The tendency for people to engage in at least some degree of self-improvement seems almost universal. There is almost a built-in bias leading the “average” person to look better than good, the “average”.
Perhaps this is a form of self-protection meant to allow you to handle some obstacles that come your way, including those that may threaten your health. However, not everyone has this bias. People prone to depression they take the opposite approach, seeing themselves as flawed compared to everyone else. Your view of yourself compared to others could ultimately make or break your psychological health. Could this also have a negative effect on your physical health?
According to a new article by Constantine Sedikides of the University of Southampton (2022), “self-assessments on most dimensions, especially those that are personally important, are more favorable than external indicators suggest” (p. 1). What’s more, “there is little debate about the existence of self-improvement in both Western and Eastern cultures.” However, not everyone self-improves to the same degree, making this quality a “stable individual difference” (p. 2).
The question Sedikides raised is whether people high in this quality, who tend to rate high in psychological health, will also experience improvements in their physical health, both in terms of self-assessments and objective biomarkers.
What is self-improvement and why could it be so good for you?
To begin with, the University of Southampton psychologist considers four possible ways to define self-improvement. See which one makes the most sense to you:
- You evaluate yourself as better in some relevant way than other people you know.
- Your self-assessment is more favorable than others’ objective assessment of you.
- You are high on the quality of grandiose narcissism, reflecting “inflated views of yourself and pomposity” (p. 2).
- You give yourself high marks because you want to look good in the eyes of the researcher (social desirability).
Now ask yourself why any of these options could be beneficial to your health. Remember, at its core, self-improvement involves deviating from reality in a direction that puts you in the most favorable light possible. If it’s about affecting your health in a positive way, self-improvement should contribute to some actions that people take that actually help them reduce their chances of getting a chronic disease while also helping them feel better about themselves. your overall health.
As Sedikides suggests, people high in self-enhancement might well be the people who show the most commitment and persistence when it comes to engaging in health-promoting behaviors.
Consider the form of self-enhancement that narcissism involves. Might not individuals with a high quality also work hard to avoid anything that might detract from their appearance? Even if they seek good health for the “wrong” reasons, they may still benefit in terms of physical health as a secondary result of their desire to have an attractive body.
Personal enhancement could also work in the opposite direction. People with inflated views of themselves could potentially decide that they are invulnerable and not take preventative steps to preserve their health, such as getting regular screenings. Again, this could reflect the effect of narcissism, but it could also occur in people who see themselves as healthier than they really are compared to how they perceive others (number one above) and how others see them. others (number two above).
The socially desirable form of self-enhancement could also come into play, but only for health ratings, depending on how people rate their own health (versus objective biomarkers). In this case, the auto-enhancers are simply glossing over anything wrong so that they appear to present a favorable picture of their test results. They may prefer not to admit to themselves that they are less than perfect.
Evidence of the effects of self-enhancement on health
Noting that each form of self-improvement could contribute to physical health, Sedikides addressed the issue by conducting a meta-analysis, or large-scale review, of previously conducted studies. Starting with a pool of nearly 2,400 studies (both published and unpublished), his meta-analysis team (consisting of Tara Lesick, Christopher Stockus, and Ethan Zell) narrowed the field to 87 studies involving 22,415 participants whose findings could translate to ” effect sizes”, or the extent of the relationship between personal improvement and physical health.
Narcissism Essential Reading
The overall self-enhancement scale derived from these studies reflected a combination of narcissism, optimistic bias, social desirability, delusional self-beliefs, beliefs of personal superiority, and subjective age (imagining oneself younger or older than one really is). The research team also assessed the contribution of comparative judgments of oneself with others and social desirability.
As outcome measures, Sedikides included biomarkers such as blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol, telomere length (a measure of cellular aging), presence of disease, body mass, physical symptoms, as well as self-assessments Of the health.
Incorporating these complex indicators into their overall meta-analysis, the Southampton results produced a disappointing relationship close to zero. However, this general lack of correspondence between personal improvement and health masked the independent contributions of the specific measures used to quantify personal improvement. In particular, comparisons between oneself and others seemed to have the strongest relationship with self-rated health, meaning that people who saw themselves as better than others also rated their health along more positive lines.
In general, self-improvement does not help, but neither does it harm physical health, especially when measured through objective indices. In other words, you’re not taking any chances by allowing yourself to have a slightly inflated view of yourself. However, based on previous research linking psychological health to self-improvement, you may be giving your mental health a boost in the process by seeing yourself in what might be an unduly flattering light. The high end of self-enhancement may be narcissism, but somewhere in between may be the adaptive qualities of a lack of self-criticism.
Using self-improvement to your advantage
Looking for a relationship between self-improvement and objective physical health in this large data set, Sedikides’ team ultimately fell short. Typically, the lack of a relationship becomes uninterpretable when this occurs in the context of a single study examining a single set of variables. With so many contributions in the mix, the lack of a relationship in the overall meta-analysis might still make sense. As the author concluded: “Self-enhancement may have both positive and negative pathways to health (which cancel each other out) or may have no association with health” (p. 12). Why not hedge your bets and focus on avenues that could benefit your physical function?
The positive path from self-improvement to physical health might involve engaging in health-promoting activities to be better than your friends, neighbors, or even fellow gym goers. Without lording it over them, you have nothing to lose by doing your best (within limits) to show off your physical strength and agility. At the same time, however, the judicious use of self-improvement would mean recognizing that your body will not be able to protect itself from all possible age-related changes or illnesses. Your excellent performance in the gym and your appearance can only be maintained if you can avoid injury or chronic disease.
To sum upa healthy dose of narcissistic self-improvement can have its benefits. Long-term compliance means your physical and mental health stays in tip-top shape. Doing what you can to preserve both of you can not only reflect, but also help promote an optimally positive relationship. self image.
