| Summary: | 博士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 教育心理與輔導學系 === 101 === It is widely accepted in American society that self-enhancement is beneficial, but the evidences supporting this idea are contradicted. In this study, a theoretical analysis for understanding self-enhancement among Taiwanese and America adolescents is provided by using a refined methodology which reduced the errors that occurred from previous research. Study 1 was to identify the motivation underlying the self-enhancing tendency for academic performance among Taiwanese adolescents via an amended methodology which is measuring self-enhancement through the residual discrepancy among perceived performance without incentive, perceived performance with incentive, and actual performance. The participants included 214 Taiwanese students in seventh grade. Study 2 was to understand the short term relationship between self-enhancement and mathematics achievement in Taiwanese and American adolescents via the same amended methodology in Study1. The participants included 214 Taiwanese students in seventh grade and 128 American students of seventh and tenth grades. Study 3 was to tracks the prediction of mathematics achievement in Taiwanese and American adolescents across four semesters. The participants in Study 3 are the same as Study 2. Study 4 was to test the hypothesis that grit mediates the relationship between self-perception and academic performance. The participants in Study 4 are the same as Study 1. Results showed that (1) The refined methodology leads to three types of analysis and demonstrate a motivational bias for Taiwanese adolescents in Study 1. First, self-enhancers and self-effacers show lower short term academic performance than accurate self-assessors. Second, self-enhancers unintentionally and self-effacers unintentionally show lower short term academic performance than accurate self-assessors unintentionally. Lastly, self-effacers intentionally outperformed self-enhancers intentionally and accurate self-assessors intentionally. (2) Three types of analysis in Study 1 were conducted on Taiwanese and American adolescents respectively in Study 2. That self-effacers intentionally outperformed their peers in school only showed in Taiwanese adolescents. For the other analysis, whether self-assessing unintentionally or intentionally, the results all reveal accurate self-assessors outperformed their peers for short term mathematics achievement. (3) A three-way ANOVA for country, type of self-perception and semester was conducted on the mathematics achievement in Study3. For self-assessing unintentionally, the results showed that during the four semesters, no matter in Taiwan or in the U.S., the mathematics achievement was highest in accurate self-assessors unintentionally, then in self-enhancer unintentionally and lowest in self-effacer unintentionally. However, for self-assessing intentionally, the three-way interaction was significant. First, for Taiwanese, the mathematics achievement was highest in self-effacer intentionally, then in accurate self-assessors intentionally, and lowest in self-enhancer intentionally in four semesters. For Americans, the mathematics achievement was higher in self-effacer intentionally than self-enhancer intentionally in three semesters. Second, for self-enhancer intentionally, Americans outperformed Taiwanese in two semesters. For self-effacer intentionally, Taiwanese outperformed Americans in four semesters. (4) In Study4, for self-assessing unintentionally, the results showed that grit mediates the relationship between self-perception bias and academic performance. For self-assessing intentionally, the results showed that grit was not a significant mediator between self-perception intentionally and academic performance.
The article concludes with implications for theory, research and practice. First of all, a major force of the present research is methodological. This research has taken a step in the direction of defining and measuring self-enhancement via a refined methodology. Second, this research provides a precise construct of self-enhancement and demonstrates the motivational bias. Lastly, this is the first study use refined methodology to distinguish the difference of self-enhancement between the cultures, especially the self-effacing bias in Taiwan.
|
|---|
