Self-Enhancement and Psychological Adjustment: A Meta-Analytic Review

Author:

Dufner Michael1,Gebauer Jochen E.2,Sedikides Constantine3,Denissen Jaap J. A.4

Affiliation:

1. University of Leipzig, Germany

2. University of Mannheim, Germany

3. University of Southampton, UK

4. Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Abstract

This article advances the debate about costs and benefits of self-enhancement (the tendency to maintain unrealistically positive self-views) with a comprehensive meta-analytic review (299 samples, N = 126,916). The review considers relations between self-enhancement and personal adjustment (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, depression), and between self-enhancement and interpersonal adjustment (informant reports of domain-general social valuation, agency, communion). Self-enhancement was positively related to personal adjustment, and this relation was robust across sex, age, cohort, and culture. Important from a causal perspective, self-enhancement had a positive longitudinal effect on personal adjustment. The relation between self-enhancement and interpersonal adjustment was nuanced. Self-enhancement was positively related to domain-general social valuation at 0, but not long, acquaintance. Communal self-enhancement was positively linked to informant judgments of communion, whereas agentic self-enhancement was linked positively to agency but negatively to communion. Overall, the results suggest that self-enhancement is beneficial for personal adjustment but a mixed blessing for interpersonal adjustment.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Social Psychology

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