Jonathon D. Brown

Illusion and Well-Being: A Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health

Many prominent theorists have argued that accurate perceptions of the self, the world, and the future are essential for mental health. Yet considerable research evidence suggests that overly positive selfevaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism are characteristic of normal human thought. Moreover, these illusions appear to promote other criteria of mental health, including the ability to care about others, the ability to be happy or contented, and the ability to engage in productive and creative work. These strategies may succeed, in large part, because both the social world and cognitive-processing mechanisms impose niters on incoming information that distort it in a positive direction; negative information may be isolated and represented in as unthreatening a manner as possible. These positive illusions may be especially useful when an individual receives negative feedback or is otherwise threatened and may be especially adaptive under these circumstances. Decades of psychological wisdom have established contact with reality as a hallmark of mental health. In this view, the well-adjusted person is thought to engage in accurate reality testing, whereas the individual whose vision is clouded by illusion is regarded as vulnerable to, if not already a victim of, mental illness. Despite its plausibility, this viewpoint is increasingly difficult to maintain (cf. Lazarus, 1983). A substantial amount of research testifies to the prevalence of illusion in normal human cognition (see Fiske& Taylor, 1984;Greenwald, 1980; Nisbett & Ross, 1980; Sackeim, 1983; Taylor, 1983). Moreover, these illusions often involve central aspects of the self and the environment and, therefore, cannot be dismissed as inconsequential. In this article, we review research suggesting that certain illusions may be adaptive for mental health and well-being. In particular, we examine evidence that a set of interrelated positive illusions—namely, unrealistically positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism—can serve a wide variety of cognitive, affective, and social functions. We also attempt to resolve the following para

Positive illusions and well-being revisited : separating fact from fiction

In 1988, we published an article that challenged the notion that accurate perceptions of self and the world are essential for mental health (Taylor & Brown, 1988). We argued instead that peoples perceptions in these domains are positively biased and that these positive illusions promote psychological well-being. In the current article, we review our theoretical model, correct certain misconceptions in its empirical application, and address the criticisms made by Colvin and Block.

The thrill of victory, the complexity of defeat: self-esteem and people's emotional reactions to success and failure.

Low self-esteem people are assumed to have more severe emotional reactions to failure than are high self-esteem people, but this assumption has not received consistent empirical support. In this article the authors report 2 investigations that found that self-esteem differences of this sort emerge for emotions that directly implicate the self (e.g., pride, humiliation) but not for emotions that do not directly implicate the self (e.g., happiness, unhappiness). Additional evidence suggested that this occurs, in part, because low self-esteem people overgeneralize the negative implications of failure. The relevance of these findings for understanding the nature and functions of self-esteem is considered.

Self-Esteem and Direct Versus Indirect Forms of Self-Enhancement

Two studies explored the relation between self-esteem and self-enhancement biases. It was proposed that people with high self-esteem engage in forms of self-enhancement in which the self is directly linked to positive identities and outcomes, whereas people with low self-esteem engage in forms of self-enhancement in which the self is indirectly linked to positive identities and outcomes. To test the hypothesis, we examined group favoritism as a function of self-esteem and group involvement. As expected, high self-esteem subjects were most apt to display favoritism when they were directly involved in group processes, whereas low self-esteem subjects were most apt to display favoritism when they were not directly involved in group processes. Furthermore, consistent with the view that these tendencies reflect a motivated desire to enhance self-worth, these effects were less evident after subjects had received positive feedback than after they had received negative feedback. The discussion centers on the nature of high and low self-esteem and the influence of self-enhancement and self-consistency motives in social behavior. Conventional wisdom holds that self-serving biases are principally the refuge of those with low self-esteem. This position, typically referred to as self-enhancement theory (Shrauger, 1975), is based on the notion that all individuals are motivated to maintain a positive self-concept, and that the need for selfenhancement increases the more the desire to think favorably of the self goes unfulfilled. In their efforts to shore up a negative self-image, those with low self-esteem are presumed to distort and bias personal information in a self-enhancing direction (cf. Dittes, 1959; Jones, 1973; Kaplan, 1975). In contrast to the preceding view, which holds that self-enhancement biases are more prevalent among those with low self-esteem than among those with high self-esteem, other theories suggest that individuals with high self-esteem are more apt to display evidence of self-enhancement. Self-consistency theorists (Lecky, 1945; Swann, 1983, 1987) contend that individuals are motivated to maintain a consistent self-image because stable self-views enable them to predict and control their world (Epstein, 1973). From this perspective, people with high selfesteem more than those with low self-esteem should exhibit selfenhancing biases, because such biases strengthen the self-image of those with positive self-views but threaten the self-image of those with negative self-views. Despite the theoretical elegance of each of these arguments, recent research has failed to distinguish consistently between these opposing views (McFarlin & Blascovich, 198 l; Swann, Griffin, Predmore, & Gaines, 1987). Under some conditions and with some dependent variables, people with low self-esteem

