The Role of Self-Enhancing Evaluations in a Successful Life Transition

The Role of Self-Enhancing Evaluations in a Successful Life Transition

Christine Man Lai Kwan, Gayle Dienberg Love, Carol D. Ryff, and Marilyn J. EssexUniversity of Wisconsin—Madison

The objective of the study was to investigate how self-enhancing evaluations, obtained via positive socialcomparisons and reflected appraisals, were related to mental health in a later life transition. The sampleconsisted of 266 women who were interviewed once before and 3 times after the experience ofcommunity relocation. Results extended prior findings suggesting the dynamic impact of self-enhancingevaluative processes on psychological well-being and depressive symptoms. Additional analyses showedevidence for reverse causality, that is, that mental health also influenced self-evaluative processes. Thisstudy underscores the significance of holding a positive view of self vis-a-vis others in negotiating lifechallenges as well as the reciprocal influence of well-being on social self-evaluative processes.

The need for self-enhancement has been proposed as a centralhuman motivator. Various psychological phenomena, includingrecall and processing of self-relevant information, attributions,self-presentation, and self-evaluations, have been shown to servethe goal of maintaining or promoting a positive self-concept(Sedikides & Strube, 1997). Positive views of self serve the needfor self-enhancement, and, in turn, are believed to contribute tomental health (Taylor & Brown, 1988).

The present study investigated the associations between positiveself-evaluations, via social comparisons (Festinger, 1954) and re-flected appraisals (Cooley, 1902), and mental health during a laterlife transition. Using data from a longitudinal study of communityrelocation, we tracked changes in social comparisons, reflectedappraisals, and well-being over a 2-year period. The multiwavedesign allowed for assessment of the associations between dy-namic and cross-time social self-evaluative changes and mentalhealth changes over the course of this transition.

The Need for Self-Enhancement and Its Consequences

Several lines of social psychological research have proposedand supported the notion that the need for self-enhancement iscentral to the regulation of self-evaluative processes. Tesser’s

(1988) self-evaluation maintenance model of social behavior pos-its that individuals behave in a manner that maintains or enhancespositive self-evaluation. Likewise, the need for self-enhancementis suggested to underlie the ego’s “fabrication and revision ofpersonal history” (Greenwald, 1980, p. 603)—that is, variouscognitive biases organize self-knowledge with the goal of protect-ing or increasing self-esteem. Furthermore, Sedikides and Strube’s(1997) Self-Concept Enhancing Tactian model proposes that self-enhancement is fundamental to other key motives involved inself-appraisal. Individuals seek to maintain consistency amongexisting self-concepts, reduce uncertainty regarding the self, andmake genuine improvement in their traits and abilities so as tomaintain or enhance the positivity of their self-conceptions. Takentogether, these self-theories provide converging formulations ofindividuals’ motivation to maintain positive self-evaluations atleast in western cultures (see Heine & Lehman, 1997; Heine,Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999, on the issue of universalityvs. cultural specificity of the self-enhancement need).

Mechanisms for Self-Enhancing Self-Evaluations

On the basis of the premise that others play a prominent role invarious aspects of self-management, a substantial literature existsto support the self as an interpersonal creation (Markus & Cross,1990). In relation to self-evaluation, the social world provides animportant context in which people view themselves in relationto others. By actively interpreting one’s abilities, performancesand other experiences vis-a-vis others’, individuals can formand maintain positive self-evaluations to serve their need forself-enhancement.

Social comparisons and reflected appraisals are two waysthrough which individuals can self-enhance vis-a-vis others. Theformer, originally proposed by Festinger (1954), suggests thatindividuals evaluate themselves based on comparison with others.While the original formulation suggested that the motive for seek-ing accurate self-relevant information drives social comparisons,considerable work over the past decades has emphasized howother motives such as self-enhancement influence the selection ofcomparison targets and the direction of comparison (Buunk &Gibbons, 1997; Suls & Wills, 1991). For instance, Wills’s (1981)theory of downward comparison suggested that when people’s

Christine Man Lai Kwan, Department of Psychology, University ofWisconsin—Madison; Gayle Dienberg Love, Institute on Aging, Univer-sity of Wisconsin—Madison; Carol D. Ryff, Department of Psychologyand Institute on Aging, University of Wisconsin—Madison; Marilyn J.Essex, Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin—Madison.

This research was originally supported by Grant R01AG08979 from theNational Institute on Aging, awarded to Carol D. Ryff and Marilyn J.Essex, and is currently supported by Grant P50-MH61083 from the Na-tional Institute of Mental Health, awarded to Carol D. Ryff and BurtonSinger. Partial reports of these data were presented at the 53rd AnnualMeeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, DC,November 2000. We thank Daniel Bolt and Burton Singer for their tech-nical assistance in preparing the manuscript.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to ChristineMan Lai Kwan, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. E-mail:[email protected]

Psychology and Aging Copyright 2003 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.2003, Vol. 18, No. 1, 3–12 0882-7974/03/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0882-7974.18.1.3

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esteem is under threat, they compare themselves to those inferioror less fortunate than themselves to protect or increase self-esteem.While arguing that social comparison processes involve diverseactivities beyond self-evaluations, Taylor and Lobel (1989) agreedthat under conditions of threat, individuals tend to engage indownward comparison to obtain “explicit self-enhancing evalua-tions” to ameliorate self-esteem.

