Egoistic and Moralistic Biases in Self-Perception - University of ...

1050 Paulhus & John
Differences in content might then follow from differences in function.
After all, attribution is only self-favoring if one claims to have rare,
exceptional qualities. Such individuals will exaggerate qualities that will
raise their social status and their social prominence, that is, power,
intellect, and extraversion. With a Gamma bias, being “good” is construed
as being normal or appropriate, that is, not standing out from the
crowd. Hence, the self-favoring process will involve the denial of socially
unacceptable aspects of the self, for example, antisocial behavior such as
cruelty and dishonesty and Id-related impulses such as aggression toward
parents and authorities and sexual indiscretions. This notion is consistent
with the operation of a “feared self” (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Sullivan,
1953) as well as with traditional psychoanalytic ideas (Cramer, 1995).
The Structure of Self-Perceived Personality
When correlations are observed among the Big Five, they are systematic.
For example, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness will often correlate
positively (Digman, 1997; Eysenck, 1993) and Extraversion and Openness
often show positive correlations (McCrae & Costa, 1989; Goldberg,
1993).
In the faking studies reported above, such correlations were induced
by a high demand for self-presentation. Although instructions in those
studies aimed to promote a global self-positivity (i.e., “fake good”), we
suspect that Alpha and Gamma biases can be activated independently.
Gamma-bias activation might occur in public or family contexts where
avoiding shame and loss of affection are the primary concerns. Under
such circumstances, people will be cooperative with peers and obey
authorities. Alpha-bias activation, in contrast, may occur in competitive
circumstances where potential glory or sexual partners are the primary
concern. Here people will exaggerate their boldness, risk-taking, and
creativity.
The Self-Criterion Residual (SCR) Method
Development of the Alpha-Gamma theory was greatly facilitated by our
new method for evaluating the structure of self-favoring biases. The
method was modeled on John and Robins’s (1994) residual measure of
self-enhancement. We extended their single-measure analysis to a comprehensive
collection of many such measures and examined their