Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the rationale and background of the study, conceptual
framework, theoretical framework, the research paradigm, statement of the problem, the
significance of the study, the scope and deliminations of the study and definition of terms.

Rationale and the background of the study

Going to school also comes with a great responsibility to learn or acquire knowledge
specially with the degree youve chose. Acquiring all the knowledge to succeed in your
studies is essential. Different schools here in Dagupan city offer enhancement classes during
summer, particularly here in Lyceum Northwestern University, College of Business Education,
so that there is an assurance that all the topics in every major subjects are tacled. The
researcher conducted a study to know the effects of enhancement classes as to academic
and mind set of every students that are enrolled in enhancement classes.
Class Enhancement is the first of several skills you have in the Stats section that
provide a few unique properties to your levelling pace. Through this students, specifically
accountancy students of Lyceum-Northwestern University, would be able to improve or
increase the quality of their learning, the value of assurance and extent of what they know.

Theoretical Framework
Enhancement in classes is an increase or improvement of certain subjects or topics
covered in class boundaries and education. Manipulations used in this capacity include
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providing low versus high performance feedback, furnishing negative versus positive
personality feedback, reminding people of their mortality versus a different negative stimulus,
supplying objective data to indicate that peoples behaviours or characteristics are either
worse versus better than others, conveying social criticism versus praise, or introducing
superior versus inferior comparison others. (Mark Alicke and Constantine Sedikides, Selfenhancement and self-protection: What they are and what they do, 2009)

Self-knowledge is fundamental for developing a sense of the self. Regardless of the

accuracy of this self-knowledge, it influences one's perceptions of the self, as well as one's
interactions with others. One way of learning about the self is through the evaluations and
feedback that one receives from others. Self-enhancement theory is based on various
personality theories and suggests that people have a basic drive to perceive the self positively
and receive positive evaluations from others. One's desire for positive feedback increases if
positive evaluations are not received. This theory emphasizes self-enhancement as a basic
motive for gathering self-knowledge. The following sections describe self-enhancement
theory, provide examples of competing hypotheses for self-evaluation, and present research
about the role of enhancement in mental health in different cultures. The idea that people
want

to

feel

good

about

themselves

is

not

unique

or

unusual

concept. (http://knowledge.sagepub.com/)

Self-enhancement is a type of motivation that works to make people feel good about
themselves and to maintain self-esteem (Constantine Sedikides and Michael Strube, "The
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Multiply Motivated Self", 1995). This motive becomes especially prominent in situations of
threat, failure or blows to one's self-esteem. Self-enhancement involves a preference for
positive over negative self-views. (Constantine Sedikides and Aiden Gregg, "SelfEnhancement: Food for Thought", 2008)

It is one of the four self-evaluation motives:, along with self-assessment (the drive for
an accurate self-concept), self-verification (the drive for a self-concept congruent with one's
identity) and self-improvement (the act of bettering one's self-concept). Self-evaluation
motives drive the process of self-regulation, that is, how people control and direct their own
actions. There are a variety of strategies that people can use to enhance their sense of
personal worth. For example, they can downplay skills that they lack or they can criticize
others to seem better by comparison. These strategies are successful, in that people tend to
think of themselves as having more positive qualities and fewer negative qualities than others.
People who already have high esteem enhance their self-concept directly, by processing new
information in a biased way. People with low self-esteem use more indirect strategies, for
example by avoiding situations in which their negative qualities will be noticeable. There are
controversies over whether or not self-enhancement is beneficial to the individual, and over
whether self-enhancement is culturally universal or specific to Western individualism.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enhancement). In comparison to our research, the theories
which support the study was given as to self-enhancement of an individual

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1. Profile of the Respondents

