Self-enhancement: food for thought
Self-enhancement: food for thought
Self-enhancement denotes a class of psychological phenomena that involve taking a tendentiously positive view of oneself. We distinguish between four levels of self-enhancement—an observed effect, an ongoing process, a personality trait, and an underlying motive—and then use these distinctions to organize the wealth of relevant research. Furthermore, to render these distinctions intuitive, we draw an extended analogy between self-enhancement and the phenomenon of eating. Among the topics we address are (a) manifestations of self-enhancement, both obvious and subtle, and rival interpretations; (b) experimentally documented dynamics of affirming and threatening the ego; and (c) primacy of self-enhancement, considered alongside other intrapsychic phenomena, and across different cultures. Self-enhancement, like eating, is a fundamental part of human nature.
102-116
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Gregg, Aiden P.
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063
March 2008
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Gregg, Aiden P.
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063
Abstract
Self-enhancement denotes a class of psychological phenomena that involve taking a tendentiously positive view of oneself. We distinguish between four levels of self-enhancement—an observed effect, an ongoing process, a personality trait, and an underlying motive—and then use these distinctions to organize the wealth of relevant research. Furthermore, to render these distinctions intuitive, we draw an extended analogy between self-enhancement and the phenomenon of eating. Among the topics we address are (a) manifestations of self-enhancement, both obvious and subtle, and rival interpretations; (b) experimentally documented dynamics of affirming and threatening the ego; and (c) primacy of self-enhancement, considered alongside other intrapsychic phenomena, and across different cultures. Self-enhancement, like eating, is a fundamental part of human nature.
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Sedikides__Gregg_2008_PPS.pdf
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Published date: March 2008
Organisations:
Human Wellbeing
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 54630
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/54630
ISSN: 1745-6916
PURE UUID: 579f3bcd-d17c-4a06-a8f4-ba246079ef92
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Date deposited: 04 Aug 2008
Last modified: 21 Aug 2025 01:46
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