Disentangling trait from state components in the assessment of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement

A latent state-trait model has been used to assess the extent to which egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement represent: (a) stable individual differences and (b) systematic effects of the situation and/or the person-situation interaction. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 187 adults (64% females). Findings revealed that both self-enhancement tendencies mostly capture stable interindividual differences, although significant occasion-specific effects were observed. Egoistic self-enhancement presents a higher proportion of trait variance than moralistic self-enhancement. The egoistic dimension was mostly related with the stable (trait) components of conscientiousness and emotional stability. The moralistic dimension, on the contrary, was mostly related with the transient component of emotional stability. Potential explanations for the observed differences between egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement were discussed and interpreted in terms of their implications for personality assessment.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of Egoistic and Moralistic Self-Enhancement

This study used a 3-wave longitudinal design to investigate stability and change of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement. Participants (n = 195) were followed for 6 years, from late adolescence (age 15) to emerging adulthood (age 21). A significant degree of rank-order stability was found that reveals a reasonable continuity in the individuals’ relative standing on measures of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement. Latent growth curve analysis was used to track the developmental trajectories of the examined constructs. Findings revealed that egoistic self-enhancement is stable from 15 to 21 years, whereas moralistic self-enhancement slightly decreases during the same developmental period. Cross-lagged models were used to examine the reciprocal relations between self-enhancement and the Big Five personality traits. No prospective effects were found between the constructs, which develop independently from late adolescence to young adulthood, showing only synchronous associations. Implications for personality research and assessment are discussed.     

Social Desirability Scales as Indicators of Self-Enhancement and Impression Management

This article presents 2 studies testing Paulhus's (2002) assumption that unconscious self-enhancement and conscious impression management represent separate processes of socially desirable responding (SDR) that can be observed within 2 content domains (egoistic and moralistic bias). In Study 1, we devised egoistic and moralistic SDR scales intended to measure self-enhancement in honest responding and impression management under demands for positive self-presentation. In Study 2, we correlated scores on these scales with external indicators of self-enhancement and impression management. In honest responding, both SDR scales most strongly correlated with self-enhancement indicators, whereas under demands for positive self-presentation they correlated more strongly with external measures of impression management.     

Egoistic and Moralistic Biases in Self-Perception: The Interplay of Self-Deceptive Styles With Basic Traits and Motives

The literature on personality traits and defense mechanisms suggests individual differences in two self-favoring tendencies, which we label "egoistic bias" and "moralistic bias." The two biases are self-deceptive in nature and can be traced to two fundamental values, agency and communion, that impel two corresponding motives, nPower and nApproval. The two sequences of values, motives, and biases form two personality constellations, Alpha and Gamma. Associated with Alpha is an egoistic bias, a self-deceptive tendency to exaggerate one's social and intellectual status. This tendency leads to unrealistically positive self-perceptions on such traits as dominance, fearlessness, emotional stability, intellect, and creativity. Self-perceptions of high Alpha scorers have a narcissistic, "superhero" quality. Associated with Gamma is a moralistic bias, a self-deceptive tendency to deny socially deviant impulses and to claim sanctimonious "saint-like" attributes. This tendency is played out in overly positive self-perceptions on such traits as agreeableness, dutifulness, and restraint. The Alpha-Gamma conception provides an integrative framework for a number of central issues in personality psychology.     

Measurement and Application of Egoistic and Moralistic Self‐enhancement

Five studies were conducted to develop and validate the Egoistic and Moralistic Self‐enhancement (EMS) scale, a new self‐report measure of egoistic and moralistic self‐enhancement. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for a two‐factor structure comprising the tendencies to promote agentic (egoistic) and communal (moralistic) qualities (Study 1). Construct validity was supported by significant correlations with established measures of socially desirable responding, such as the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (Study 2) and the Impression Management scale of the 16 Personality Factors (Study 3). When the EMS scale has been applied in organizational settings, we found that job applicants were more inclined than nonapplicants to promote their own agentic and communal qualities, although differences were more pronounced for egoistic self‐enhancement (Study 4). Findings also suggested that exaggeration of agentic qualities decrease the criterion‐related validity of conscientiousness in predicting job performance (Study 5). Taken together, findings suggest that the EMS scale provides a valid and reliable measure that can be fruitfully used for both theoretical and applied research.     