Reflected appraisals, originating with Cooley’s (1902) looking-glass self and researchers in the symbolic-interactionist tradition,emphasize how individuals perceive that others view them. Re-search on this mechanism has focused on the question of accuracy:whether self-concepts are related to others’ actual opinion ofoneself and whether they are related to perception of others’opinion of oneself (Felson, 1993; Shrauger & Schoeneman, 1979).However, except for Murray’s work on the role of reflected ap-praisals in satisfaction in romantic relationships (Murray, Holmes,& Griffin, 1996), little work has been conducted to connect re-flected appraisals as a mechanism of self-enhancement contribut-ing to good mental health.

Consequences of Self-Enhancing Evaluations

What are the consequences of self-enhancement? Specifically,when individuals actively seek positive self-evaluations, will theyenjoy higher levels of psychological health? Empirical evidencesuggests an affirmative answer. In their review of the mental healthimpact of positive illusions, Taylor and Brown (1988) concludedthat normal individuals tend to make “unrealistically positiveself-evaluations” (p. 193), which are shown to contribute to higherlevels of happiness and contentment, the ability to care for others,and the capacity for creative and productive work (for contraryviews, see Colvin & Block, 1994; Colvin, Block, & Funder, 1995).More recent work on “situated optimism” (Armor & Taylor, 1998)suggested that optimistic expectations grounded in reality couldfacilitate performance in undertaking personal goals and projects.By extension, optimistic or self-enhancing evaluations, withinreasonable bounds, may also be beneficial for intrapsychic out-comes such as positive psychological functioning.

Moving to mental maladjustment, research on depression sug-gests an association between the absence of self-enhancing eval-uation, of the self and the world, and depression. Depressives arefound to make more negative social comparisons than do nonde-pressed people (Ahrens & Alloy, 1997). Moreover, relative todepressives, nondepressed people are more likely to show self-serving bias in terms of attributing successes to themselves andfailures to their situations (Alloy & Abramson, 1979).

Despite the associations observed for self-enhancement andmental health, few studies have examined such processes longitu-dinally in the context of naturally occurring life events. Based onarchival data, one study showed that individuals with compara-tively positive self-appraisals during college were less likely toreport negative self-esteem during middle adulthood (Lipkus &Siegler, 1995). However, the demonstrated cross-time link be-tween self-appraisals and self-esteem was not tested vis-a-vis anexplicit life challenge. To address this issue, this study investigatedthe role of self-enhancing social comparisons and reflected ap-praisals in successful negotiation of a later life transition. A keyfeature of the study is its multiwave research design.

The Role of Self-Enhancing Evaluations in Later LifeCommunity Relocation

Old age is a period replete with challenge and transition. Wid-owhood, death of friends and siblings, retirement, change in res-idence, and decline in physical and cognitive functioning are someof the normative, and frequently negative, experiences that con-front the elderly. Despite these many transitions, the literature onsuccessful aging documents notable resilience among older adults(Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Bond, Cutler, & Grams, 1995; Rowe &Kahn, 1987, 1997; Ryff, Kwan, & Singer, 2001; Schulz & Heck-hausen, 1996; Staudinger, Marsiske, & Baltes, 1993). Social ger-ontologists and life-span developmentalists have been particularlyconcerned with identifying the psychosocial factors that promotesuccessful aging. Resilience, in fact, has been defined as the abilityto maintain or improve well-being in the face of challenging lifetransitions (Ryff, Singer, Love, Essex, 1998).

In negotiating the relocation transition, self-enhancing socialcomparisons or reflected appraisals are two possible mechanismsthrough which individuals might maintain or improve their mentalhealth. For instance, by making explicit downward social compar-isons to less fortunate others, women with breast cancer showedbetter adjustment to the disease and enhanced their self-esteem(Taylor, 1983; Taylor & Lobel, 1989). People also use differenttypes (active and passive) of downward social comparison to copewith a variety of threats to well-being (Gibbons & Gerrand, 1991).Among elderly women experiencing health-related loss, more pos-itive social comparisons were associated with less distress andhigher levels of psychological well-being, especially among thosein poorest health (Heidrich & Ryff, 1993a, 1993b).

Our prior work on community relocation provided preliminaryevidence that such positivity in self-evaluations is, indeed, linkedwith higher well-being (Ryff & Essex, 1992). Cross-sectionalanalyses after relocation showed that older women who madepositive social comparisons and positive reflected appraisalsshowed better psychological adjustment. Kling, Ryff, and Essex(1997) added longitudinal refinement to the query, showing thatincreased self-enhancing evaluations in multiple life domains (e.g.,daily activities, health) predicted improvement in multiple dimen-sions of psychological well-being from before the move to 1 to 2months post move. The analyses controlled for premove levels ofself-enhancement and well-being, and thus they provided evidencefor the contributions of gains in self-evaluations to gains in well-being during the relocation transition. However, because postmovedata were collected only shortly after the move, it was unclearwhether the benefits of self-enhancement persisted over the longterm.

