Praise from a self-enhancement perspective: More, I want more?

Abstract

<p>Positive self-evaluation is a fundamental human need, enabling individuals to face challenges or pursue new opportunities in their environment. In the past decades, several lines of research have provided support for the overpowering effect of self-enhancement motivation in directing individuals’ attention and behavior relative to other self-evaluation motives. In the current chapter, we briefly summarize the basics of self-enhancement theory, how it has helped understand the psychology of praise and how some long-standing theoretical debates have been solved. In the second part, we review new theoretical issues that have emerged in recent years, summarize new manifestations of self-enhancement in the study of praise and 'real-world' applications of these insights.</p>

The Authentic Self Is the Self-Enhancing Self: A Self-Enhancement Framework of Authenticity

“…This may be more likely to occur in reference to contextualized self-aspects (perceptions of the self in specific relationships or situations) rather than global selfviews (Chen et al, 2006). Nevertheless, given that both domain-specific and global self-views are predominantly positive (Gaertner et al, 1999;Kendall et al, 1989;Thomaes et al, 2017) and given the potency of the self-enhancement motive especially on personally important attributes (Anseel & Martinescu, 2020;Sedikides, 2021b;Sedikides et al, 2021), we expect that, at least among healthy or typical individuals, willing internalization of negative self-views would be rather rare.…”

Harnessing the Power of Feedback to Improve Student Learning in Music

“…Note that there is often confusion between feedback and praise, but it is important to remember that praise is not feedback if it does not include actionable information or if it is directed at the learner as a person. Although learners tend to enjoy and seek praise, 31 praise is rarely a means for improving learning. So, although praise can be important for developing rapport with students, it is not feedback, and positive feedback must provide direction for student learning.…”