Positive illusions about the self: short-term benefits and long-term costs

Two studies addressed parallel questions about the correlates and consequences of self-enhancement bias. Study 1 was conducted in a laboratory context and examined self-enhancing evaluations of performance in a group-interaction task. Study 2 assessed students' illusory beliefs about their academic ability when they first entered college and then followed them longitudinally to test claims about the long-term benefits of positive illusions. Both studies showed that self-enhancement bias was related to narcissism, ego involvement, self-serving attributions, and positive affect. Study 2 found that self-enhancement was associated with decreasing levels of self-esteem and well-being as well as with increasing disengagement from the academic context. Self-enhancement did not predict higher academic performance or higher graduate rates. Thus, the findings suggest that self-enhancing beliefs may be adaptive in the short term but not in the long term.     

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。     

排除“每个人都优于平均水平”机制影响的自我提升研究

采用优于平均效应、自我服务归因偏向和内隐测验三种方法测量中国大学生的自我提升,并在前两种方法中考虑了EBTA机制的影响,以探讨中国人的自我提升动机及其表现形式。结果发现：EBTA机制影响显著;排除EBTA机制的影响后,大学生依然存在优于平均效应和自我服务归因偏向;大学生存在内隐自我提升值;内隐自我提升值与外显自我提升值之间存在显著正相关。     

Regions of the MPFC differentially tuned to social and nonsocial affective evaluation

The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) reliably activates in social cognition and reward tasks. This study locates distinct areas for each. Participants made evaluative (positive/negative) or social (person/not a person) judgments of pictured positive or negative people and objects in a slow event-related design. Activity in an anterior rostral region (arMPFC) was significantly greater for positive than for negative persons but did not show a valence effect for objects, and this was true regardless of the judgment task. This suggests that the arMPFC is tuned to social valence. Interestingly, however, no regions of the MPFC were found to be responsive to social information independently of valence. A region-of-interest analysis of the paraanterior cingulate cortex (pACC), previously implicated in reward processing, demonstrated sensitivity to the valence of all stimuli, whether persons or objects, across tasks. Affective evaluation may be a general function of the MPFC, with some regions being tuned to more specific domains of information (e.g., social) than are others.     

Nietzsche's Critique of Pure Altruism—Developing an Argument from Human,All Too Human

Abstract

Nietzsche often appears, especially in his writings from the middle period, to endorse psychological egoism, namely the claim that all actions are motivated by, and are for the sake of, the agent’s own self-interest. I argue that Nietzsche’s position in Human, All Too Human (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) should not be so understood. Rather, he is claiming, more weakly and more plausibly, that no action is entirely unegoistic, entirely free of egoistic motivations. Thus some actions might be motivated both by egoistic and unegoistic motives, on his view. Nietzsche’s argument may, in other words, be understood to be directed specifically against Schopenhauer’s portrayal of moral motivation, as pure, entirely unalloyed altruism, to show that this sort of action is impossible, not to rule out the possibility of any altruistic motive whatsoever. In light of Schopenahuer’s moral psychology, to which Nietzsche to some extent adhered at that time, I develop a concept of motivation and reconstruct Nietzsche’s argument.     

Motivated expectations of positive feedback in social interactions

People self-enhance in a variety of ways. For example, they generally expect to perform better than others, to be in control of events, and to have a brighter future. Might they also self-enhance by expecting to receive positive feedback in social interactions? Across five studies, we found that they did. People's desire for feedback correlated with how positive they expected it to be (Study 1), and their feedback expectations were more positive for themselves than for others (Study 2). People's positive feedback expectations also covaried with trait tendencies to self-enhance (i.e., self-esteem and narcissism; Study 3) and with a direct situational manipulation of self-enhancement motivation (Study 4). Finally, people expected to receive positive feedback but did not consistently expect to receive self-verifying feedback (Study 5). These findings are consistent with social expectations being driven in part by the self-enhancement motive.     

