12 Measuring Self-Enhancement: From Self-Report to Concrete Behavior

Abstract In this chapter, the authors note that social and personality psychologists address the issue of behavior in rather different ways. Social psychologists tend to exploit behavior as a concrete outcome reflecting the difference in psychological state induced by an experimental manipulation. In contrast, personality psychologists view behavior as only one indicator of psychological constructs. The authors note that the traditional complaint against self-report measures is their vulnerability to self-presentation effects. The general tendency for people to self-enhance raises concerns that self-reports are just as likely to reflect presentation motives as actual personalities. One solution is to index self-enhancement via behavioral measures. The authors compare the full range of options from self-report to concrete behavioral methods. They also discuss the over-claiming approach, which taps the tendency to claim knowledge of non-existent items. They conclude with the response-latency approach, which is purely behavioral in nature.