure was diagnostic of low ability level. Consistent with the self-assessment view, task attractiveness increased both with the diagnosticity of success and with the diagnosticity of failure. Furthermore, both effects were more pronounced for high achievement motive subjects than for low achievement motive subjects. This result lends support to the self-assessment view, which assumes that high achievement motive subjects are more interested in attaining the ability-relevant information contained in any performance outcome.     

This time with motivation: The implications of social neuroscience for research on motivated self- and other-perception (and vice versa)

Early neural research on self-evaluation began testing whether self-evaluation was somehow neurally different than evaluations of other people and inanimate objects. Self-evaluation was lauded as potentially unique partially because of motivational and affective influences. Despite the acknowledgement that motivation influences social cognition such as self-perception, neural models of self-perception have been conspicuously silent on how motivational states affect the neural level of analysis. What can be learned by examining motivational influences on the neural systems underlying social cognition including self-perception? An emerging body of neural research on self-enhancement motivation (i.e., the motivation to see one’s self in a positive light) is described and its implications for longstanding psychological questions about self-enhancement are discussed. Finally, several additional avenues for using the neural level of analysis to test questions about motivational influences on social cognition are discussed.     

自我提高还是自我增强？解释水平理论的观点

以概念启动和情境启动的方式分别激活了可能自我知觉和当前自我知觉,借以检验对自我提高动机和自我增强动机的影响。结果发现：（1）相对于当前自我,可能自我启动后,个体对自我的评价更低,更乐意接受反馈,也更能注意到测试对自己的帮助;（2）一年级学生在读了明星学生的新闻后对自己的评价更低,对明星的评价更高;四年级学生则相反。这表明,消极反馈和可能自我的同时出现引发了自我提高动机,消极反馈和当前自我共同激活了自我提高动机。     

Antecedents and trajectories of achievement goals: A self‐determination theory perspective

Background. Research has shown that both achievement goal theory and self‐determination theory (SDT) are quite useful in explaining student motivation and success in academic contexts. However, little is known about how the two theories relate to each other. Aim. The current research used SDT as a framework to understand why students enter classes with particular achievement goal profiles, and also, how those profiles may change over time. Sample. One hundred and eighty‐four undergraduate preservice teachers in a required domain course agreed to participate in the study. Method. Data were collected at three time points during the semester, and both path modelling and multi‐level longitudinal modelling techniques were used. Results. Path modelling techniques with 169 students, results indicated that students' autonomy and relatedness need satisfaction in life predict their initial self‐determined class motivation, which in turn predicts initial mastery‐approach and ‐avoidance goals. Multi‐level longitudinal modelling with 108 students found that perceived teacher autonomy support buffered against the general decline in students' mastery‐approach goals over the course of the semester. Conclusions. Data provide a promising integration of SDT and achievement goal theory, posing a host of potentially fruitful future research questions regarding goal adoption and trajectories.     

自我知觉积极偏向的理论解释和意义分析

许多研究者注意到了人在进行自我知觉时的积极偏向,并提出各种观点对其进行解释和论证;许多实证研究也从不同侧面揭示了这种乐观偏向的适应意义。本文对相关内容进行了综合和梳理,介绍了自我增强的动机、自尊的需要和实现趋向等理论观点;并概括出这一积极偏向在提高行为动机和成就表现、消除不良情绪以及增进身心健康和社会适应等方面所具有的积极作用。     

Where is the evidence for pancultural self-enhancement? A reply to Sedikides, Gaertner, and Toguchi (2003)

C. Sedikides, L. Gaertner, and Y. Toguchi (2003) maintained that the self-enhancement motivation (as defined by tendencies to view oneself in overly positive terms) is universal. The present article challenges their claim. A review of the literature revealed that many studies contradict their findings regarding the domain-specific nature of East Asian self-enhancement. It is argued that Sedikides et al. did not replicate past research because they did not measure self-enhancement in their studies. The present article provides a theoretical basis for understanding cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement and considers the question of universality by exploring 2 different conceptualizations of positive self-regard.     

(Re)Searching for a client in two different worlds: Mind the research‐practice gap

A criticism voiced by counsellors and psychotherapists is that research does not truly reflect the complexities of therapy. Researchers, on the other hand, accuse practitioners of not attending to research findings and suggest that as a result they engage in an ill‐informed process. This polarised understanding can give rise to the situation where the client is missed, falling into the research‐practice gap. In reality the research‐practice gap gets smaller and smaller every time a practitioner employs — which is often the case — a complex and sophisticated construct system in search of a client's psychological distress. The metaphor of the ‘search’ seems to become a point of connection between the practitioner's search and the researcher's (re)search. As a way of exploring this issue, the paper briefly considers the research‐practice gap and the critique of current research. It argues that counsellors and psychotherapists are themselves engaging in research when they practise therapy since every counselling and psychotherapy session is basically a (re)search process.     

Beyond the Apophatic Circle: Rethinking the Debate Between Jean-Luc Marion and Jacques Derrida

This study offers a new perspective on the much-discussed debate between French phenomenologist Jean-Luc Marion and postructuralist theorist Jacques Derrida on the question of ‘negative theology’ and the Christian mystical tradition. It argues that Marion's critique of Derrida betrays a fundamental misunderstanding, specifically, that it fails to recognise that Derrida is not interested in negative theology qua theology, but rather as a discursive practice with certain resources for the performative ‘unsaying’ of logocentric systems. It continues to show that Derrida's principal object is not the God of apophatic theology, but the broader, juridico-political implications of all ‘transcendental signifieds’. Finally, it suggests that Marion's oversight of these facts in his defence of the apophatic tradition unwittingly legitimates Derrida's critique, to the extent that it insulates the Christian tradition from external criticism, and thereby limits the responsiveness of that tradition to the demands of justice.     