In an effort to address this question, the present study extendsthe prior investigation by tracking changes in social comparisons,reflected appraisals, and mental health over a nearly 2-year periodin the same community relocation sample. Thus, it is possible toevaluate the psychological role of self-enhancing evaluations wellpast the initial period of adaptation. Moreover, the multiwavedesign allows for assessment of intervening self-enhancing socialcomparisons and reflected appraisals and how they are linked withsubsequent changes in mental health. This design allows us todistinguish the purported causes (change in social comparisons andreflected appraisals) from purported effects (improvement in psy-chological functioning) in time, thus affording increased precision

4 KWAN, LOVE, RYFF, AND ESSEX

to test the effects of self-enhancing evaluations on mental health ina real-life transition. We hypothesize that increased levels of socialcomparisons and reflected appraisals will predict improvement inmental health over the nearly 2-year course of the transition.

However, despite these guiding predictions, it is possible thatchanges in mental health also predict improved self-evaluativeprocesses. That is, the inferred directional influences may operatein more than one way. To exploit the power of our multiwavedesign, we conducted additional regression analyses to evaluatethe evidence for this alternative. The point of these additionalanalyses was to extract maximal information from our four-wavedesign to ascertain the nature of cross-time directional dynamicsbetween self-enhancement processes and mental health.

Method

Sample

The sample consisted of 301 participants from the Wisconsin Study ofCommunity Relocation (RELOC; Kling et al., 1997; Kling, Seltzer, &Ryff, 1997; Ryff & Essex, 1992; Smider, Essex, & Ryff, 1996). Criteria foreligibility and procedure for participant recruitment were detailed in Klinget al. (1997).

All participants completed four waves of data collection: Most T1

assessments (87%) were conducted at least 1 month (Mdn � 4 months,range � 1 to 33 months) before the move date. The three postmoveassessments were conducted at approximately 1–2 months (T2), 7–8months (T3), and 14–15 months (T4) after the move. Because 35 (12%) ofthe 301 participants reported missing data in at least one of the studyvariables, the final sample for the present study was reduced to 266 women(88%) who provided complete data for all four waves of assessments.

In terms of demographic background at T1, the women in the finalsample were, on average, 69 years old (SD � 8) and had completed 14years of education (SD � 3). About half of the participants were widowed,27% were married or living with a partner, 13% were divorced, 8% werenever married or not living with a partner, and 1% was separated. Themajority of the participants (98%) were White. Prior to their moves, mostparticipants owned a home (56%) and lived alone (66%). Finally, mostparticipants were healthy, as indicated by their mean rating of 5.22(SD � 1.03) on their overall health on a scale of 1 ( poor) to 7 (excellent).Participants in the final sample and those excluded from it were compa-rable with respect to the above background characteristics at T1 except thatthe latter were slightly older (M � 72, SD � 8; t � 1.89, p � .06).

All participants reported strong reasons for needing to relocate. Highcosts of home (e.g., taxes, utilities, maintenance), that the home is largerthan needed, and the desire for a safer, more secure place to live were ratedby the highest percentages of participants (41%, 40.6%, and 38%, respec-tively) as “moderately” or “extremely” important reasons for moving. Interms of the extent to which relocation was the participants’ idea ratherthan someone else’s, a summary index of involuntariness on a 9–54 scalewas created by summing the ratings from nine items of involuntariness ona 1–6 scale. Higher scores indicated higher levels of involuntariness. Onaverage, the participants were quite voluntary in their decision to relocate,as indicated by the relatively low average score on the summary index(M � 19.43, SD � 6.71).

Procedures and Design

Each RELOC assessment consisted of a 2-hr home interview by a femaleinterviewer and completion of a self-administered questionnaire. All dataon self-enhancement and mental health came from the self-administeredquestionnaire. In this study, we first considered the contribution of self-evaluative processes to mental health in the course of relocation in terms of

T1 to T4 changes in psychological well-being and depressive symptoms.Changes in self-enhancing evaluations from T1 to T2 and T2 to T3 wereused to predict cross-time gains (or losses) in mental health. In an effort toevaluate evidence for the alternative causal framework, additional nomo-thetic analyses used changes in mental health from T1 to T2 and T2 to T3

to predict cross-time changes in self-enhancing evaluations from T1 to T4.

Measures

Self-enhancing evaluations. Based on Rosenberg’s (1979) self-concepttheory, measures of self-enhancing evaluations were constructed (Ryff &Essex, 1992). Participants were asked to evaluate themselves based on theirperceptions of how they fare when compared with others in their socialenvironment (social comparisons) and their perceived feedback from oth-ers about themselves (reflected appraisals). Each kind of evaluation wasmeasured by four items balanced between negative and positive phrasingframed in five life domains, including health, friends, daily activities,family, and economics, resulting in a 20-item scale. A strongly disagree (1)to strongly agree (6) response format was adopted. A sample item of socialcomparisons in the friends domain was “I feel my relationships with myfriends are closer than most people’s are.” A sample item of reflectedappraisals in the health domain was “My friends and family give me theimpression that my health is failing.”

This scale was used in previous studies of RELOC data and has showngood reliability (Ryff & Essex, 1992; Kling et al., 1997). In the presentstudy, strong reliability coefficients were obtained for each subscale asfollows: alpha coefficients � .80 at T1, .81 at T2, and .83 at T3 for reflectedappraisals, and alpha coefficients � .81 at T1, .84 at T2, and .84 at T3 forsocial comparisons. Higher scores indicate higher levels of social compar-isons and reflected appraisals.

Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to assess whether socialcomparisons and reflected appraisals could be parsimoniously representedby a composite 40-item self-enhancing evaluations scale. A one-factormodel and a two-factor model were fitted to 10 domain-specific subscalescores, 5 specific to social comparisons and 5 specific to reflected apprais-als. Error variances between subscale scores of the same life domains wereallowed to be correlated. Results revealed that the two-factor model pro-vided a significantly better fit than the one-factor model, ��2(1) � 24.77,p � .001. In addition, given the sample size and number of modelparameters, the two-factor model provided an excellent fit to the data(root-mean-square error of approximation � .047). Thus, social compari-sons and reflected appraisals were examined separately in subsequentanalyses.

Psychological well-being. Positive mental health was assessed usingRyff’s six scales of psychological well-being; (Ryff, 1989a, 1989b; Ryff &Keyes, 1995). Derived from the literatures on life-span development,mental health, and personal growth, these cover multiple dimensions ofpositive psychological functioning, including positive relations with others,autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth, andself-acceptance. Shortened versions (14-item scales) of the original scaleswere used in the present study. Satisfactory internal reliability was obtained(alpha coefficients ranged from .77 to .85 at T1, and from .81 to .90 at T4).Items for the scales were mixed into a single self-report inventory admin-istered according to a strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6) responseformat.

To minimize content overlap between self-evaluations and psychologi-cal well-being, we removed psychological well-being items that connotesocial-comparison or reflected-appraisal activities from the scales. As aresult, the scales for positive relations with others and self-acceptanceconsisted of only 11 items for the present analyses.

Depressive symptoms. Negative mental health was assessed with theCenter for Epidemiological Studies—Depression scale (CES–D; Radloff,1977). This 20-item measure assesses depressed mood or affect rather thanclinical depression. Reliability was satisfactory at T1 (� � .82) and T4 (� �.89). One item with connotation of social comparison was dropped to

5SELF-ENHANCING EVALUATIONS

minimize content overlap with self-evaluations, resulting in a 19-item scalefor the present analyses.

Control variables. Age and years of education, marital status, subjec-tive health ratings, home ownership, and involuntariness of making themove were included as control variables in all regression analyses.

Age and educational attainment have been shown to relate to differentprofiles of psychological well-being (Ryff & Singer, 1998b) and wereexpected to affect psychological adaptation to the relocation transition.Thus, we controlled for age and years of education.

Marital status has been shown to relate to psychological functioning inlater life. Divorced and widowed elderly individuals are likely to showlower levels of psychological wellness than married individuals (Gold-scheider, 1994; Mendes, Kasl, & Jacob, 1994; Thuen, Reime, & Skrautvoll,1997). We anticipated that the spouses of married individuals were betterable to provide immediate support and help reduce stress during therelocation transition. To control for such effects, marital status (0 � notcurrently married; 1 � married or living with a partner) was coded as adichotomous variable and used as a control variable.

Physical health has an important effect on life quality in later life. Poorhealth is associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety and lowerlevels of well-being (Heidrich, 1993). Thus, we controlled for the respon-dents’ rating of overall health at T1.

Factors specific to the decision to relocate were also expected to have ageneral effect on psychological adaptation. We anticipated that, comparedto renters, home owners had greater difficulty in moving to a new envi-ronment because they were more likely to have had lived in the sameresidence for a long time. Thus, home ownership (0 � nonowner; 1 �owner) was coded as dichotomous variables and was controlled for. Inaddition, compared with those who made their own decision to movevoluntarily, those who felt that they were pressured by others to do so wereexpected to show poorer adaptation. Thus, we controlled for involuntari-ness of making the move.

Results

Cross-Time Mean Level Analyses

To reiterate, the present study sought to investigate the connec-tions between social self-evaluations and mental health. The firstanalyses examined cross-time mean-level differences in the pre-dictor and outcome variables. The key predictors, social compar-isons and reflected appraisals, were considered dynamically acrosstime (T1–T2, T2–T3). Changes in psychological well-being andCES–D from T1 to T4 were the outcome variables.

Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations of the twoself-evaluative measures and mental health at all four waves ofdata collection. In terms of the predictor variables, a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant dif-ferences among the four measurements of social comparisons andreflected appraisals. Both self-evaluative measures followed agenerally upward trend until T3 and then declined. Specifically,pairwise comparisons showed that social comparisons were morepositive at T2 than T1, F(1, 265) � 5.26, p � .05. However, theybecame less positive from T3 to T4, F(1, 265) � 6.89, p � .001.Similarly, reflected appraisals were more positive at T2 than T1,F(1, 265) � 4.67, p � .05, and more positive at T3 than T2, F(1,265) � 5.74, p � .05. However, they became less positive from T3

to T4, F(1, 265) � 14.20, p � .001.In terms of the mental health variables, a repeated-measures

ANOVA indicated significant differences among the four mea-surements of all dimensions of psychological well-being andCES–D. Pairwise comparisons of T1 and T4 assessments revealedsignificant improvements in environmental mastery, F(1,265) � 26.58, p � .001, and self-acceptance, F(1, 265) � 10.11,p � .01, as well as declines in CES–D, F(1, 265) � 20.33, p �.001, from before relocation to 14–15 months after relocation.Comparing assessments at one time point to the next, it appearedthat mental health generally improved from before relocation to T3

and then deteriorated. Specifically, all variables except positiverelations significantly increased from T1 to T2 (F ratios rangingfrom 8.31 to 46.92). From T2 to T3, autonomy continued toincrease significantly, F(1, 265) � 4.94, p � .05, and CES–Dcontinued to decrease significantly, F(1, 265) � 6.03, p � .05.From T3 to T4, all aspects of mental health except self-acceptanceworsened (F ratios ranging from 4.05 to 23.28).

