Remarks on Feigned Modesty and Language in Relation to Japanese Self-Esteem
Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Pursuing, protecting, and promoting positive self-feelings has been somewhat of a preoccupation, if not obsession, in the United States for well over fifty years. These motivations have been assumed to be universal. Yet few studies of Japanese self-esteem have found other than low to moderate self-esteem. This has been explained in terms of either modest responding (suggesting that self-reports are not veridical) or self-criticalness (suggesting that self-reports are veridical). The present essay reviews the arguments against the modesty view and concludes that there is insufficient evidence for rejecting modest self-presentation as the source of low to moderate Japanese self-esteem scores. Finally, potential linguistic sources of response distortion are discussed.
Author: Robert A. Brown
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W637994445