NCM 117: Psychiatric Nursing

SElf
enhancement
growth
Clinical Group D
 DEFINITION
Self-enhancement is
cognitive or interpersonal
activity aimed at boosting
beliefs that one is a
lovable and capable
human being.
 PURPOSE
People engage in self-
enhancement whenever
they seek, interpret, or
distort evidence about
themselves in a way
designed to maintain,
create, or amplify a
positive self-image.
 COMPREHENSIVE DISCUSSION
The idea that people
manage information about
themselves to convince
themselves that they are
capable beings has a long
history, at least in Western
thought. Indeed, in ancient
Greece, the Epicureans
raised self-enhancement to
a moral principle, asserting
that people should
entertain only those
thoughts about themselves
that gave them pleasure.
Self-enhancement needs to
be distinguished from other
similar activities that
people may engage in. Self-
improvement refers to the
motive to become a better
individual in reality; self-
enhancement instead refers
to the motive to create the
perception that one is a
competent and capable
individual, regardless of
reality.
COMPREHENSIVE DISCUSSION
Self-assessment refers to the motive to obtain an
accurate view of the self, whether that view be
positive or negative; people engage in self-
enhancement when they shade their treatment of
the evidence toward creating positive perceptions
of self.

Self-verification refers to activity people engage in

to confirm previously held notions about
themselves, whether those perceptions be desirable
or undesirable; people engaging in self-
enhancement only want to confirm the desirable
and deny the undesirable in themselves.
 COMPREHENSIVE
DISCUSSION
Self-enhancement is also related to a self-
protection motive. People engage in self-
protection when they strive to deny
undesirable aspects of themselves. Self-
enhancement refers to claiming as much
good as one can about one’s strengths and
achievements. Self-enhancement is also
related to, but different from, a self-
presentation motive, which is creating a
positive self-image to convince other people
that one is competent and capable,
regardless of what one believes about one’s
self.
 EXAMPLES
ABOVE-AVERAGE EFFECTS
OVERPREDICTIONS OF
DESIRABLE ACTIONS AND
OUTCOMES
BREADTH OF
CATEGORIZATION
NEWS
DIFFERENTIAL DISCOUNTING
OF GOOD AND BAD NEWS