Self-presentation in everyday interactions: effects of target familiarity and gender composition.

This study examined people's self-presentation motives in unstructured, everyday social interaction as a function of participants' gender similarity to, and general familiarity with, the targets of their self-presentations. Participants maintained a variant of the Rochester Interaction Record for 1 week. For every interaction that lasted 10 min or more, they rated the degree to which they wanted to make each of 4 impressions (likable, competent, ethical, and attractive), how much they thought about the impressions others in the interaction formed of them, and how nervous they felt in the interaction. In general, participants' self-presentational motives were lower in interactions with highly familiar people of their own sex than they were either in interactions with less familiar people of their sex or in interactions with people of the other sex regardless of familiarity. When participants' interactions with only their 3 most familiar interactants were examined, self-presentational concerns decreased with familiarity in same-sex interactions but increased with familiarity in cross-sex interactions.

[1]  Roy F. Baumeister,et al.  Self‐esteem, self‐presentation, and future Interaction: A dilemma of reputation , 1982 .

[2]  H. Reis,et al.  On Mediating Equity, Equality, and Self-Interest: The Role of Self-Presentation in Social Exchange. , 1976 .

[3]  J. Tedeschi.  Impression Management Theory and Social Psychological Research , 1981 .

[4]  K. Gergen.  THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTION GOALS AND PERSONALISTIC FEEDBACK ON THE PRESENTATION OF SELF. , 1965, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

[5]  Dean G. Pruitt,et al.  Looking Tough: The Negotiator Under Constituent Surveillance , 1979 .

[6]  N. Cliff,et al.  Adverbs as multipliers. , 1959, Psychological review.

[7]  L. Wheeler,et al.  Studying social interaction with the Rochester interaction record , 1991 .

[8]  J. Gottman,et al.  Response-acquisition and cognitive self-statement modification approaches to dating-skills training. , 1976 .

[9]  M. Zuckerman,et al.  The effect of nonverbal sensitivity on social interaction , 1990 .

[10]  Mark P. Zanna,et al.  Impression Management in the Job Interview , 1981 .

[11]  M. Allen,et al.  Sex differences in self-disclosure: a meta-analysis. , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[12]  John B. Nezlek,et al.  Sex differences in social participation , 1977 .

[13]  H. M. Klein,et al.  Psychological masculinity and femininity and typical and maximal dominance expression in women. , 1979 .

[14]  B. R. Schlenker,et al.  Self-presentation: managing the impression of consistency when reality interferes with self-enhancement. , 1975, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[15]  W. Snell,et al.  Willingness to Self-Disclose to Female and Male Friends as a Function of Social Anxiety and Gender , 1989 .

[16]  Mark P. Zanna,et al.  On the self-fulfilling nature of apparent sex differences in behavior , 1975 .

[17]  M. Leary,et al.  Self-presentations of small group leaders: Effects of role requirements and leadership orientation. , 1986 .

[18]  B. R. Schlenker,et al.  Social anxiety and self-presentation: a conceptualization and model. , 1982, Psychological bulletin.

[19]  R. Hays,et al.  The Day-to-Day Functioning of Close versus Casual Friendships , 1989 .

[20]  R. Baumeister.  A SELF-PRESENTATIONAL VIEW OF SOCIAL PHENOMENA , 1982 .

[21]  John M. Levine,et al.  Newcomers and oldtimers in small groups. , 1989 .

[22]  E. E. Jones,et al.  When Self-Presentation is Constrained by the Target's Knowledge: Consistency and Compensation. , 1978 .

[23]  L. Wheeler,et al.  Loneliness, social interaction, and sex roles. , 1983, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[24]  Michael R. Cunningham,et al.  Support Seeking in Personal Relationships , 1990 .

[25]  C. Cutrona,et al.  Behavioral manifestations of social support: a microanalytic investigation. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  J. M. Jellison,et al.  A Self-Presentation Interpretation of the Seeking of Social Approval , 1978 .

[27]  B. R. Schlenker.  Impression Management: The Self-Concept, Social Identity, and Interpersonal Relations , 1980 .

[28]  M. Leary.  Understanding Social Anxiety: Social, Personality, and Clinical Perspectives , 1983 .

[29]  E. Goffman.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , 1959 .

[30]  Robin M. Kowalski,et al.  Impression management: A literature review and two-component model. , 1990 .

[31]  J. Nezlek.  The stability of social interaction. , 1993 .

[32]  K. Deaux,et al.  Putting gender into context: An interactive model of gender-related behavior. , 1987 .

[33]  S. Asch.  Forming impressions of personality. , 1946, Journal of Abnormal Psychology.