Pancultural self-enhancement reloaded: A meta-analytic reply to Heine (2005).

Abstract

(2003) reported findings favoring the universality of self-enhancement. S. J. Heine (2005) challenged the authors' research on evidential and logical grounds. In response, the authors carried out 2 meta-analytic investigations. The results backed the C. Sedikides et al. (2003) theory and findings. Both Westerners and Easterners self-enhanced tactically. Westerners self-enhanced on attributes relevant to the cultural ideal of individualism, whereas Easterners selfenhanced on attributes relevant to the cultural ideal of collectivism (in both cases, because of the personal importance of the ideal). Self-enhancement motivation is universal, although its manifestations are strategically sensitive to cultural context. The authors respond to other aspects of Heine's critique by discussing why researchers should empirically validate the comparison dimension (individualistic vs. collectivistic) and defending why the better-than-average effect is a valid measure of self-enhancement.

Refining the vulnerability model of low self-esteem and depression: Disentangling the effects of genuine self-esteem and narcissism.

“…Examining the cross-cultural validity of the present findings is particularly important, because there is an ongoing debate about whether members of collectivistic cultures show the same need for self-esteem and the same level of narcissism and self-enhancement bias as do members of individualistic cultures (Cai, Wu, & Brown, 2009;Heine, 2005;Heine & Hamamura, 2007;Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999;Sedikides, Gaertner, & Toguchi, 2003;Sedikides, Gaertner, & Vevea, 2005). Therefore, future research should test whether genuine self-esteem and pure narcissism show different relations with depression in collectivistic versus individualistic cultural contexts.…”

Adjusting to death: The effects of mortality salience and self-esteem on psychological well-being, growth motivation, and maladaptive behavior.

“…This finding adds to the growing body of research demonstrating that terror management processes operate similarly across different cultural settings (e.g., Dechesne, Greenberg, Arndt, & Schimel, 2000;Heine, Harihara, & Niiya, 2002;Kashima, Halloran, Yuki, & Kashima, 2004;Tam, Chiu, & Lau, 2007;Taubman Ben-Ari et al, 1999). The findings also contribute to the burgeoning literature documenting the panculturality of self-esteem (Brown, in press;Cai et al, 2007, in press) and self-enhancement (Gaertner et al, 2008;Sedikides et al, , 2005Sedikides, Gaertner, & Vevea, 2007;Yamaguchi et al, 2007).…”

“…However, given that the present research is the first systematic examination of the effects of mortality salience and self-esteem on psychological adjustment, it is important to demonstrate that the observed pattern of findings is obtained in a culturally distinct sample. In addition, although there is now a sizable literature in support of the assertion that self-esteem is a universal need (Brown, in press;Cai, Brown, Deng, & Oakes, 2007;Cai, Wu, & Brown, 2009; Sedikides, Gaertner, & Toguchi, 2003; Sedikides, Gaertner, & Vevea, 2005Yamaguchi et al, 2007), replicating the effects observed in the first four studies in a non-Western sample would provide convergent evidence for the universality of the self-esteem motive by demonstrating that self-esteem buffers the effects of death-related cognition on psychological adjustment similarly in distinct cultural samples. Therefore, in Study 5, we examined the effects of mortality salience and self-esteem on meaning using a sample of Chinese college students.…”

Narcissism: An Integrative Synthesis and Dominance Complementarity Model

“…In support of this belief, recent meta-analyses have demonstrated that Westerners have a greater tendency to selfenhance (Heine & Hamamura, 2007), but both Westerners and Easterners engage in tactical selfenhancement according to their cultural ideals (Sedikides, Gaertner, & Vevea, 2005). Specifically, Westerners self-enhance with regard to their uniqueness and independence, whereas Easterners self-enhance with regard to their connectedness and social harmony.…”