Correlational Analyses of Outcome Variables

The second analyses examined correlations among mentalhealth variables at T1 and T4 as well as across time. Table 2 revealstwo important observations. First, cross-time correlations of all sixwell-being dimensions were strong (ranging from r � .73 to .80),suggesting that participants’ relative positions with respect to theseaspects of positive functioning were largely unchanged before

Table 1Self-Evaluations and Mental Health From T1 Through T4: Means and Standard Deviations (N � 266)

Subscale

T1 T2 T3 T4

F aM SD M SD M SD M SD

Social Comparisons 82.38 13.39 83.67 13.75 83.96 13.76 82.72 13.74 4.25**Reflected Appraisals 89.41 12.19 90.41 12.71 91.47 12.56 89.96 12.82 7.47***Positive Relations 53.84 8.31 54.48 7.99 54.79 8.17 53.86 8.21 4.16*Autonomy 62.07 8.71 63.20 9.26 64.06 9.19 62.52 8.91 10.25***Environmental Mastery 64.74 8.80 67.39 9.19 67.93 9.28 66.81 9.17 27.49***Personal Growth 67.62 9.28 69.00 9.27 68.92 9.21 67.25 9.57 12.85***Purpose in Life 64.48 9.66 65.88 9.79 65.86 9.83 64.24 10.13 10.77***Self-Acceptance 49.99 8.21 51.43 8.17 51.64 8.24 51.07 8.26 10.05***CES–D 10.19 7.48 8.00 6.99 7.02 7.06 8.00 8.30 16.87***

Note. CES–D � Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression Scale.a F-ratios were generated from repeated-measures analysis of variance and were based on df (3, 795).* p � .05. ** p � .01. *** p � .001.


relocation and 14–15 months after relocation. The cross-timecorrelation of CES–D was weaker (r � .50), however, suggestingless stability in participants’ relative positions in terms of havingdepressing symptoms. Second, regarding relationships amongmental health variables at a given time point, at both T1 and T4, thestrongest associations were observed for purpose in life withself-acceptance (at T1, r � .71; at T4, r � .77), environmentalmastery (at T1, r � .65; at T4, r � .70), and personal growth (at T1,r � .63; at T4, r � .70). Cross-time associations among theseparticular well-being dimensions were weaker than their time-convergent counterparts but were still stronger relative to thoseamong other mental health variables.

Regression analyses, to be presented in the following section,will examine whether differential patterns of mean-level andrelative-ordering change and stability in mental health over thecourse of relocation were accounted for by changes in socialcomparisons and reflected appraisals during the transition, aftercontrolling for the effect of background differences.

Regression Analyses: Testing the Guiding TheoreticalFramework

Four sets of hierarchical regression analyses tested our guidinghypothesis that self-evaluations vis-a-vis others predicted mentalhealth. For each set of analyses, a full regression equation wasfitted for each of the six dimensions of psychological well-beingand CES–D. In each regression equation, T4 mental health assess-ment was the outcome variable. Predictor variables entered atStep 1 included T1 scores of the respective mental health assess-ment (to enable assessment of change across time) and T1 socialcomparisons or reflected appraisals (to control for premove levelof the respective measure). T1 background differences (age, yearsof education, marital status, subjective health ratings, home own-ership, and involuntariness of making the move) were entered atStep 2 as control variables. Hence, all four sets of analyses eval-uated the impact of temporally intervening improvements (ordeclines) in social comparisons or reflected appraisals on subse-

quent mental health changes, after the effect of premove back-ground differences were partialed out.

To examine the effect of early changes (T1–T2) in self-evaluations on mental health changes over the course of relocation(T1–T4), we added T2 social comparisons or reflected appraisals atStep 3 as the key predictor variable in two sets of analyses.1 Thevarious baseline measures entered at Steps 1 and 2 accounted forconsiderable amount of variance of all dimensions of well-being(for social comparisons, R2 � .58 to .69, p � .001; for reflectedappraisals, R2 � .59 to .69, p � .001) and CES–D (for bothself-evaluative measures, R2 � .37, p � .001). With regard to theresidualized variance, Table 3 revealed that T2 social comparisonssignificantly predicted improvements in all dimensions of well-being except purpose in life. On the other hand, T2 reflectedappraisals were associated with fewer dimensions of well-being,namely, only positive relations and environmental mastery. Fi-nally, neither self-evaluative measures in the early period of relo-cation were related to changes in depressive symptoms.

Table 4 shows findings from Step 3 of another two sets ofanalyses on the effect of late changes (T2–T3) in social compari-sons and reflected appraisals on the same outcomes.2 Here T2

social comparisons or reflected appraisals were entered at Step 1 topartial out the effect of the change in the respective measure fromshortly after the move to approximately 7–8 months later. Afterboth T1 and T2 social comparisons or reflected appraisals as wellas background differences were controlled at Steps 1 and 2, T3

1 In checking whether these analyses met the assumptions of multipleregression, evidence of heteroscedasticity was found in the equations forCES–D. To address this issue, we normalized T1 and T4 CES-D distribu-tions by taking the square root of the scale scores before using them inregression analyses. This procedure yielded homogeneous residual vari-ances over the range of predicted CES–D values.