Task‐ and self‐related pathways to deep learning: The mediating role of achievement goals,classroom attentiveness,and group participation

Background The expectancy‐value and achievement goal theories are arguably the two most dominant theories of achievement motivation in the contemporary literature. However, very few studies have examined how the constructs derived from both theories are related to deep learning. Moreover, although there is evidence demonstrating the links between achievement goals and deep learning, little research has examined the mediating processes involved. Aims The aims of this research were to: (a) investigate the role of task‐ and self‐related beliefs (task value and self‐efficacy) as well as achievement goals in predicting deep learning in mathematics and (b) examine how classroom attentiveness and group participation mediated the relations between achievement goals and deep learning. Sample The sample comprised 1,476 Grade‐9 students from 39 schools in Singapore. Methods Students' self‐efficacy, task value, achievement goals, classroom attentiveness, group participation, and deep learning in mathematics were assessed by a self‐reported questionnaire administered on‐line. Structural equation modelling was performed to test the hypothesized model linking these variables. Results and conclusions Task value was predictive of task‐related achievement goals whereas self‐efficacy was predictive of task‐approach, performance‐approach, and performance‐avoidance goals. Achievement goals were found to fully mediate the relations between task value and self‐efficacy on the one hand, and classroom attentiveness, group participation, and deep learning on the other. Classroom attentiveness and group participation partially mediated the relations between achievement goal adoption and deep learning. The findings suggest that (a) task‐ and self‐related pathways are two possible routes through which students could be motivated to learn and (b) like task‐approach goals, performance‐approach goals could lead to adaptive processes and outcomes.     

Values as Determinants of the Motivation to Lead

We examined the incremental contribution of personal values in predicting individuals' motivation to lead (MTL) in a military personnel sample (n = 231). We operationalized self-transcendence through personal values (spirituality, integrity, and willingness to serve) and self-enhancement value orientation through desire for power/achievement. In multivariate analyses, personal values made significant incremental contributions in explaining of all three forms of MTL. Personal values had the largest incremental effect in explaining noncalculative MTL. Self-enhancement values had a larger positive relationship with affective-identity and social-normative MTL than did self-transcendence values. Inversely, self-transcendence values had a significantly larger relationship with noncalculative MTL.     

A feminist argument against statism: public and private in theories of global justice

Cosmopolitanism and statism represent the two dominant liberal theoretical standpoints in the current debate on global distributive justice. In this paper, I will develop a feminist argument that recommends that statist approaches be rejected. This argument has its roots in the feminist critique of liberal theories of social justice. In Justice, Gender, and the Family Susan Moller Okin argues that many liberal egalitarian theories of justice are inadequate because they assume a strict division between public and private spheres. I will argue that this inadequacy is replicated in statist approaches to global justice. To demonstrate this, I will show how an analogue of Okin's critique of Rawls's A Theory of Justice can be extended to his The Law of Peoples. I will conclude that statist theories inevitably assume a strong divide between public and private spheres and that by doing so they allow for situations marked by gross injustice which anyone concerned with the welfare of the world's most vulnerable should find unacceptable.     

CAPS Psychology and the Empirical Adequacy of Aristotelian Virtue Ethics

For the past decade and a half, Aristotelians have tried to counter the following criticism articulated by John Doris: if we look at personality and social psychology research, we must conclude that we generally neither have, nor have the capacity to develop, character traits of the kind envisioned by Aristotle and his followers. Some defenses of Aristotelian virtue ethics proceed by trying to insulate it from this challenge, while others have tried to dissipate the force of Doris's critique by showing how virtue ethics and recent findings in personality psychology share surprisingly extensive common ground. For example, in their 2009 books, Daniel Russell and Nancy Snow both argue that the empirical research regarding character complements - not undermines - virtue ethics. Specifically, each argues that the situationally sensitive Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS) developed by Walter Mischel and Yuichi Shoda can be integrated into a virtue ethical moral philosophy and theory of character. In this paper, I raise several objections to their attempts to use the CAPS model to rehabilitate Aristotelian virtue ethics and argue that, as a result, this model has not been shown to have the promise Snow and Russell allege it has.     

Inferences about others from their reports about themselves

Subjects in this study were asked to infer an attribute of a target person on the basis of his report about himself: Two informational determinants of such inferences were varied: (a) reliability of the report, i.e. the belief that the target person would correctly report events that had actually occurred and (b) diagnosticity of the actual events, i.e. the belief that the actual events are indicative of the attribute. Normative considerations require that the effect of diagnosticity be dependent on reliability so that as reliability increases, judgment should become less regressive, i.e. vary more as a function of events' diagnosticity. The results indicate that subjects employed a simple but inappropriate averaging rule in combining reliability and diagnosticity information. This rule, like many other simplifying judgmental heuristics, resulted in inferences that were more extreme than warranted by normative models. The inappropriate combination of reliability and diagnosticity information may thus contribute to observers' tendency to over-attribute personal characteristics to others.