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One research tradition has distinguished self-deception, the tendency to give favorably biased but honestly held self-descriptions from impression management, the tendency to give favorable self-descriptions to others. A 2nd tradition has distinguished enhancement, the claiming of positive attributes, from denial, the repudiation of negative attributes. The 2 distinctions were evaluated jointly in 3 studies with a total of 937 undergraduates. Factor analyses showed that impression management items (both enhancement and denial) loaded together. Self-deception items split up: Enhancement items formed a 2nd factor, whereas denial items fell closer to the impression management factor. Of the 4 types, self-deceptive enhancement best predicted adjustment. These results clarify the constructs of enhancement and denial. The critical distinction is not simply one of keying direction but whether the item content refers to a …