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Regulatory Fit in Self-Enhancement and Self-Protection: Implications for Life Satisfaction in the West and the East

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Abstract

This online study examined whether regulatory focus and culture moderate the links between self-enhancement/self-protection and life satisfaction. The study assessed promotion and prevention foci, manipulated self-enhancement or self-protection, and measured self-reported life satisfaction in both Western participants (127 English-speaking individuals; 73 female, 50 male, 4 unspecified; M age = 29.01, SD age = 10.26) and Chinese participants (141 Zhanjiang Normal University members; 88 females, 53 males; M age = 22.18, SD age = 3.14). Promotion-focused individuals experienced higher life satisfaction when engaging in self-enhancement strivings, whereas prevention-focused individuals experienced equal levels of life satisfaction when engaging in self-protection strivings, in both Western and Chinese participants. Furthermore, Western participants manifested higher levels of life satisfaction when employing self-enhancement strivings independently of regulatory focus. On the other hand, Chinese participants experienced equivalent levels of life satisfaction when engaging in self-enhancement and self-protection strivings. The findings establish regulatory focus and culture as independent moderators of the association between self-enhancement/self-protection and life satisfaction.

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Notes

  1. We replicated the present results using promotion and prevention subscales directly. We conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses to examine the main and interactive effects of regulatory focus, condition (1 = self-enhancement, 0 = self-protection), and culture (1 = Chinese sample, 0 = Western sample) on life satisfaction. We entered regulatory focus, condition, and culture in the first step, double interactions (i.e., Promotion Focus × Condition, Prevention Focus × Condition, Promotion Focus × Culture, Prevention Focus × Culture, and Condition × Culture) in the second step, and, finally, triple interactions (i.e., Promotion Focus × Condition × Culture, and Prevention Focus × Condition × Culture) in the third step. All the effects that we reported in the ANOVA remained significant.

  2. We aimed to replicate the present results using the Composite Regulatory Focus Scale suggested by Haws et al. (2010) with a distinct sample (N = 247). However, the promotion (α = .61) and prevention (α = .53) subscales had low reliability coefficients, and item deletion could not bring the subscales to acceptable internal consistency levels.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, QC, H3A 0G4, Canada

    Marc-André K. Lafrenière

  2. Center for Research on Self and Identity, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Constantine Sedikides

  3. Department of Psychology, Zhanjiang Normal University, Zhanjiang, China

    Xuejun Lei

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  1. Marc-André K. Lafrenière
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  2. Constantine Sedikides
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  3. Xuejun Lei
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Correspondence to Marc-André K. Lafrenière.

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Lafrenière, MA.K., Sedikides, C. & Lei, X. Regulatory Fit in Self-Enhancement and Self-Protection: Implications for Life Satisfaction in the West and the East. J Happiness Stud 17, 1111–1123 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-015-9634-8

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