2 Evidence of heteroscedasticity was again observed in regression equa-tions for CES–D. T1 and T4 CES–D were taken square root before beingused in regression analyses to resolve this issue.

Table 2Correlations Among Mental Health Variables at T1 and T4 (N � 266)

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

1. T1PR —2. T1AU .20 —3. T1EM .48 .35 —4. T1PG .36 .39 .40 —5. T1PL .50 .32 .65 .63 —6. T1SA .54 .36 .66 .40 .71 —7. T1CES–D �.31 �.16 �.49 �.18 �.37 �.42 —8. T4PR .80 .29 .53 .35 .51 .50 �.31 —9. T4AU .16 .78 .32 .33 .28 .32 �.12 .30 —

10. T4EM .46 .39 .73 .36 .52 .55 �.37 .63 .47 —11. T4PG .33 .40 .37 .80 .55 .39 �.08 .42 .44 .48 —12. T4PL .45 .35 .58 .56 .77 .63 �.31 .58 .40 .70 .70 —13. T4SA .48 .42 .61 .39 .59 .77 �.40 .62 .46 .75 .54 .77 —14. T4CES–D �.34 �.23 �.47 �.17 �.36 �.40 .50 �.35 �.14 �.54 �.17 �.44 �.50 —

Note. PR � Positive Relations with others, AU � Autonomy, EM � Environmental Mastery, PG � Personal Growth, PL � Purpose in Life, SA �Self-Acceptance, CES–D � Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression Scale. Correlations with an absolute value larger than .20 are significant atp � .001. Correlations with an absolute value larger than .16 are significant at p � .01. Correlations with an absolute value larger than .12 are significantat p � .05.


self-evaluative assessment was added at Step 3 as the key predictorvariable.

The various baseline measures entered at Steps 1 and 2 of theseanalyses accounted for considerable amount of variance of alldimensions of well-being (for both self-evaluative measures, R2 �.60 to .70, p � .001) and CES–D (for both self-evaluative mea-sures, R2 � .37, p � .001). Table 4 shows that T3 social compar-isons accounted for significant portions of residualized variance ofenvironmental mastery, purpose in life, self-acceptance, andCES–D. On the other hand, late reflected-appraisal changes wererelated to more aspects of mental health relative to its earlycounterpart. Specifically, T3 reflected appraisals significantly ex-plained residualized variance of all mental health outcomes exceptautonomy.

Together these four sets of analyses support our hypothesis thatincreased levels of social comparisons and reflected appraisalswere associated with improved mental health over the course ofrelocation. Early social comparisons predicted more dimensions ofwell-being than did early reflected appraisals. However, reflectedappraisals showed increased connections with various well-beingdimensions in the late period. Lastly, although well-being wasgenerally related to social comparisons and reflected appraisals in

both early and late periods of relocation, depressive symptomswere predicted by these measures only in the late period.

Regression Analyses: Evidence for Reverse CausalDirectionality

To address the possibility that changes in mental health alsoinfluenced self-evaluative processes, we conducted four sets ofhierarchical regressions. These analyses were similar to those inthe previous section except that the predictor and outcome vari-ables were reversed, that is, here the mental health measures werepredictors, whereas the self-evaluative measures were the criterionvariables. These analyses used the same control variables.

Table 5 shows the effect of early changes (T1–T2) in eachmeasure of mental health on changes in social comparisons andreflected appraisals over the course of relocation (T1–T4). Similarresults were observed for the two self-evaluative measures. Spe-cifically, early gains in environmental mastery and self-acceptancewere strongly predictive of increases in social comparisons andreflected appraisals. Early changes in all other mental health vari-ables except personal growth showed relatively weaker but still

Table 3Regression Analyses: Effect of T1 to T2 Changes in Social Comparisons and ReflectedAppraisals on T1 to T4 Changes in Psychological Well-Being and Depression (N � 266)

Outcome variable

Social comparisons Reflected appraisals

b � �R2 b � �R2

Positive Relations .094 .158 .010** .158 .245 .019***Autonomy .103 .160 .010** .079 .112 .004†Environmental Mastery .152 .227 .020*** .161 .224 .016***Personal Growth .130 .187 .013*** .044 .059 .001Purpose in Life .062 .084 .003 .038 .047 .001Self-Acceptance .107 .178 .012** .049 .075 .002CES–Da �.009 �.084 .003 �.008 �.069 .002

Note. Only results at Step 3 are shown.a T1 and T4 Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression scale (CES–D) scores were converted to squareroot values before being used in the regression equations.† p � .10. ** p � .01. *** p � .001.

Table 4Regression Analyses: Effect of T2 to T3 Changes in Social Comparisons and ReflectedAppraisals on T1 to T4 Changes in Psychological Well-Being and Depression (N � 266)

Outcome variable


b � �R2 b � �R2

Positive Relations .037 .061 .001 .091 .140 .005*Autonomy �.015 �.023 �.001 �.017 �.024 �.001Environmental Mastery .192 .287 .019*** .238 .326 .025***Personal Growth .042 .060 .001 .161 .212 .011**Purpose in Life .166 .213 .011** .293 .363 .030***Self-Acceptance .127 .211 .010** .242 .367 .032***CES–Da �.035 �.330 .025*** �.037 �.321 .024**

Note. Only results at Step 3 are shown.a T1 and T4 Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression scale (CES–D) scores were taken square rootbefore being used in the regression equations.* p � .05. ** p � .01. *** p � .001.


significant associations with changes in social comparisons andreflected appraisals.

