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Cross-Cultural Research
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Self-Enhancement and Self-Stability Predict School Achievement at the National Level

Michael Minkov

Sofia University, Saint Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria, International University College, Sofia, Bulgaria

This article uses as a starting point S. Heine's hypothesis that higher self-enhancement correlates with self-stability and the combination of the two may predict lower interest in some types of self-improvement. This hypothesis is tested at the ecological level. World Values Survey items are used to demonstrate that there exists a bipolar cultural dimension with two main strongly correlated facets. One of them captures some aspects of self-enhancement versus selfeffacement, whereas the other taps self-stability and self-consistency versus self-flexibility. The dimension is statistically and conceptually very close to the previously reported Confucian Dynamism or Long-Term Orientation. It predicts national educational achievement as measured by Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and national illiteracy rates, and the effect is strong even after controlling for gross domestic product (GDP) per person.

Key Words: self-enhancement • self-stability • self-consistency • self-improvement • pride • religiousness • competition • educational achievement • monumentalism

This version was published on May 1, 2008

Cross-Cultural Research, Vol. 42, No. 2, 172-196 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1069397107312956
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