1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4

Age
Gender
College Level Attainment
Civil Status

2. Profile of Subjects
Covered

Descriptive
Research
Method in
Collecting

Determinatio
n of
Favored
Effects

The Effects of Enhancement Classes to Accountancy Students in

2.1 Basic Accounting
2.2 Advance Accounting
And
1,2,3
of
2.3 Intermediate Accounting Selected Universities in Dagupan City
Interpreting
1,2,3
Enhancemen
2.4 Taxation
INPUT
PROCESS
OUTPUT
Data
2.5 Law
t Classes
2.6 Theory of Accounts
2.7 Auditing

to
Accountancy
Students

3. Effects of Enhancement
Classes to Accountancy
Students
3.1 Revival of the Subject
3.2 Furnishing of Information
about the subject
3.3 Updates in certain
accounting information
3.4 Gaining new data that is
needed to be accomplish the

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on Selected
Universities
in Dagupan
City

Figure 1
Research Paradigm

As shown in Figure 1, the first box contains the personal profile of the respondents,
alson included with their respective ages, gender, college level attainment, and civil statuses.
It also includes the profile of the subjects covered, Basic Accounting; Advance Accounting 1, 2
& 3; Intermediate Accounting 1, 2, & 3; Taxation; Law; Theory of Account and Auditing. The
other half contains the effects of enhancement classes to Accountancy Students in terms of
revival of the subject, furnishing of information about the subject, updates in certain
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accounting information, gaining new data that is needed to accomplish the subject,
completion of topics that were not discussed. The researchers wanted to know what are the
most encountered effects of enhancements classes to specifically accountancy students.
These were used by the researchers to come up with the results in this study and gather the
desired information to be used.
The outcome of the study is beneficial to understand and aid knowledge of what really
are the favored effects of enhancement classes to accountancy students that would enable
them to get in to the core of their course.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The research intented the effects of enhancement classes to accountancy students of
Lyceum-Northwestern University Dagupan City. Specifically, this study aimed to answer the
following questions:
1. What is the Respondents Profile in terms of:
1.1 Age;
1.2 Gender;
1.3 College Level Attainment; and
1.4 Civil Status?
2. What are the Subjects Covered in Enhancement Classes:
2.1 Basic Accounting;
2.2 Advance Accounting 1,2,3;
2.3 Intermediate Accounting 1,2,3;
2.4 Taxation;
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2.5 Law;
2.6 Theory of Accounts; and
2.7 Auditing?
3. What are the Effects of Enhancement Classes to Accountancy Students of LyceumNorthwestern University:
3.1 Revival of the Subject;
3.2 Furnishing of Information about the subject;
3.3 Updates in certain accounting information;
3.4 Gaining new data that is needed to be accomplish the subject; and
3.5 Completion of topics that were not discussed?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study will be a significant endeavor in determining the effects of enhancement
classes on accountancy students in Dagupan City benifiting the following:
The

Accountancy Students: As future enthusiasts, this study will be a great help in

providing them additional knowledge of the study for good accounting system to fulfill their
respective objectives.
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The Resident Professors: Through this research, the identification of the given and favored
effects of enhancement classes will enable them to meet their objectives to strive, to profess
and instruct.
The Readers: Awareness in the field of the topic makes the readers strategize an efficient
and effective cause that would enable them to understand the effect of enhancement classes
within collegiate boundaries.
The Researchers: It will also serve as a future reference for researchers for they will be
provided with necessary information regarding the effects of enhancement classes.
Comprehensive research made them discipline to answer the queries regarding their thesis or
research.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study centralized on determining the effects of enhancement classes to
accountancy students of Lyceum-Northwestern University in Dagupan City. The researchers
set reasonable objectives and choices to minimize population size. First specification was to
designate whether the various respondents are given a chance to take up enhancements
classes. Another specification is to put up options on field of subjects covered for the
respondents that would readily be an accuarate source of reliability. The effects optimized for
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the respondents convinience is another targeted specification. Having specific items to be

surveyed will help the researchers to build a concrete formulation of their study. Thus, using
Slovins formula, it is delimited to a certain number of accountancy students in selected
universities in Dagupan City. Formulation of questionnares have commenced.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
To better be familiar with the usage of words in this research study and their bearing,
here are the operational meanings of the word:
Academic- This conforms to set rules, standards, conventional and acquired by formal
education, especially at a college or university.