Comparing these results to those on Table 3, it appears thatsocial comparisons and well-being are both reciprocally or unidi-rectionally related, depending on the well-being dimension underconsideration. In particular, strong reciprocal relationships werefound for social comparisons with positive relations, environmen-tal mastery, and self-acceptance. However, social comparisonsstrongly predicted personal growth, but not the reverse, suggestingsocial-comparison changes as an antecedent to, rather than a con-sequence of, personal-growth changes. Also, purpose in life wasfairly predictive of social comparisons, but not the reverse, sug-gesting social-comparison changes as a consequence of changes inlife purpose.

Different patterns of causality characterized reflected appraisals.Specifically, while reflected appraisals and environmental masteryshowed strong reciprocal relationship, stronger evidence wasfound for reflected appraisals predicting positive relations than thereverse. Finally, reflected appraisals were significantly predictedby all other mental health variables except personal growth, but notthe reverse, implying reflected-appraisal change as a consequenceof changes in these particular aspects of mental health.

Table 6 shows the effect of late changes (T2–T3) in eachmeasure of mental health on changes in social comparisons andreflected appraisals over the course of relocation (T1–T4). Again,

similar results were found for both self-evaluative measures.Changes in all mental health variables except autonomy predictedchanges in social comparisons and reflected appraisals, with thestrongest evidence found for environmental mastery.

Comparing these results to those on Table 4, the causal directionfor all significant relationships between each of the self-evaluativemeasures and mental health variables appears to go both ways withtwo exceptions. First, personal growth was somewhat predictive ofsocial comparisons, but not the reverse, indicating that social-comparison changes followed personal-growth changes. Second,the evidence for reflected appraisals predicting self-acceptancewas considerably stronger than that for the reverse directionality,indicating that reflected-appraisal changes likely preceded ratherthan followed self-acceptance changes.

Discussion

This study examined the connection between self-enhancingevaluations and psychological health in a later life transition,community relocation. Our guiding conceptual framework wasthat self-enhancing social comparisons and reflected appraisalswould be associated with gains in psychological well-being anddeclines in depressive symptoms. Generally, the findings revealedthat older women who showed increased levels of social compar-isons and reflected appraisals evidenced considerable gains in

Table 5Regression Analyses: Effect of T1 to T2 Changes in Psychological Well-Being and Depression onT1 to T4 Changes in Social Comparisons and Reflected Appraisals (N � 266)

Predictor variable


b � �R2 b � �R2

Positive Relations .255 .151 .009** .192 .120 .006*Autonomy .144 .099 .004† .167 .121 .006*Environmental Mastery .340 .232 .022*** .330 .237 .023***Personal Growth .128 .088 .003 .118 .085 .003Purpose in Life .241 .175 .011** .238 .181 .011**Self-Acceptance .430 .261 .023*** .347 .221 .016***CES–D �.158 �.082 .005† �.154 �.084 .005*

Note. Only results at Step 3 are shown. CES–D � Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression scale.† p � .10. * p � .05. ** p � .01. *** p � .001.

Table 6Regression Analyses: Effect of T2 to T3 Changes in Psychological Well-Being and Depression onT1 to T4 Changes in Social Comparisons and Reflected Appraisals (N � 266)

Predictor variable


b � �R2 b � �R2

Positive Relations .202 .123 .004† .249 .159 .007*Autonomy �.089 �.061 .001 �.057 �.041 .001Environmental Mastery .316 .218 .014*** .239 .173 .009**Personal Growth .248 .170 .008* .292 .210 .012**Purpose in Life .266 .194 .010** .218 .168 .007**Self-Acceptance .244 .149 .007* .179 .115 .004†CES–D �.211 �.111 .007* �.212 �.117 .008**

Note. Only results at Step 3 are shown. CES–D � Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression scale.† p � .10. * p � .05. ** p � .01. *** p � .001.


multiple dimensions of psychological well-being as well as reduc-tions of depression symptoms over the course of relocation. Theseeffects were found after controlling for age, education, maritalstatus, home ownership, subjective health ratings, involuntarinessof making the move, and premove levels of all psychologicalvariables.

While self-enhancement during this transition showed generallystrong connections to subsequent psychological changes, interest-ing patterns emerged regarding the differential actions of socialcomparisons and reflected appraisals in early (T1–T2) versus late(T2–T3) periods of the transition. Specifically, social comparisonsin both periods were linked to an encompassing variety of aspectsof psychological adaptation, suggesting that comparison processeswere active throughout the transition and had pervasive connec-tions to mental health. Underscoring different evaluative pro-cesses, reflected appraisals were associated with gains in onlylimited aspects of mental health in the early period, with their moreencompassing connections to mental health emerging later. To theextent that reflected appraisals require knowing other people andletting other people know oneself, this evaluative mechanism maybe used less frequently in the initial period of the move. It wasfurther into relocation (i.e., 1 month to 8 months after move) whenperception of feedback from others became more consequential formost aspects of mental health.