Perceptual and cognitive biases in individuals with body dysmorphic disorder symptoms

Given the extreme focus on perceived physical defects in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), we expected that perceptual and cognitive biases related to physical appearance would be associated with BDD symptomology. To examine these hypotheses, participants (N=70) high and low in BDD symptoms completed tasks assessing visual perception and cognition. As expected, there were significant group differences in self-relevant, but not other-relevant, cognitive biases. Perceptual bias results were mixed, with some evidence indicating that individuals high (versus low) in BDD symptoms literally see themselves in a less positive light. Further, individuals high in BDD symptoms failed to demonstrate a normative self-enhancement bias. Overall, this research points to the importance of assessing both cognitive and perceptual biases associated with BDD symptoms, and suggests that visual perception may be influenced by non-visual factors.     

Why the better-than-average effect is a worse-than-average measure of self-enhancement: An investigation of conflicting findings from studies of East Asian self-evaluations

A recent meta-analysis on cross-cultural studies of self-enhancement finds that evidence for East Asian self-enhancement is consistently apparent only in studies where participants compare themselves to the average other, aka the “Better-than-Average” Effect (BAE). However, prior research has suggested that the BAE may conflate motivations to view the self in a positive light with non-motivational factors, such as a tendency to evaluate “everyone as better than average” [EBTA; Klar Y, Gilladi EE (1997) J Personal Soc Psychol 73:885–901]. In two studies, European-Canadian, Asian-Canadian, and Japanese students were asked to evaluate themselves as well as a fictitious student compared to the average. Replicating prior research, evidence for Japanese self-enhancement was found with the BAE, albeit weaker than Canadians. However, in the measures where the EBTA effect was circumvented, self-enhancement was no longer evident among Japanese. Likewise, within the BAE method, prior research has found that East Asians self-enhance more for important than unimportant traits. When the EBTA effect was circumvented this correlation was also significantly reduced. Findings from this research converge with other sources of evidence that East Asians do not appear to be motivated to self-enhance.

Self-enhancement by social comparison: a prospective analysis

A longitudinal investigation showed that self-enhancement by social comparison (assessing whether people perceive themselves more positively than they perceive others) was prospectively related to an increase in self-reported adjustment, controlling for the effects of narcissism. Better adjustment, including higher self-esteem, was not prospectively related to an increase in self-enhancement. The investigation also included a diary period, allowing the assessment of intrasubject covariation between daily reports of self-esteem and daily reports of perceived challenge and daily events (positive or negative). High (compared to low) self-enhancers were less likely to report lower self-esteem under higher challenge and less likely to report higher self-esteem under positive events.     

Good,Better, Best: Between Culture and Self-Enhancement

The topic of self-enhancement and culture is discussed. The question of the universality of the self-enhancement motive, well-documented in the West, inspired a lively debate, pertaining mainly to the existence of a self-enhancement motive in East-Asian cultures. The present paper presents some major findings that challenge the basic assumption of Markus and Kitayama (1991) and of Heine et al. (1999) that the self-enhancement motive does not exist in East-Asian cultures. These findings relate to the following issues: self-enhancement in East-Asia in culturally accepted domains; the role of modesty in self-enhancement; relevance of anonymity to self-enhancement manifestation; self-enhancement done by significant others; implicit measures of self-esteem; and the relations between well-being and self-enhancement in East-Asia. Some common beliefs, that self-enhancement inhibits self-improvement and that low uniqueness implies low self-enhancement are discussed and questioned. The paper suggests that the controversy regarding the self-enhancement motive may boil down to the question of the degree to which the social norms regarding restrictions on self-success are internalized in a culture.     

