Levels Of Self-enhancement Research Articles

Changes in the labor market status during the COVID-19 pandemic and subjective well-being of Russians

This paper investigates the association between changes in the labor market status and subjective well-being of Russians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The materials of the first stage of the international project “Values in crisis” form the empirical dataset. Regression analysis shows that individuals who lost their jobs or closed their business during the initial period of the pandemic are somewhat less satisfied with their lives than those who did not. Being reduced to part-time work and working from home are not directly related to subjective well-being. At the same time, the strength of the association between subjective well-being and possible changes of the labor market status depends on such factors as the presence of children, as well as the value of self-enhancement (according to Schwartz) and conscientiousness (one of the Big Five personality traits). The job or business loss is associated with a decrease in subjective well-being among respondents without children; this association is not observed among those with children. In addition, the negative relationship between life satisfaction and job or business loss is stronger among individuals with high level of self-enhancement and weaker among those with high level of conscientiousness. Among respondents who had to switch to part-time or remote work, having children reduces the level of subjective well-being; among those without such experience, it is positively associated with subjective well-being.

Self‐judgment and reputation monitoring as a function of the fundamental dimensions, temporal perspective, and culture

AbstractSocial acceptance and the development of one's competencies and status are fundamental aspects of the human experience, but the former (communion) should take precedence over the latter (agency) in self‐judgment. Study 1 results indicated that (i) people across two cultures judged themselves as possessing higher communion than agency characteristics; (ii) communion self‐judgments were more consistent across temporal perspective; and (iii) level of self‐enhancement across cultures was similar for communion but different for agency. In Study 2, people across culture reported being more troubled and demonstrated a greater desire to repair their reputation when they imagined others perceived them as lacking in communion compared with agency. These findings support the idea that social life pressures people to view themselves as possessing communion traits and to ensure that others have this perception as well. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Do Today's Young People Really Think They Are So Extraordinary?

The present research investigated secular trends in narcissism and self-enhancement over the past three decades. Despite recent claims about the impact of the "self-esteem movement" on the current generation of young people, we found no evidence that college students' scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory increased from the 1980s through 2007 (N= 26,867), although we did find small changes in specific facets of narcissism. Similarly, we found no evidence that high school students' level of self-enhancement, defined by the discrepancy between their perceived intelligence and their actual academic achievements, increased from 1976 to 2006 (N= 410,527). These results cast doubt on the belief that today's young people have increasingly inflated impressions of themselves compared with previous generations.

Gender, Self-Enhancement, and Self-Regulation of Learning Behaviors in Junior High School

Gender differences in level of self-enhancement and in relations between self-enhancement and self-regulation in 2 school subjects, math and English, were studied among Israeli junior high school students (N = 259). In English (a feminine subject) the gender groups did not differ on their self-enhancement, but in math (a masculine subject) boys revealed significantly higher self-enhancement than did girls. The same differences were found for self-regulation of learning behaviors. It was shown further that self-enhancement mediated the relations between gender and self-regulation of learning behaviors in math. The gender groups differed on the type of relations between self-enhancement and self-regulation of learning behaviors: self-enhancement was positively related to learning behaviors among girls in math, whereas it was negatively related to such behaviors among boys in English. The implications of these last findings for self-enhancement adaptiveness are discussed.

Self-enhancement tendency in self and other evaluations: an examination of 'better-than-average effect'

The purpose of this study was to examine self-enhancement tendency of Japanese people when evaluating self and others, and study the relation between the tendency and self-esteem. In Study 1, subjects were asked to evaluate themselves and an average undergraduate of their age in terms of several attributes. Results showed that self-evaluations were more favorable than evaluations of the average undergraduate on such personality attributes as kindness and diligence, which they rated more important, and less favorable on such attributes as appearance, sociability, and financial resource. In addition, subjects with low self-esteem were likely to appraise themselves more negatively than those with high self-esteem, but the two groups showed the same level of self-enhancement when rating themselves on personality attributes. In Study 2, subjects provided percentile rankings of themselves on ten attributes in relation to undergraduates of their age. Results indicated that more than half of the subjects thought that they were above average (better-than-average effect) on such personality attributes as kindness.

Self-Enhancement, Generality Level of Self-Evaluation, and Emotional Adjustment

Three hypotheses regarding self-concept and emotional adjustment were tested: (a) self-concept has a hierarchical structure in which self-evaluations become more positive as they become more general, (b) self-enhancement is positively associated with emotional adjustment, and (c) prediction of emotional adjustment is improved as more general levels of self-enhancement are involved. Three independent samples consisting of 708 students in 7th and 8th grades in Israel participated. The data supported Hypotheses 1 and 3, which were replicated in independent samples, for 2 different content domains of self-evaluation. Hypothesis 2 was partially supported.