Personality and Individual Differences 55 (2013) 864867

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Personality and Individual Differences

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Dispositional bases of self-serving positive evaluations

Gian Vittorio Caprara , Guido Alessandri, Francesca Colaiaco, Antonio Zufan
Psychology Department, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Positive orientation (POS) is the name given to the latent dimension common to self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction. Earlier ndings attest to the trait-like nature of POS and to its unique contribution to well-adjustment across domains of functioning. The present study investigates the extent to which POS accounts for individuals tendency to distort their self-assessment in a positive direction. Taking a class of students (N = 190) at the beginning of their academic year, POS predicted the individuals tendency to perform academically better-than-average (BTA) peers. POS accounted for BTA beyond what is merely due to self-esteem, life satisfaction and optimism. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 21 December 2012 Received in revised form 27 May 2013 Accepted 17 July 2013 Available online 7 August 2013 Keywords: Self-esteem Optimism Life satisfaction Positive orientation Positive evaluations Better-than-average effect

1. Introduction Interest in the positive features of individual functioning has gained increased attention over recent decades. Despite conicting point of views, there is some agreement with a notion of wellbeing as a state in which individuals fully realize their potential, manage their life successfully, and contribute effectively to their community (Aspinwall & Staudinger, 2003). This calls for a strong commitment of both scholars and practitioners to the identication of the major determinants and proper indicators of optimal functioning, and to the design of effective interventions aimed at enabling people to fully express their potential. Whereas a number of authors, in various ways and under different labels, have argued about a general disposition conducive to face experience under a positive outlook (e.g., positive thinking, Scheier & Carver, 1993), Caprara et al. (2012) have focused on what is common to self-esteem, life satisfaction and optimism, and have identied a trait-like basic disposition, named positive orientation (POS). Several authors have reported a high degree of correlation (r = .50) between self-esteem, life satisfaction and optimism (i.e., Cummins & Nistico, 2002; Lucas, Diener, & Suh, 1996). However, to our knowledge, no study has investigated the extent to which they can be traced to a common latent dimension, nor the gain that may derive from examining what they have in common and their distinctive features. Findings from twin studies (Caprara et al., 2009) have converged with longitudinal and cross-sectional ndings in attest Corresponding author. Address: Psychology Department, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Roma, Italy. Tel.: +39 0649917665; fax: +39 064469115. E-mail address: gianvittorio.caprara@uniroma1.it (G.V. Caprara).
0191-8869/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.07.465

ing to the trait-like nature of POS and to its stability (Alessandri, Caprara, & Tisak, 2012a, 2012b). Cross-cultural studies document the generalizability of POS factorial structure across countries that widely differ in terms of cultural models of self, language, cultural and historical roots, and ways of life (Caprara et al., 2012). Positive associations with several indicators of well-functioning including health (r = .30), quality of friendships (r = .30), positive affectivity (r = .60), ego-resiliency (r = .40), the Big-Five traits (openness r = .36, conscientiousness r = .18, extraversion r = .48, agreeableness r = .34, and emotional stability r = .22) further attest to the POS construct validity (Alessandri et al., 2012b). The unique and pervasive contribution of positive POS to welladjustment and success has been recently documented by ndings showing that the specic variance of self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction have little or no signicant inuence on relevant outcomes like job-performance and organizational citizenships behaviors (Alessandri et al., 2012c). Whereas one cannot exclude that other constructs might be traced to POS in addition to selfesteem, life satisfaction, and optimism, previous models which have included other individual differences that are usually correlated with self-esteem, life satisfaction and optimism (e.g., trust, emotional stability, positive affectivity and generalized self-efcacy) have shown a worse t than the posited model. Likewise, what self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction have in common is a unique basic and pervasive disposition to face, construe, and assess experience under a positive outlook. Viewing experience under a general positive outlook distinguishes the trait of POS from: (a) other traits focusing on habitual behaviors (e.g., personality traits) and (b) from other dispositions regarding specic goal-oriented tendencies (e.g., hope). It has been reasoned that

