Should you bother ‘being yourself’ at
work? Relationships between social
context, authenticity and wellbeing
Oliver C. Robinson (University of Greenwich)
Frederick G. Lopez (University of Houston)
Katherine Ramos (University of Houston)
Defining authenticity
• THE AUTHENTIC PERSONALITY: An endogenous
trait or disposition to express one’s honestly held
feelings and thoughts
– Predicts self-esteem, life satisfaction, lower
depression, happiness (Wood et al., 2008)
• AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS: Social interactions
that facilitate intimate disclosure, while avoiding
impression management and deceit
– Relates to positive quality of relationships (Lopez &
Rice, 2006)
2
Method
Participants
• 553 participants
– 240 students (Mage = 23) from the University of
Houston (USA)
– 313 professionals (Mage = 32) from London
• Procedure
– Questionnaire delivered using an online survey
tool.
4
Authenticity Measures
• Authenticity Scale (Wood et al., 2008)– Trait
Authenticity – 12 items
– 3 subscales: Self-Alienation, External influence and
authentic living
– Example items; “I think it is better to be yourself, than to
be popular.”, “I am true to myself in most situations”
• Authenticity in Relationships Scale – Multiple
Contexts (Robinson, Lopez & Ramos, n.d.)
– Assesses authentic self-expression in 4 contexts: with
partner, parents, friends and work colleagues
– Example items: “I disclose my deepest feelings to...”, “I
am totally myself when I am with... “, “By sometimes
providing false information about myself, I try to
impress... “
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Wellbeing Measures
• Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale
(Tennant et al., 2007) - 14 items
– Example items: Over the last 2 weeks….“I’ve been
feeling cheerful”, “I’ve been feeling useful”, “I’ve
been feeling relaxed”
• Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons,
Larsen, & Griffen, 1985) – 5 items
– Example items “In most ways my life is close to
ideal”, “If I could live my life over, I would change
almost nothing.”
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Findings
Graded cross-context authenticity means
UK
(Scoring
range: min 1,
max 9 )
USA
Partner Friends Parents Work
Male
Partner Friends Parents Work
Female
Partner Friends Parents Work
Partner Friends Parents Work
Under 25
25 and
over
8
Partner Friends Parents Work
Partner Friends Parents Work
Example item: Do you provide false
information to try and impress …
People at work?
• Very much: 9%
• Somewhat: 21%
• Not very much: 36%
• Not at all: 34%
your friends?
• Very much: 7%
• Somewhat: 16%
• Not very much: 38%
• Not at all: 39%
Your partner?
• Very much: 4%
• Somewhat: 10%
• Not very much: 36%
• Not at all: 50%
Your parents?
• Very much: 2%
• Somewhat: 12%
• Not very much: 35%
• Not at all: 51%
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Correlations between trait authenticity
and context-specific authenticity
Trait
authenticity:
total
Trait
authenticity
subscale:
Authentic living
Trait
authenticity
subscale:
Self-alienation
Trait
authenticity
subscale:
External
influence
Authenticity
with partner
.40***
.40***
-.30***
-.16**
Authenticity
with friends
.30**
.30**
-.22***
.11**
Authenticity
with parents
.27**
.23**
-.23***
.13**
Authenticity
with work
colleagues
.02
.05
.07
-.06
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Correlations with wellbeing and life
satisfaction
Wellbeing
Life
Satisfaction
Trait Authenticity
Trait authenticity total
.48**
.45**
Contextual
Authenticity
Authenticity with partner
.33**
.32**
Authenticity with parents
.26**
.28**
Authenticity with friends
.24**
.16**
Authenticity at work
.15*
.14*
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Regression models
Trait Authenticity and
4 Contextual Authenticity Scores as IVs
DV: Life Satisfaction
DV: Wellbeing
Model R squared: .22
Model Adjusted R squared: .21
Model R squared: .29
Model Adjusted R squared: .28
• Significant predictors:
– Trait authenticity, β=.32 ***
– Authenticity with partner,
β=.15 **
– Authenticity with parents,
β=.14 **
• Significant predictors:
– Trait authenticity, β=.42***
– Authenticity with partner,
β=.11*
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Regression models
4 Contextual Authenticity Scores as IVs
(no trait authenticity)
DV: Life Satisfaction
DV: Wellbeing
Model R squared: .13
Model Adjusted R squared: .12
Model R squared: .15
Model Adjusted R squared: .14
• Significant predictors:
– Authenticity with partner,
β=.24 **
– Authenticity with parents,
β=.19 **
• Significant predictors:
– Authenticity with partner,
β=.24**
– Authenticity with parents,
β=.13**
– Authenticity with friends,
β=.10**
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Discussion
Key findings
• Authenticity is robustly related to social context
and suggests that the extent of authentic selfexpression is systematically graded by the social
context that a person is in.
• Trait authenticity shows strong predictive validity
of wellbeing and life satisfaction.
• Context-specific authenticity shows incremental
validity of wellbeing and life satisfaction over and
above the trait measure.
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Work: An aberrant context?
• Authenticity expression in this context does
not co-vary with dispositional authenticity
• Weakest correlation of all authenticity
measures with wellbeing
• No significant prediction of wellbeing or life
satisfaction in regression model
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So…should you both being
yourself at work?
• Given that how authentic people are at work
does not seem to relate to their life
satisfaction or wellbeing, not really!
• But, a dispositional tendency towards
authenticity and authenticity with one’s
partner are both robust predictors of
wellbeing and life satisfaction in both UK and
USA samples
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References
•
Lopez, F. G., & Rice, K. G. (2006). Preliminary development and validation of a
measure of relationship authenticity. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 362–
371
•
Robinson, O.C., Lopez, F.R., Ramos, K., Nartova-Bochaver, S. (under review).
Authenticity, Social Context and Wellbeing in the USA, England and Russia: A
Three Country Comparative Analysis. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
•
Tennant, R., Hiller, L., Fishwick, R., Platt, S., Joseph, S., Weich, S., Parkinson, J.,
Secker, J. & Stewart-Brown, S. (2007). The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being
Scale (WEMWBS): Development and UK validation. Health and Quality of Life
Outcomes, 5, 63-63.
•
Wood, A. M., Linley, P., Maltby, J., Baliousis, M., & Joseph, S. (2008). The authentic
personality: A theoretical and empirical conceptualization and the development of
the authenticity scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55, 385–399.
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