Would a magician character with Arcane Arrester be hindered by his own innate defense against magic when self-buffing with things like Improve Attribute, Invisibility, etc.?

There's some debate about this, but from what I read it seems it is obvious that Invisibility would not be affected because it is never resisted by the character.  And it specifically says that the character, and she alone, treats Force-based effects (damage, paralysis, etc) at half (round down).  So, invisibility is cast with successes, and then people resist it.  You would not be in a situation of resisting your own Invisibility.

I see little room to read something like Increase Attribute as being effected by this ability either.  I have yet to find a beneficial spell with a Force based effect, or one that you resist (unless you want to not get Heal against you).  And Arcane Arrester only comes into play in two situations, either A) When there is a Force based Effect from the spell in question (combat spells for base DV, Levitate for speed, etc) or B) When resisting a spell (the Force becomes halved, round down for these purposes).  If when resisting you are only resisting against successes and not Force, and there are no Force based effects in the description of the spell, then you do not gain any benefit from Arcane Arrester (or minuses in the sense of a lot of self-buffing stuff).

Err, so someone with Arcane Arrester could use Heal on himself, Increase Attribute, or Levitate without negative effects?

Thanks for replying, but not following your answer.   

Anything that is solely based upon Successes for its effect will be unaffected by Arcane Arrester.  Any Force based effect is halved.  Levitate has both Success and Force based effects, and thus the Force based parts would be halved and the Success portion would be unaffected.