Individual differences in self-enhancement and self-protection strategies: An integrative analysis

ABSTRACT Research has identified a large number of strategies that people use to self-enhance or self-protect. We aimed for an empirical in-tegration of these strategies. Two studies used self-report items to assess all commonly recognized self-enhancement or self-protection strategies. In Study 1 (N5 345), exploratory factor analysis identified 4 reliable factors. In Study 2 (N5 416), this model was validated using confirmatory factor analysis. The factors related differentially to the key personality variables of regulatory focus, self-esteem, and narcissism. Expanding this integrative approach in the future can reveal a great deal about the structure and dynamics of self-enhancement and self-protection motivation. People are motivated to possess a positive self-concept. They often go to great lengths to attain positive views of the self (self-enhance) and avoid negative views of the self (self-protect; Alicke & Govorun, 2005; Ba-umeister, 1998; Sedikides, Green, & Pinter, 2004). Researchers have documented many varied manifestations, or strategies, that people use to self-enhance and self-protect (Greenwald, 1980; Sedikides, Skowronski, & Gaertner, 2004; Tesser, Crepaz, Collins, Cornell, & Beach, 2000). However, research has focused on studying the strategies separately. Thus, a more integrative approach is now needed. This article constitutes The authors would like to thank Dmitri Nesteruk for programming both studies, Sarah Wood for recruiting participants at Northern Illinois University, and Kathryn Gardner, John H. Krantz, Scott Plous, and Ulf-Dietrich Reips for allowing us to recruit via their research Web sites. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Erica G. Hepper