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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 11, 1572-1586 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167207305539
© 2007 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

To Prove or to Improve? Which Motive Distorts Perceptions of Personality Controllability?

Amani El-Alayli

Eastern Washington University, amani{at}ewu.edu

Shira Gabriel

State University of New York at Buffalo

This research extends past work on positive illusions and self-goals by examining motivated perceptions of how much control people think they have over changing their personality traits. A self-validation motivation should cause individuals to view their personality weaknesses as uncontrollable (to avoid blame for having them) and their personality strengths as controllable (to take credit for having them). A self-growth motivation should cause individuals to view their weaknesses as controllable (to view them as improvable) and their strengths as uncontrollable (to view them as unchanging). Studies 1 and 2 find evidence for self-validation in perceptions of trait controllability. Study 3 finds this pattern to be stronger for validation-seeking individuals but weaker for growth-seeking individuals. Studies 3 and 4 find that being primed with one's successful self-improvements or one's future self can attenuate the self-validation. The potential implications of distorted perceptions of trait controllability for both well-being and self-change are discussed.

Key Words: self-enhancement • controllability • malleability • improvement • validation


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