The Effect of Self-Transcendence and Self-Enhancement on the Well-Being of Middle-aged Adults

ABSTRACT

This research aims to compare the effects of self-transcendence and self-enhancement on the well-being of316 middle-aged adults aged 45 to 65. The Self-Transcendence Scale(ASTI), Unconditional Self-Acceptancequestionnaire, Concise Measures of Subjective Well-being(COMOSWB), and Ryff’s Scale of PsychologicalWell-Being were administered in the study. The results are as follows. First, the hierarchical regressionanalysis shows that self-transcendence is positively related to well-being even after controlling forself-acceptance. Second, after controlling for sociodemographic variables, the hierarchical regression analysisreveals that self-transcendence and self-enhancement are both associated with greater subjective well-beingand psychological well-being. In order to draw a comparison between two psychological variables on eachof the well-being indicators, we divided the participants into the high self-transcendence, lowself-enhancement group and the low self-transcendence, high self-enhancement group for an independentt-test. The results show that the high self-transcendence, low self-enhancement group is relatively higher inthe personal aspect of life satisfaction and positive feelings, whereas the low self-transcendence, highself-enhancement group is higher in positive relationship. The findings reveal that self-transcendencecontributes to additional happiness beyond self-acceptance. Moreover, self-transcendence andself-enhancement are both promoting variables that may enhance different aspects of happiness.