Self-Assessment vs. Self-Enhancement

Self-Assessment and Self-enhancement refer to two of a fundamental triad of self-evaluation motives in producing an individual’s sense of identity. More specifically, individuals take an active interest in who they are and what defines them. This is a phenomenon unique to human beings, the only species capable of reflexive consciousness. That is, individuals will reflect on who they are and what makes them who they are. These considerations are important as producing self-construals that are relevant and important to the self will have affective consequences (discussed further down).
“I think, therefore I am” - René Descartes (1637)
Self-Assessing has been defined as the motive to view the self accurately by favouring true self-construals over false ones. This means that individuals want to obtain an accurate representation of what constitutes their self and sense of identity.
Self-Enhancing has been defined as the motive to view the self positively, therefore favouring positive self-construals over negative ones. This means that individuals want to obtain a positive representation of what constitutes their self and sense of identity.
Implications of the two self-motives will be discussed more in depth as interactions between strengths and weaknesses are possible. More specifically, one may be more beneficial in certain circumstances as opposed to the other. Additionally, there is the possibility for both to manifest themselves simultaneously, with one mediating the other.
Self-Assessment
Definition & Overview
Self-Assessment is defined as the motivation to view the self accurately and truthfully. It is characterised by cognitive goal of establishing the truth about oneself. Self-assessing is achieved through seeking accuracy, which then promotes learning.
Supporting Evidence
*Above-average effect: “The tendency for people to rate themselves higher than others on desirable trait dimensions in contravention of statistical logic”. The above-average effectt has shown to give evidence for the presence of self-assessment. More specifically, people will rate themselves as above average on traits that are ambiguous and non-quantifiable, such as being sensitive and sophisticated, than on ones that are more defined, such as mathematical ability and athleticism . This suggests that, on defined and quantifiable traits, individuals are more willing to be more self-critical. This is because there isn’t as much room for mental manoeuvre with these traits, which leaves individuals the only option to self-assess. In summary, individuals will look for more accurate and truthful information about their abilities, thus giving rise to self-assessment.
*Personality traits: When individuals are asked to indicate why they may or may not possess a particular personality trait, thus engaging in explanatory introspection, they will tend to rate themselves more negatively on that trait. Due to taking part in this activity, people will naturally think of negative thoughts, thus being more self-critical, resulting in automatic self-assessment (Gregg et al., see reference 10). More specifically, this means that individuals will seek accurate information on why they may or may not possess these traits.
*Justification of Self-Evaluations: Sedikides and Herbst (2002) found that accountability promotes the use of self-assessment. This refers to the expectation an individual has to explain and justify their self-judgements, in a social environment. This will, consequently, motivate a person to try and obtain accurate and truthful explanations and justifications for their self-view.
*Self-Verification: Individuals with negative self-views will favour negative feedback over positive feedback. This shows that individuals who possess such self-views are looking to seek accurate and truthful information to support it. Therefore, in self-verifying one’s negative self-views, one is also self-assessing, seeking diagnostic feedback .
Self-Enhancement
Definition & Overview
“Each of us is animated by a direct feeling of regard for his ” - William James (1950, p.308)
Self-Enhancement is characterised by the motivation and the cognitive goal to view the self in a positive way. This is achieved by seeking positivity which then promotes energy. One self-enhances either by means of self-adavancing (increasing positivity) or self-protecting (reducing negativity).
Sedikides and Gregg (2008) propose that self-enhancement manifests itself at four levels:
*Observed Effect
*Ongoing Process
*Personality Trait
*Underlying Motive
Supporting Evidence
Self-enhancement can be seen to expose itself at two levels. The first are prima facie signs, which, in Latin means, ‘at first sight’. These can range from obvious signs (e.g. Self-Serving Bias, Positive Illusions) to more subtle ones (e.g. Implicit Self-Positivity). Self-enhancement can also be seen across a range of processing dynamics, which refer to underlying psychological and behavioural processes (e.g. Self-Handicapping).
Prima Facie Signs
*Self-Serving Attributional Bias: This refers to individuals attributing their success to their own personal dispositions and attributing their failures to external factors . For example, if one does well on an exam, they may believe it was due to their intelligence, however, if one does poorly on an exam, they may blame it on lack of sleep (see Self-handicapping). This suggests promotion in positivity as individuals will primarily focus on their successes rather than their failures, thus self-enhancing.
*A Triad of Positive Illusions: These refer to inaccurate inflated perceptions of the self that individuals make use of to self-enhance . The three fundamental positive illusions are:
**Merits: Brown (1986), found that individuals associated positive attributes with the self more than with others and associated negative attributes less with the self than with others exhibiting a “self-other” bias. This suggests, therefore, that in social comparisons, we possess a motivation to view the self in a positive light, thus self-enhancing.