Moving beyond our guiding conceptual framework, we alsoexamined the possibility that changes in mental health mightpredict changes in self-evaluations. In fact, other studies havesuggested that mental health could be legitimately construed as anantecedent to emotional reactions to relocation (Smider et al.,1996). Here, a comparison of alternative regression models sug-gested that for select aspects of mental health, reciprocal causaldirectionality indeed appeared to be operative. In particular, re-gardless of the temporal period, strong evidence of reciprocalinfluence was observed for social comparisons with environmentalmastery and self-acceptance, suggesting that while higher levels ofself-enhancing social comparisons contributed to increased mas-tery of environmental challenges and increased self-acceptance,these aspects of psychological wellness also led to higher levels ofself-enhancement via comparison processes. Likewise, regardlessof the temporal period, strong evidence of reciprocal influence wasfound for reflected appraisals and environmental mastery, indicat-ing that while increased self-enhancing reflected appraisals con-tributed to gains in environmental mastery, such gains in turn ledto perception of more positive social feedback. Overall, the appar-ent reciprocal influence between environmental mastery and bothevaluative mechanisms highlighted the fact that relocation is es-sentially a transition that requires adapting to and managingchanges in a new living environment. It appears that positiveself-construals via both evaluative mechanisms could help onenegotiate the many challenges associated with this transition (e.g.,creating new daily routines; using resources available in the newhome), whereas being able to manage the new environment could,in turn, lead to positive comparisons with others and perception ofpositive social feedback about oneself.

The present study provides two contributions to the literature ofself-enhancement. First, given that much prior work in self-enhancing mechanisms has focused on social comparisons (Buunk& Gibbons, 1997; Suls & Wills, 1991), this study is unique inhighlighting reflected appraisals as an additional avenue through

which individuals may self-enhance when evaluating themselvesvis-a-vis others. In fact, despite the strong correlations betweensocial comparisons and reflected appraisals, the two mechanismsshowed differential connections to mental health. Relative to socialcomparisons, reflected appraisals operated in a different temporalframework in that its ability to predict most aspects of mentalhealth did not emerge until later in the relocation transition. Sec-ond, by addressing the possibility of reverse causality, this studygoes beyond the often-assumed model of self-enhancing processesinfluencing mental health (Ahrens & Alloy, 1997; Taylor &Brown, 1988) to assess evidence for the reverse causal direction.The findings point to environmental mastery as a key dimension ofmental health that reciprocally influenced self-enhancement in thecontext of community relocation.

A limitation of the present study pertains to potential respondentbias (Schmutte & Ryff, 1997). All data on social comparisons,reflected appraisals, and mental health came from the same re-spondents, some of whom may respond to questionnaire itemsbased on a generally positive or negative bias rather than itemcontent, thereby contributing to exaggerated associations amongthe study variables. In addition, respondents’ self-report could bediscrepant from objective reality. Specific to self-evaluations, thedata did not permit determination of whether participants’ com-parisons and reflected appraisals reflect illusory or accurate self-assessment. For instance, a woman’s reported high level of socialcomparisons and reflected appraisals may have resulted from in-flated or positively distorted perceptions of herself and others, oraccurate, reality-based perceptions. To clarify the influence ofthese possibilities, an independent measure of evaluative accuracyis needed. This might be tapped by asking participants to specifytheir comparison targets, our sources of reflected appraisals, andthen assess the extent to which the respondents’ self-evaluationsare consistent with independent evaluations from these other ob-servers. Given the possibility that heightened self-enhancementmay reflect illusory understanding of the self and the world, moreobjective data on social comparisons (how well the respondentactually fares relative to comparison targets) and reflected apprais-als (how well specific others actually perceive the respondent)would help differentiate idealized versus reality-based self-evaluations and how they impact mental health (Asendorpf &Ostendorf, 1998; Colvin & Block, 1994; Colvin, Block, & Funder,1995; Taylor & Brown, 1988). With respect to mental health,professional or others’ evaluations of respondents’ psychologicalfunctioning could help validate self-report assessment and contrib-ute to an integrative mental health profile (Ryff et al., 2001).

We underscore that the absence of illness is not equal to thepresence of wellness (Ryff & Singer, 1998a). Therefore, in linkingself-enhancement to mental health, our focus is jointly on better-ment of positive psychological functioning as well as mitigation ofmental health problems. In fact, positive and negative aspects ofmental health showed both unique and shared patterns of connec-tions with self-enhancement. For instance, whereas positive psy-chological functioning was generally predicted by early self-evaluations, depressive symptoms were not. Thus, by assessingmental health in terms of both gains in psychological well-beingand relief of depressive symptoms, the present study sought toclarify the role of a broad array of mental health dimensions inlater life community relocation.


To conclude, this study highlighted the roles of self-enhancingsocial comparisons and reflected appraisals as well as mentalhealth in later life transitions. The findings suggested that self-enhancing evaluations appear not only to influence, but are influ-enced by good mental health. Such intricate connections observedfor self-enhancing evaluations and mental health underscored thestrength of multiwave longitudinal design in evaluating reciprocalcausal relationships in naturally occurring life transitions.

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Received August 29, 2000Revision received February 28, 2002

Accepted April 24, 2002 �


The Role of Self-Enhancing Evaluations in a Successful Life Transition

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