The effect of self-perceptions of averageness on self-aggrandizement and self-esteem in Japan
Year: 2007
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: One hundred and sixty-nine Japanese college students assessed themselves on a version of the Pelham and Swann (1989) Self-Attributes Questionnaire and the Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale. The principle findings were that, contrary to some past research, the self-esteem of the Japanese participants was positively associated with self-aggrandizement and negatively associated with self-effacement, but not associated with lack of self-aggrandizement. Unlike American students, being “average” did not have a negative impact on the self-esteem of Japanese participants. Supplementary finding were that most participants evaluated themselves primarily as average or slightly better than average, females were more likely to evaluate themselves as average, personal importance ratings did not very much influence how much “better than average” self-evaluations were associated with self-esteem, the availability of an “average” option did not affect very much the distribution of self-evaluations. Americans regard being average as undesirable (Alicke, Klotz, Breitenbecher, Yurak, & Vredenburg, 1995). According to Dunning, Meyerowitz, and Holzberg (1989, p. 1084), “. . . calling someone average often prompts the inference that the person is undesirable.” Indeed, several noted cross-cultural self-esteem researchers have gone so far as to deliberately avoid using the expression “average” in their questionnaires because “ . . . . it may have a pejorative connotation” (Kobayashi & Brown, 2003). In the United States, where competition and achievement are strongly emphasized (Sternberg, 1997; see also Covington, 1989, cited in Kahne, 1996) to be less than “above average” may be experienced as a form of failure (Alicke, et al.,). Viewing oneself as less than above average appears to have a deleterious effect on the self-esteem of North Americans. But are high self-esteem and self-aggrandizement positively related outside of “secular, middle-class AngloAmerica”? (Markus & Kitayama, 2003, p. 280). In Japan, it may be shameful or disgraceful (Endo, 1995) to be below average, but it is not a form of failure not to be above average, hence is not anything that need have a negative impact on one’s sense of self-worth. Japanese indeed are said to value being ordinary and average (Ohashi & Yamaguchi, 2004; Yoshida, Ura, & Kurokawa, 2004). If being average in Japan is a desirable condition, then being average might promote selfesteem. The present research examines the relationship between self-aggrandizement (evaluating oneself as better than average without objective evidence that this evaluation is accurate) and self-esteem in Japan. Specifically, three hypotheses were tested: (1) being better than average is associated with higher self-esteem, (2) being worse than average is associated with lower self-esteem and, (3) being average is associated with higher self-esteem. R. A. Brown:The Effect of Self-Perceptions of Averageness on Self-Aggrandizement and Self-Esteem in Japan ―2― Two additional questions were investigated: (4) which domains of self-evaluation contribute more to self-esteem? And (5) does the availability of a neutral scale response option affect participants’ self-evaluations?
Author: Robert A. Brown
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W405778512