Managing terror when self-worth and worldviews collide: Evidence that mortality salience increases reluctance to self-enhance beyond authorities

Terror management theory posits that one’s self-esteem and worldview operate jointly to manage mortality concerns. Accordingly, past research shows that mortality salience (MS) increases self-enhancement and worldview defense. The current research is the first to examine MS effects when self-enhancement threatens to undermine aspects of the worldview, in this case the credibility and status of worldview-representative authorities. MS led to reluctance to self-enhance following positive personality test feedback when the test was judged negatively by institutional authorities (Study 1a), as well as unwillingness to contradict self-esteem threatening feedback sanctioned by authorities (Study 1b). Mortality salient participants also rated themselves higher on valued dimensions unless it meant viewing themselves more positively than their parents (Study 2) and admired political icons (Study 3). Taken together, these results show that MS increases self-enhancement unless doing so challenges important representatives of the worldview. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Attributions of Deviance to Self and Peers by Japanese and U.S. Students

Abstract

The author examined self-enhancement bias among 5th and 11th graders in the United States and Japan. After listening to stories describing aggressive, depressive, oppositional, and school-phobic behaviors of hypothetical peers, the participants rated the likelihood that they themselves and other students their age would act like the story protagonists. The U.S. students generally showed no greater self-enhancement tendencies than did the Japanese students; in addition, the relationships between positive and negative self-concepts and ratings of self-similarity to deviant exemplars were similar in both samples. In the depressed and oppositional stories, the 11th graders rated themselves less like the deviant characters and more different from their peers than did the 5th graders.     

Attributions of deviance to self and peers by Japanese and U.S. students

The author examined self-enhancement bias among 5th and 11th graders in the United States and Japan. After listening to stories describing aggressive, depressive, oppositional, and school-phobic behaviors of hypothetical peers, the participants rated the likelihood that they themselves and other students their age would act like the story protagonists. The U.S. students generally showed no greater self-enhancement tendencies than did the Japanese students; in addition, the relationships between positive and negative self-concepts and ratings of self-similarity to deviant exemplars were similar in both samples. In the depressed and oppositional stories, the 11th graders rated themselves less like the deviant characters and more different from their peers than did the 5th graders.     

Vividness of visual imagery and social desirable responding: correlations of the vividness of visual imagery questionnaire with the balanced inventory of desirable responding and the Marlowe–Crowne scale

Correlational research investigating the relationship between scores on self-report imagery questionnaires and measures of social desirable responding has shown only a weak association. However, researchers have argued that this research may have underestimated the size of the relationship because it relied primarily on the Marlowe-Crowne scale (MC; Crowne & Marlowe, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24, 349-354, 1960), which loads primarily on the least relevant form of social desirable responding for this particular context, the moralistic bias. Here we report the analysis of data correlating the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ; Marks, Journal of Mental Imagery, 19, 153-166, 1973) with the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR; Paulhus, 2002) and the MC scale under anonymous testing conditions. The VVIQ correlated significantly with the Self-Deceptive Enhancement (SDE) and Agency Management (AM) BIDR subscales and with the MC. The largest correlation was with SDE. The ability of SDE to predict VVIQ scores was not significantly enhanced by adding either AM or MC. Correlations between the VVIQ and BIDR egoistic scales were larger when the BIDR was continuously rather than dichotomously scored. This analysis indicates that the relationship between self-reported imagery and social desirable responding is likely to be stronger than previously thought.     

The performance of narcissists rises and falls with perceived opportunity for glory

Narcissists consider themselves to be exceptional performers, but past research has found no consistent relationship between narcissism and performance. The present research tested the hypothesis that the relationship between subclinical narcissism and performance is moderated by a motivational factor: perceived self-enhancement opportunity. Four experiments were conducted, each using different manipulations of self-enhancement opportunity and different performance tasks. In each study, narcissists performed better when self-enhancement opportunity was high rather than low. In contrast, the performance of participants with low narcissism was relatively unaffected by self-enhancement opportunity. Other findings suggested that narcissists' self-enhancement motivation stems more from a desire to garner admiration than from a desire to self-evaluate. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.