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people would not be able to stand the awareness of their own limitations or cope with the difculties, adversities and losses in life unless they were predisposed to believe that they are worthy of regard, that life is worth living, and that the future is promising. Previous ndings have shown that, after removing the shared variance of self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction, the covariation of their uniqueness with indicators of well-functioning is negligible (Alessandri, Caprara, & Tisak, 2012a). As a large body of literature attests to a self-enhancement motive and namely the individuals need to hold a positive view of themselves and to its impact on well-functioning and well-being (Sedikides & Gregg, 2008), we are inclined to posit a kind of selfcare at the core of POS, since it seems unlikely that people convey a rosy view of their own past and future unless they believe it is worthwhile. Yet, previous ndings suggest that POS may operate as a potential predisposing to self-enhancement and going beyond self-esteem. Thus, it is crucial to examine the extent to which POS and self-esteem are sides of the same coin or distinct, although related, phenomena. To this end, we believe that to examine the extent to which POS may account for phenomena that have been commonly traced to self-protection and self-enhancement, like the individuals tendency towards self-serving positive cognitive bias (Cummins & Nistico, 2002) and illusory beliefs (Taylor & Brown, 1988), may be a good start. Based on these premises, the present study aimed to investigate the extent to which individuals tendency to expect to perform better-than-average peers can be traced to POS. The so-called better-than-average effect (BTA) has been reported among the most robust expressions of self-enhancement phenomena (e.g., Taylor & Brown, 1988). Previous studies have already shown that self-assessments are usually biased in the direction of positively distorted evaluations (e.g., Alicke & Govorun, 2005) and point to positive associations of self-esteem with the individuals tendency towards positive cognitive distortions (Cummins & Nistico, 2002). Taking a class of students at the beginning of their academic year, we sought to provide support for the assumptions that (1) only BTA (and not real academic outcome) is signicantly associated with POS when subjects are invited to predict their academic performance in comparison with their peers; (2) the contributions of self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction to the BTA effect are negligible once POS is taken into consideration. 2. Methods 2.1. Participants Participants were 190 sophomores (72% females) pursuing a degree in Psychology, with a mean age of 21.08 years (SD = 3.64). 2.2. Procedure During the rst week of the academic year, subjects attending the course of Personality Psychology were invited to take part in the study and, after obtaining their consent, to ll in a number of questionnaires geared to assessing the variables under examination: self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction from which to derive their POS. The participants were also invited to predict their mark in the nal examination and the average mark of their class. A partial credit was granted for student participation. 2.3. Measures 2.3.1. Self-esteem (RSE) Self-esteem was assessed by using the 10-item Rosenberg (1965) scale (a = .90) which measures the extent to which partici-

pants feel they possess good qualities and have achieved personal success (e.g., I feel that I have a number of good qualities). Each item is scored on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). 2.3.2. Optimism (LOT-R) Optimism was assessed by using the 10-item set from the Life Orientation Test (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994). In particular, the 6 scale items (four items were llers) measured the subjects expectations regarding their future and their general sense of optimism (a = .77). The participants provided their ratings using a 5point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). A sample item for optimism is: in uncertain times, I usually expect the best. 2.3.3. Life satisfaction (SWLS) Participants life satisfaction was assessed using the 5-item set of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, 1984). For each item, participants rated the extent to which they felt generally satised with life on a 7-point rating scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). A sample item for life satisfaction is: In most ways, my life is close to my ideal. Alpha coefcient was .83. 2.3.4. Final evaluation The nal evaluation ranged from 18 (sufcient) to 30 (excellent). 2.3.5. Previous academic achievement Participants were asked to report their average score resulting from previous examinations using the same range from 18 (sufcient) to 30 (excellent). 2.3.6. BTA Participants were further asked to report (a) their expected mark and (b) the expected average mark of the class, at the end of the course by using the same scale from 18 (sufcient) to 30 (excellent). Then, a BTA index was obtained for each subject by subtracting the average expected mark of the class from the mark he or she expected to achieve. We argued that the greater the difference between self- and other-assessment, the higher the BTA effect. 2.4. Data analysis strategy and model evaluation In order to test our main hypotheses, we used a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach (Kline, 2010). Parameters were estimated by Maximum-Likelihood (ML) using the Mplus 5.1 program (Muthn & Muthn, 2006). Missing data were handled using Full Information Maximum-Likelihood (Kline, 2010). Model t was evaluated following standard procedure: the sensitive chi-square (v2; Kline, 2010) was complemented by the inspection of the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Root Mean Square of Approximation (RMSEA) with 90% condence interval (CI) and the Root Mean Square Residuals Standardized (SRMR). A nonsignicant chi-square is indicative of a perfect t (Kline, 2010). In terms of alternative t indices, we accepted models with RMSEA <.08, SRMR <.06, and CFI >.90 (Kline, 2010). 3. Results 3.1. Descriptive statistics The zero order correlations (Table 1) showed that self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction were positively correlated among each other and moderately and positively correlated with the BTA effect. BTA reported a high positive correlation with previous

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Table 1 Descriptive statistics and correlations among the variables. Variables Sex RSE LOT-R SWLS BTA PAA FM Mean 3.15 3.52 4.65 1.06 25.48 27.13 SD 0.54 0.66 1.21 2.17 2.18 3.65 1 1 .02 .12 .16* .06 .12 .09 2 1 .60** .46** .34** .01 .01 3 4 5 6 7

