A longitudinal-experimental test of the panculturality of self-enhancement: self-enhancement promotes psychological well-being both in the west and the east
A longitudinal-experimental test of the panculturality of self-enhancement: self-enhancement promotes psychological well-being both in the west and the east
Intensely debated is whether the self-enhancement motive is culturally relative or universal. The universalist perspective predicts that satisfaction of the motive panculturally promotes psychological well-being. The relativistic perspective predicts that such promotive effects are restricted to Western culture. A longitudinal-randomized-experiment conducted in China and the US tested the competing predictions. Participants completed measures of psychological well-being in an initial session. A week later participants listed a personally important attribute, described (via random assignment) how that attribute is more (self-enhancement) or less (self-effacement) descriptive of self than others, and again reported their psychological well-being. Consistent with the universalist perspective, self-enhancement significantly increased psychological well-being from baseline in the US and China; self-effacement yielded no change in psychological well-being in either culture.
self-enhancement, self-effacement, psychological well-being, culture, self
157-163
O’Mara, Erin M.
022d5d81-8faa-42c5-a31e-aacc51e18e14
Gaertner, Lowell
94e37daf-7d1b-431e-9df3-efad4f0bc91c
Sedikides, Constantine
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Zhou, Xinyue
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Liu, Yanping
7cc20ffb-b466-4b9a-8884-e9af58f66746
April 2012
O’Mara, Erin M.
022d5d81-8faa-42c5-a31e-aacc51e18e14
Gaertner, Lowell
94e37daf-7d1b-431e-9df3-efad4f0bc91c
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Zhou, Xinyue
71499fe7-f78c-4787-939a-df0ce0efeb92
Liu, Yanping
7cc20ffb-b466-4b9a-8884-e9af58f66746
O’Mara, Erin M., Gaertner, Lowell, Sedikides, Constantine, Zhou, Xinyue and Liu, Yanping
(2012)
A longitudinal-experimental test of the panculturality of self-enhancement: self-enhancement promotes psychological well-being both in the west and the east.
Journal of Research in Personality, 46 (2), .
(doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2012.01.001).
Abstract
Intensely debated is whether the self-enhancement motive is culturally relative or universal. The universalist perspective predicts that satisfaction of the motive panculturally promotes psychological well-being. The relativistic perspective predicts that such promotive effects are restricted to Western culture. A longitudinal-randomized-experiment conducted in China and the US tested the competing predictions. Participants completed measures of psychological well-being in an initial session. A week later participants listed a personally important attribute, described (via random assignment) how that attribute is more (self-enhancement) or less (self-effacement) descriptive of self than others, and again reported their psychological well-being. Consistent with the universalist perspective, self-enhancement significantly increased psychological well-being from baseline in the US and China; self-effacement yielded no change in psychological well-being in either culture.
Text
O'Mara,_Gaertner,_Sedikides_et_al._2012_JRP.docx
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 26 January 2012
Published date: April 2012
Keywords:
self-enhancement, self-effacement, psychological well-being, culture, self
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 337229
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/337229
ISSN: 0092-6566
PURE UUID: 56fae4d5-1314-4af7-ae00-2d3385bace58
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Date deposited: 20 Apr 2012 11:13
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:02
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Contributors
Author:
Erin M. O’Mara
Author:
Lowell Gaertner
Author:
Xinyue Zhou
Author:
Yanping Liu
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