Misperceiving the Quality of One’s Performance (Compared to that of Others) Can Lead to Feelings of Dejection — a Finding that Casts Doubt on the Wisdom of America’s Self-Esteem Movement

© 2011 Peter Free

 

19 October 2011

 

 

How we frame our self-perceptions matters, but not in the way American culture currently thinks

 

A recent study seems to confirm the merit of my objection to America’s love affair with building unalloyed self-esteem.  And, in more “humble” cultures, the findings cast doubt on the merit of teaching  unwarranted self-effacement.

 

In this regard, it has always seemed to me that telling ourselves that our performances and abilities are comparatively better than they actually are is counterproductive.  It is already difficult enough to find our individual ways in a competitive world, without adding self-delusion to the mix.

 

Researchers Young-Hoon Kim and Chi-Yue Chiu demonstrated that our psyches detect our self-lying ways, and the result is dejection.

 

 

Citation

 

Young-Hoon Kim and Chi-Yue Chiu, Emotional costs of inaccurate self-assessments: Both self-effacement and self-enhancement can lead to dejection, Emotion 11(5): 1096-1104 (October 2011)

 

 

First, two definitions from the study — “self-enhancement” and “self-effacement”

 

Self-enhancement is “the extent to which self-assessment if more favorable than actual performance.”

 

Self-effacement is “the extent to which self-assessment is less favorable than actual performance.”

 

 

What the study did

 

Kim and Chiu hypothesized that inaccurately rating one’s performance (compared to others) would result in depressive emotions.

 

Self-effacement (being competent, but feeling less able than others) obviously has psychic drawbacks.  And the reverse does, too.  Self-enhancement exposes us to constant risk of being exposed, and simultaneously prevents us from acquiring the tools and motivation to improve our performances.

 

The study was conducted with two groups — 295 American college students and 2,780 Hong Kong high school attendees — in four experiments.

 

The American Psychological Association summarized:

 

In the first two experiments, one of the U.S. groups and the Hong Kong students took academic tests and were asked to rate and compare their own performances with other students at their schools. Following their assessments, all the participants completed another widely used questionnaire to assess symptoms of depression.

 

In the third and fourth experiments, researchers evaluated the other two sets of U.S. undergraduates with feedback exercises that made high performers think their performance was low and low performers think their performance was high. Control groups participated in both and received their scores with no feedback.

 

© 2011 Press Releases, Too Much Undeserved Self-Praise Can Lead to Depression, American Psychological Association (19 October 2011) (paragraph split)

 

 

What Kim and Chiu found — delusion (loosely defined) is the enemy

 

Self-enhancement appears to depress us:

 

Across all the studies, results showed that those who rated their own performance as much higher than it actually was were significantly more likely to feel dejected.

 

“Distress following excessive self-praise is likely to occur when a person’s inadequacy is exposed, and because inaccurate self-assessments can prevent self-improvement,” said co-author Chi-Yue Chiu, of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

 

© 2011 Press Releases, Too Much Undeserved Self-Praise Can Lead to Depression, American Psychological Association (19 October 2011) (paragraph split)

 

 

The merit of self-criticism depends on its accuracy

 

For high performers:

 

[O]ur results also show that individuals with relatively high performance would be less depressed if they acknowledge their strengths than if they hold excessive negative self-assessments.

 

Young-Hoon Kim and Chi-Yue Chiu, Emotional costs of inaccurate self-assessments: Both self-effacement and self-enhancement can lead to dejection, Emotion 11(5): 1096-1104 (October 2011)

 

For lower performers:

 

[H]olding critical views of the self may not always lead to dejection. For example, self-critical low performers would be less depressed if they can (vs. cannot) acknowledge their weaknesses and strive to improve their future performance . . . .

 

Young-Hoon Kim and Chi-Yue Chiu, Emotional costs of inaccurate self-assessments: Both self-effacement and self-enhancement can lead to dejection, Emotion 11(5): 1096-1104 (October 2011)

 

 

The moral? — saying we’re great, when we’re not, may be a bad idea

 

Dr. Kim concluded:

 

These findings challenge the popular notion that self-enhancement and providing positive performance feedback to low performers is beneficial to emotional health.

 

Instead, our results underscore the emotional benefits of accurate self-assessments and performance feedback.

 

© 2011 Press Releases, Too Much Undeserved Self-Praise Can Lead to Depression, American Psychological Association (19 October 2011) (paragraph split)

 

Truth matters.  However difficult it sometimes is for us to make peace with it.