1 .39** .32** .02 .03

1 .23* .01 .06

1 .48** .33**

1 .52**

Note: SD = Standard deviation. PAA = previous academic achievement. FM = nal mark. Sex was code 0 = male, 1 = female. * p < .05. ** p < .01.

academic achievement, indicating that past experience is related to this psychological mechanism. BTA also correlated positively with the nal mark. 3.2. SEM analyses By assuming a common latent dimension (i.e., POS) lying at the core of self-esteem, life satisfaction and optimism (Caprara et al., 2012), we used SEM in order to analyze specic effects (of self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction) and the general effect (of POS) on BTA. In SEM the specic effects referred to the paths stemming from the error terms. Of importance, error terms in SEM include both random and specic variance (i.e., the unique variance that is not explained by the common factor and that is not shared with the other indicators). In order to separate these two different sources of variation, we modeled self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction as latent variables measured by a single indicator by xing the residual variance of the latter to (1 q)r2, where q is scale reliability and r2 is the sample variance (Kline, 2010). In this way, POS relied on the common variance shared by self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction and, at the same time, the specic variances of self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction due to their unique factors were distinguished from those error variances

due to random factors (see also Alessandri et al., 2012c). We further controlled for sex (due to the high percentage of females in our sample) and for previous academic achievement. In this way, we could assess the effect of POS while partialling out the role of past academic success in supporting the BTA effect. The model in which the general effects of POS on BTA and nal mark is estimated (Fig. 1) reported a good t to the data v2(8) = 12.58, p = .13, CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = .05 [90% CI: .00, .11], SRMR = .04 as the exact-t hypothesis is not rejected. As expected, POS predicted BTA (but not real academic performance), even controlling for the signicant effect of previous academic success on BTA. To evaluate whether the specic effects of self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction have incremental validity over the general effect of POS, we examined the modication indices for the regression coefcients of these specic effects. Bonferronis correction was used in order to control for Type I error by dividing the nominal p-value of .05 by 6 (i.e., the number of modication indices examined). The corrected p-value was .008 with the corresponding critical v2 value of 17.37. As none of the modication indices of the specic effects from self-esteem, life satisfaction and optimism to BTA and nal mark was greater than this critical value, we conclude that they were not signicantly related to BTA and to academic performance. 4. Discussion As various scholars suggest, a slight to moderate degree of distortion in ones perception of the self and of the world is needed for proper psychological functioning (Baumeister, 1989; Cummins & Nistico, 2002). We believe that most of the positive distortions that people have of themselves rest upon a basic predisposition that engages affect no less than cognition in enabling people to cope effectively with life. This predisposition operates as an adaptive/ protective device to face the challenges of life and to promote individuals development. The above ndings corroborate this reasoning to a considerable extent. POS covaried with peoples tendency to evaluate themselves better than their average peers, but it is not associated with real academic performance. Also, self-es-

Fig. 1. POS and BTA. Note. All the reported parameters are standardized. Dotted lines represent non-statistically signicant parameters (p > .05). FM = nal mark; PAA = previous academic achievement. p < .05.

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teem, optimism and life satisfaction were associated with the individuals tendency to give an assessment of themselves better than their average peers, but these associations were negligible once POS was taken into account. Moreover, our ndings suggest that POS and self-enhancement are distinct, although correlated, expressions of the self. Further research is needed to clarify when self-esteem, life satisfaction and optimism appear during development, and when POS emerges. In this regard, we may just guess that POS predisposes to self-concern and self-protection, and that self-regard stays at the core of POS as self-awareness precedes the capacity to reect upon ones life and to anticipate the future. Also, self-regard is strictly contingent and necessary to self-awareness. People would not be able to withstand the consciousness of their limitations and fragilities unless they had a sense of their own worth and that life is worth living. Future studies should clarify how and when different feelings about self, life and the future ultimately coalesce under a unique pervasive mode of appraising, viewing and construing able to affect how individuals approach actions and experiences. We acknowledge some limitations of the present study. First of all, we recognize that future studies using a SEM approach should increase the number of subjects in the analysis in order to obtain more reliable results. In addition, although we used a complex statistical methodology, we are aware that our study, which is based on eld data cannot allow denitive conclusions about causality (Kline, 2010). Despite these limitations, we believe that this study can offer an signicant contribution to the literature by pointing to the value of POS to understand self-serving positive distortions. Viewing POS as a disposition opens new avenues to both research and practice in order to promote human potential and strengths. Indeed, recent ndings suggest that POS and its major expressions, although stable, are malleable to change (Caprara, Alessandri, & Barbaranelli, 2009). Likewise, further investigation is needed to appreciate the benecial effect of a slight to moderate degree of embellishment of ones life and experience, no less than the risk that may accompany over-condence and excessive selfindulgence. References
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