TY - JOUR
T1 - Positive illusions in the academic context
T2 - A longitudinal study of academic self-enhancement in college
AU - Chung, J.M.H.
AU - Schriber, Roberta A
AU - Robins, Richard W
N1 - © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - In the present research, we examined academic self-enhancement in students (N = 264) followed longitudinally through 4 years of college. We used social comparison (i.e., better-than-average ratings) and self-insight (i.e., criterion-based) approaches to assess the degree to which students self-enhanced in their self-perceptions of academic ability, with SAT scores, high school grade point average (GPA), and college GPA used as criterion measures. We also examined ethnic variability in academic self-enhancement. We found that academic self-enhancement (a) increased or decreased over the 4 years of college, depending on its operationalization, (b) tended to be adaptive according to social comparison indices, and (c) demonstrated a trajectory that differed by ethnicity, but ethnicity did not moderate the effect of academic self-enhancement on outcomes. We discuss the implications of the findings for debates about the adaptive value of self-enhancement, the magnitude of cultural differences, and how best to conceptualize and operationalize the construct.
AB - In the present research, we examined academic self-enhancement in students (N = 264) followed longitudinally through 4 years of college. We used social comparison (i.e., better-than-average ratings) and self-insight (i.e., criterion-based) approaches to assess the degree to which students self-enhanced in their self-perceptions of academic ability, with SAT scores, high school grade point average (GPA), and college GPA used as criterion measures. We also examined ethnic variability in academic self-enhancement. We found that academic self-enhancement (a) increased or decreased over the 4 years of college, depending on its operationalization, (b) tended to be adaptive according to social comparison indices, and (c) demonstrated a trajectory that differed by ethnicity, but ethnicity did not moderate the effect of academic self-enhancement on outcomes. We discuss the implications of the findings for debates about the adaptive value of self-enhancement, the magnitude of cultural differences, and how best to conceptualize and operationalize the construct.
U2 - 10.1177/0146167216662866
DO - 10.1177/0146167216662866
M3 - Article
C2 - 27549790
SN - 0146-1672
VL - 42
SP - 1384
EP - 1401
JO - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
JF - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
IS - 10
ER -