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Accountancy Students- These were the main respondents of the research study, students
to be referred to the profession or duties of an accountant. They are deemed students of the
selected universities in the study.
Accounting- Generally, this is where subjects were given in the study. This refers to the
measurement, processing and communication of financial information about economic
entities. The art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in
terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of financial character, and
interpreting the results thereof. (AICPA)
Accounting information- This helps users to make better financial decisions. Users of
financial information may be both internal and external to the organization. Purposively used
as one part of the fields of effects that was said to be updated and should be given implication
.
Enthusiasts- Operationally, deployed in this study as people who are highly interested in a
particular activity or subject.

Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter encompasses a brief examination of information researched by the
proponents. It gives a traditional presentation of previously written materials. This presents a
review of literature that provided the researchers with knowledge relevant to the present

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study. It included several studies made by both foreign and local authors that may be
beneficial to the current investigation.
Foreign and Local Related Literature
People pursue pleasurable experiences and avoid unpleasant ones. This tenet comes
in many flavours, including the law of effect, unconditioned reinforcement, the pleasure
principle, biological readiness, minimization-mobilization, and minmax decision strategies.
Whichever terminology one prefers, it is psychologys most fundamental and immutable
behavioural law that people seek to maximize their positive experiences and minimize their
negative ones.
This hedonism principle lies at the heart of motivational psychology. Throughout its
history, culminating in the behavioural psychology that ruled the roost in the 1950s,
psychologists have theorized about the conditions that instigate, maintain and energize
behaviour. Motivational constructs are intervening variables (Reeve, 1997) designed to
account for the fact that, with the same stimulus conditions, even animals low on the
(increasingly controversial) phylogenetic scale can behave differently. The issue of response
variability in the face of identical environmental conditions reaches its apex in accounting for
the behaviour of humans, which is driven by diverse motives such as the needs for
achievement (Atkinson & Raynor, 1974), social approval (Marlowe & Crowne, 1961), and
stimulation (Sales, 1971).
The focus of this article is on a particular brand of motivated behaviour, namely, the
tendency for people to exaggerate their virtues and to minimize their shortcomings, as well as
to construe or remember events in a way that places their attributes in the most favourable
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light that is credible to oneself and others (Alicke & Govorun, 2005; Sedikides & Gregg, 2003,
2008). We refer to these motives as self-enhancement and self-protection. Although many
non-motivational factors contribute to the tendency to view oneself more positively, or less
negatively, than objective circumstances warrant, we concentrate on the purposive strategies
that people pursue to explain or remember their decisions, actions, and characteristics in a
way that maintains or advances their desire self-views.
Despite the ubiquity of the self-enhancement and self-protection constructs, these
terms have been treated loosely in the literature. Although demonstrations of selfenhancement and self-protection abound, it is unclear what the various behaviours and
judgements that reflect these motives have in common, what they aim to accomplish, how
and when they are deployed, and how they influence identity, psychological or physical
health, as well as social relations. In this article, we define self-enhancement and selfprotection as interests that people have in advancing one or more self-components or
defending themselves against negative self-views. We explore the ways in which people
pursue self-enhancement and self-protection, discuss the role of these motivational
constructs in scientific explanations, argue for their importance, and consider their scope and
functionality. At various points, we weigh in on the perennial cognition-motivation debate.
We argue that, despite the practical difficulties that attend this distinction and notwithstanding
some of the unfortunate ways in which it has been construed, the prevalence and importance
of motivational phenomena makes it impossible and imprudent to legislate the distinction out
of existence and to underestimate the role of self-enhancement and self-protection.
We begin with a short introduction to the emergence of self-enhancement and selfprotection themes in social psychology. We then describe self-enhancement and selfPage
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protection as instrumental in maintaining, promoting, or safeguarding pivotal interests, and