When Gulliver travels: Social context, psychological closeness, and self-appraisals.

Four studies examined how the characteristics of others affect peoples self-appraisals. Ss viewed photographs of physically attractive or unattractive targets, then rated their own attractiveness. Study 1 found evidence for a contrast effect: Ssself-appraisals were more favorable after viewing an unattractive same-sex target than after viewing an attractive same-sex target. Study 2 manipulated psychological closeness by varying the degree to which the S and the target shared similar attitudes and values

From the top down: Self-esteem and self-evaluation

The affective model of self-esteem development assumes that: (a) self-esteem forms early in life in response to relational and temperamental factors; and (b) once formed, endows high self-esteem people with the ability to promote, protect, and restore feelings of self-worth. In this article, we use the model to examine the relation between self-esteem and self-evaluations, showing that one way high self-esteem people maintain feelings of self-worth is by claiming to possess socially valued qualities. We conclude by considering the implications of the affective model for understanding the nature and functions of self-esteem.

Self-esteem, mood, and self-evaluation : changes in mood and the way you see you

Three studies found that self-esteem moderates the relation between mood and self-evaluation. In Study 1, a standard mood-induction procedure was used to induce positive, negative, or neutral moods in low self-esteem (LSE) Ss and high self-esteem Ss. Afterward, Ss evaluated their specific qualities and characteristics (e.g., How smart are you? How kind are you?). Both self-esteem groups evaluated themselves favorably in a positive mood, but LSE Ss were more apt to lower their self-evaluations in a negative mood. Study 2 found a similar, though weaker pattern using a noncognitive, musical mood induction; Study 3 found that these effects occur with variations in naturally occurring mood over a 6-week period. The authors suggest that the tendency for LSE people to respond to negative moods with self-depreciation contributes to psychological distress.

Self-Esteem and Emotion: Some Thoughts about Feelings:

Self-esteem has been linked to a diverse array of positive and negative affective states. The present research explored the nature of these relationships. Study 1 found that self-esteem (as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) is more closely associated with self-relevant emotional states than with emotional states that do not directly implicate the self. Study 2 replicated these findings and found that although several personality variables predicted participant’s emotional reactions to success and failure, these effects were eliminated once self-esteem was taken into account. Study 3 found that self-esteem predicted participant’s self-relevant emotional reactions to failure but not their non-self-relevant emotional reactions. These findings provide converging evidence that self-esteem is most closely linked to a particular class of emotions that pertain to how people feel about themselves.

Exercise as a buffer of life stress: a prospective study of adolescent health.

The hypothesis that physical exercise provides benefits to individuals under periods of life stress has rarely been subject to empirical verification. This article presents the results of a longitudinal study of stress and well-being in adolescence in which the ability of exercise to buffer stress-induced deteriorations in physical health was examined. In accordance with predictions, prospective analyses revealed that the negative impact of stressful life events on health declined as exercise levels increased. These findings suggest that exercise may be a valuable resource for combating life stress. Discussion centers on possible mediating mechanisms and on the practical implications of the results.

Self-enhancement in Japan and America

North Americans view themselves in more positive terms than they view most other people. In the present paper, we report three studies showing that this bias is also found in Japan. For highly valued traits and abilities, Japanese students rated themselves and their best friends in more positive terms than they rated most other students (Study 1 and Study 2) and most other Japanese (Study 2). In Study 3, a sample of older Japanese displayed the same tendency when evaluating themselves and a member of their family. We discuss the theoretical importance of the findings.