Do self-enhancement/self-protection and self-esteem reflect fundamental human motivations or are they culturally bound occurrences? The debate on universalism versus cultural relativism of self-motives and self-esteem shows no sign of abatement We advance the debate by proposing the extended self-enhancing tactician model The model aspires to account for two seemingly contradictory phenomena: cross-cultural invariance (equivalence of self-motive strength and self-esteem desire across cultures) and cross-cultural variability (differential manifestations of self-motives and self-esteem across cultures) The model's four foundational tenets address cross-cultural invariance: (1) The individual self is panculturally valued, and it is so over the relational or collective self; (2) The self-enhancement/self-protection motives are equally potent in East and West; (3) The structure of self-enhancement and self-protection strivings is similar across the cultural divide; and (4) the desire for self-esteem is pancultural The SCENT-R model's four key postulates address cross-cultural variability First, Easterners assign relative importance to, and report higher, liking-based self-esteem, as well as consider collectivistic attributes important and self-enhance on them, whereas Westerners assign relative importance to, and report higher, competence-based self-esteem, as well as consider individualistic attributes important and self-enhance on them Second, when constraints on candid self-enhancement are lifted, Easterners behave like Westerners: they report higher modesty and lower self-esteem than Westerners, but, controlling for modesty, differences in self-esteem disappear; they self-enhance in competitive, but self-efface in cooperative, settings; they profit from other-mediated than own-initiated self-enhancement Third, implicit self-esteem is similarly high across cultures Fourth, self-esteem and self-enhancement/self-protection confer parallel benefits in East–West, depending in part on domain relevance Self-enhancement and self-protection, as well as self-esteem, reflect fundamental human motivation

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On the panculturality of self-enhancement and self-protection motivation: the case for the universality of self-esteem

Cross-cultural researchers have tended to share the Western assumption that self-esteem (SE) is both desirable and consequential. However, no study has empirically investigated whether this assumption is shared across cultures. The present research compared the beliefs about SE of 89 American and 98 Japanese university students, in relation to personal levels of SE. It was found that American students view SE as desirable and consequential, whereas Japanese students view SE as desirable but not consequential. However, mediation analysis indicated that beliefs about self-esteem did not mediate the relationship between culture and personal SE, indicating an, as yet, unidentified source for moderate Japanese SE scores.

American and Japanese beliefs about self-esteem: Self-esteem beliefs

We propose that self-esteem importance has utility in research involving adolescents. Canadian adolescents ages 11–14 years (N =334) were compared to a large sample (N= 1792) and a validation subsa...

Self-esteem importance beliefs: A new perspective on adolescent self-esteem

Evidence reported in the present article suggests that the widely used Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) does not as unequivocally assess positive self-regard in Japan as it does in America. American (n = 98) and Japanese (n = 120) participants assessed high self-esteem (HSE) and low self-esteem (LSE) targets who were depicted endorsing or rejecting RSES items. Results indicate that although both groups of participants had more positive impressions of the HSE relative to the LSE target, the difference was greater for the Japanese. In addition, although the Americans had more positive impressions of the HSE target than the Japanese did, the Japanese had more positive impressions of the LSE target.

Perceptions of Psychological Adjustment, Achievement Outcomes, and Self-Esteem in Japan and America

Bleuler and Freud claimed that conflicting feelings toward an attitude object, or ambivalence, may be associated with psychological maladjustment. While their viewpoint seems generally accepted in Western cultures, it is less clear whether it applies in other cultures. Two studies investigated whether self-ambivalence (SA; the co-presence of contrary evaluations of the self as an attitude object) is associated with several common manifestations of mental health in America (one study) and Japan (two studies). In Study 1, participants were 152 American and 162 Japanese college students. Results indicated that American participants were significantly higher in self-esteem (SE), and significantly lower in SA and depression than the Japanese participants, but did not differ in pessimism or anxiety, and that SA was associated with higher pessimism, anxiety, and depression in America, but associated with lower pessimism and uncorrelated with anxiety and depression in Japan. In Study 2, involving 165 Japanese par...

Self-Ambivalence and Psychological Adjustment in Cultural Context: Focus on Japan

Most studies of Japanese self-esteem have implicitly assumed that the concept of self-esteem (SE) is indigenously meaningful. However, this has not been shown to be true. The present research investigated whether the indigenous Japanese word jisonshin is semantically equivalent to the English expression SE and, by implication, whether it denotes the same concept as originally delineated by Rosenberg, that of having a positive attitude toward oneself. Japanese participants (N = 234) responded to 11 pairs of statements about SE and several other items. Half of the statements contained the expression serufuesutei-mu (self-esteem), the other half the expression jisonshin. Participants independently judged the two expressions to be ‘basically’ synonymous, but endorsed some otherwise identical statements significantly more often when they contained the expression serufuesutei-mu, suggesting that the differences were due to the foreign connotations of the expression serufuesutei-mu.

Equivalence of serufuesutei-mu (self-esteem) and jisonshin in Japan: Self-esteem and jisonshin in Japan

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American and Japanese beliefs about self-esteem: Self-esteem beliefs

Equivalence of serufuesutei-mu (self-esteem) and jisonshin in Japan: Self-esteem and jisonshin in Japan