**Personal Control: Research has argued that individuals, particularly in western cultures, are motivated to control the world and their future, resulting in illusions of control. It has been argued that people believe they have more control over events in their life and their surroundings than is accurate.
**Future Prospects: People tend to be over-optimistic about the course of their future, notably in terms of health issues. Weinstein (1982) found that a significant amount of individuals believed that they were less likely to experience future health problems and life-threatening conditions than their peers. This suggests that there is evidence for self-enhancement as there is no general law about the likelihood of one individual falling ill over another. Hence, there is a motivation to see the self positively.
*Implicit Self-Positivity: Research has suggested that elements linked to your identity and your sense of self are implicitly positive. When something is implicit, it means it is implied, but not directly expressed (see reference 18). Gebauer, Riketta, Broemer and Maio (2008) found that even one’s own name is a source of positivity. This suggests that, as well as showing more obvious signs, humans have the unconscious motivation to self-enhance.
Processing Dynamics
*Self-Handicapping: This refers to when someone anticipates a failure, they give themselves an excuse to blame it on. For example, an individual may know he or she is going to do poorly on an exam so will purposely drink heavily the night before in order to blame the failure on that. Therefore, individuals will intentionally sabotage their own performance, but whilst keeping their positive self-view intact . This phenomenon is used as a means of self-protection, as opposed to self-promotion (or self-advancement), as a way of achieving success despite a setback. This gives rise to the fact that it is important for people to have positive self-concepts and that individuals will go through a lot to protect them.
*Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model: This was proposed by Tesser (1988) following the idea that some people may even sabotage the performance of others, and even close others, to maintain a positive sense of self. The model shows that, even compared to people who are important to the self, the motivation to self-enhance remains. The model states that...
**Comparing yourself to close others is more important, than comparing yourself to non-close others.
**Superior performance of close others in domains that are relevant or important to the self threatens the ego, and vice versa (Inferior performance boosts the ego).
**Superior performance of close others in domains that are irrelevant or unimportant to the self boosts the ego, and vice versa (Inferior performance threatens the ego).
*Cognitive Dissonance: Proposed by Festinger (1957), this refers to when there is a discrepancy between attitudes and behaviour. It also states that individuals will do anything to reduce the discrepancy to the point of changing attitudes. In a classic experiment, participants were asked to tell other participant that a boring task they had previously completed was actually interesting. What happened was that subjects concluded that, in retrospect, the task wasn’t boring in the end. This demonstrates that it is important for individuals to maintain positive well-being in making sure that their beliefs and attitudes match their behaviours and actions.
Discussion
If both self-assessment and self-enhancement are motivations that contribute to the view of the self, then there are going to be circumstances in which both will have difficulty operating simultaneously. Additionally, in some situations, one may be more beneficial than the other. There may also be instances in which both are capable of working at the same.
Where one such discrepancy occurs is when looking at the above-average effect. Although individuals rate themselves less positively on more defined traits (Dunning et al., 1989. See reference 9), there still is a need to portray the self in a positive manner thus contradicting the theory of self-assessment. If everyone considers themselves to be above the average on a number of traits, it negates the motivation to view the self accurately, as it is not possible for everyone to be above an average. This concludes that it is not always possible to self-enhance and self-assess at the same time. Of course this is rivalled by the fact that some individuals may be, in fact, above the average, so when self-assessing, will be getting accurate information on their self-concept
There is also a problem for individuals, with negative self-views. If all individuals want to self-assess, as well as self-enhance, then people with low self-esteem should welcome positive feedback. However this is not the case, as they welcome negative feedback and reject positive feedback (Swann et al., 2003. See reference 13), getting accurate information on their existing self-views, thus self-assessing. Additionally, if these individuals were to welcome positive feedback, they would be ignoring truthful feedback, thus self-enhancing. This is a clear circumstance in which the simultaneous operation of the two would be difficult.
There is also an issue in terms of well being. There is evidence to suggest, on one hand, that inflated self-views in terms of control, future prospects and attributes do contribute to good psychological adjustment, but on the other hand, this may also have a negative impact in areas such as social skills and academic performance. This suggests that the motivation to self-assess may have positive implications in academic and social performance as, when seeking accuracy, one will promote learning, leading to self-improvement.
In terms of academic performance, there is an issue with self-enhancement in that some research has found that self-enhancement should negatively impact academic ability while other has found that it should increase academic motivation, thus increasing grades.
Conclusion
Self-assessment and self-enhancement are two self-motives that seem to have a lot of implications in the domain of Social Psychology, and particular in the field of self and identity. Although both may have implications, arguments have suggested that self-enhancement may dominate over self-assessment as it is evolutionary important for survival and reproduction, associated with positive moods and is linked to greater levels of persistence . Nonetheless, both of these motivations play an important part in constituting the self and helping to achieve a positive, accurate and truthful sense of identity.
See Also
* Self-esteem
* Self-enhancement
* Positive illusions
* Self-handicapping
* Self-Assessment

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