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Self-enhancement: food for thought

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.
1745-6916
102-116
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Gregg, Aiden P.
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Gregg, Aiden P.
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063

Sedikides, Constantine and Gregg, Aiden P. (2008) Self-enhancement: food for thought. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3 (2), 102-116. (doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00068.x).

Record type: Article

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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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
ORCID for Constantine Sedikides: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-889X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 04 Aug 2008
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:08

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