consider the relation between these interests and the ways in which they are regulated. We
next discuss the relation between self-enhancement and self-protection, and examine their
standing as scientific constructs. We conclude by considering the relevance of selfenhancement and self-protection to psychological theories.
The most compelling way to support empirically self-enhancement/self-protection
explanations is to introduce manipulations that potentially affect a self-aspect and then
assess their consequences on self- or social-evaluation. Manipulations used in this capacity
include providing low versus high performance feedback, furnishing negative versus positive
personality feedback, reminding people of their mortality versus a different negative stimulus
(e.g., dental pain), supplying objective data to indicate that peoples behaviours or
characteristics are either worse versus better than others, conveying social criticism versus
praise, or introducing superior versus inferior comparison others (Alicke et al., 1997;
Campbell & Sedikides, 1999; Pyszczynski et al., 2004; Sedikides & Gregg, 2003
A third strategy refers to directing the manipulation at self-aspects that are either high or low
in personal relevance (i.e., central vs. peripheral). Motivational explanations are supported when
the manipulation influences central but not peripheral self-aspects.
For example, negative social/performance feedback is remembered more poorly when it
pertains to central self-aspects (e.g., untrustworthy, unkind) rather than peripheral self-aspects
(e.g., unpredictable, complaining; Green et al., 2008; Sedikides & Green, 2000, 2004). So,
feedback of the form An employer would not rely on you to have an important project completed
by the deadline and You would purposely hurt someone to benefit yourself is remembered
poorly compared to feedback of the form People cannot tell whether you are joking and You
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would get irritated and comment loudly if the weather was bad.
A fourth way to support self-enhancement/self-protection explanations is to demonstrate
differences between groups of people whose personal characteristics suggest that they should
have varying motivations for self-enhancement or protection. The most prominent studies of this
type involve differences between people who score relatively high or low on global self-esteem
measures. Research has shown, for example, that low self-esteem people self-handicap in order
to reduce the implications of failure, whereas high self-esteem people self-handicap in order to
enhance the implications of success (Tice, 1991). In addition, compared to their high self-esteem
counterparts, low self-esteem people are less prone to define their traits self-servingly
(Beauregard & Dunning, 2001) and less likely to use their own attributes as a basis for evaluating
others (Dunning & Beauregard, 2000).
Various forms of logic provide a fifth means of supporting self-enhancement/self-protection
interpretations. For example, if workers on a collaborative project each claim to do more than their
share, then it is safe to assume that one of them has miscalculated, although legwork would still be
required to tie this misperception to self-enhancement or self-protection motives (Ross & Sicoly,
1979). The better-than-average effect demonstrates similar logic in that investigators can safely
assume that, for a given trait, 90% of a population is not really in the top 10% of that population,
barring a severely skewed distribution.
Finally, the most direct way to demonstrate a self-enhancement or self-protection bias is to
refer a persons actions or attributions to an objective standard. A recent study illustrates this tack
(Preuss & Alicke, 2008). In one experiment, actors were led to believe that they were making dating
videotapes that would be viewed and evaluated by their peers. On these tapes, they described their
goals and aspirations, hobbies, and attitudes. After making the videotape, actors watched the tapes
that six others had made. Actors then ranked themselves and the six other persons both in terms of
their overall dating attractiveness and on a series of personality characteristics. At the same time,
observers (i.e., people who did not make any video presentations) watched and ranked the same
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block of seven presentations. Actors and observers also predicted where they thought the actor
would be ranked among the six other persons by a group of opposite-sex peers who viewed the
presentations (metaperceptions). To assess accuracy, actors self-rankings and metaperceptions
were compared to the ranks given to them by observers. The results were clear: Participants were
consistently overly-optimistic not only in their self- rankings, but also in their projections of how they
would be viewed by others. In general, actors overestimated their dating popularity by about one full
rank both in terms of their self rankings and their metaperceptions (i.e., their estimate of the rank that
others would give them).
Chapter 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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