Self-monitoring and cooperation as a self-presentational strategy.

Investigated the hypothesis that cooperation may occur as a result of strategic self-presentation that is instrumental for increasing personal gain. 149 undergraduates played a decomposed Prisoner's Dilemma game with a bogus partner. The prospect of future interaction with the partner and the discernment of the partner (i.e., contingency in giving approval) were manipulated, and Ss were classified as scoring high or low on a self-monitoring scale. It was hypothesized that high self-monitors would exhibit more variability in cooperative behavior across social contexts and would be more cooperative with discerning partners and partners with whom they anticipated future interaction than would low self-monitors. As predicted, the prospect of future interaction with a partner increased the cooperation of the high, but not the low, self-monitors. Cooperation was not related to attraction for the partner (Interpersonal Judgment Scale) for either high or low self-monitors. Correlates of self-monitoring did not predict cooperation. Results are discussed in terms of individual differences in motives for cooperation and strategic self-presentation. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What's good for the goose may not be as good for the gander: The benefits of self-monitoring for men and women in task groups and dyadic conflicts.

The authors posit that women can rely on self-monitoring to overcome negative gender stereotypes in certain performance contexts. In a study of mixed-sex task groups, the authors found that female group members who were high self-monitors were considered more influential and more valuable contributors than women who were low self-monitors. Men benefited relatively less from self-monitoring behavior. In an experimental study of dyadic negotiations, the authors found that women who were high self-monitors performed better than women who were low self-monitors, particularly when they were negotiating over a fixed pool of resources, whereas men did not benefit as much from self-monitoring. Further analyses suggest that high self-monitoring women altered their behavior in these negotiations--when their partner behaved assertively, they increased their level of assertiveness, whereas men and low self-monitoring women did not alter their behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ripple effect of personality on social structure: Self-monitoring origins of network brokerage.

Despite growing interest in social network brokerage, its psychological antecedents have been neglected. One possibility is that brokerage relates to self-monitoring personality orientation. High self-monitors, relative to low self-monitors, in adapting their self-presentations to the demands of different groups, may occupy positions as brokers between disconnected social worlds. For 162 Korean expatriate entrepreneurs in a Canadian urban area, the results showed that those high in self-monitoring tended to occupy direct brokerage roles within the Korean community--in terms of their direct acquaintances being unconnected with each other. Those high in self-monitoring also tended to occupy indirect brokerage roles--in terms of the acquaintances of their acquaintances being unconnected with each other. Finally, for recent arrivals, those high in self-monitoring tended to establish ties to a wider range of important non-Korean position holders outside the community. These results (which controlled for strongly significant effects of network size on individuals' brokerage within the community) suggest a ripple effect of self-monitoring on social structure and contribute to a clearer understanding of how personality relates to brokerage at different levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-monitoring and the attitude–behavior relation.

130 undergraduates responded to 3 questionnaires over a 6-wk period before and after the 1980 presidential election. The questionnaires assessed self-monitoring tendency, attitudes, and intentions with respect to voting in the election and smoking marihuana, and included self-reports of actual behavior. Low self-monitors tended to exhibit stronger attitude–behavior correlations than high self-monitors. There was, however, no difference in the predictability of intentions from attitudes, a finding that disconfirmed the perceived relevance interpretation of the effect of self-monitoring. Instead, the difference was located in the relation between intentions and behavior; low self-monitors exhibited significantly stronger intention–behavior correlations than did high self-monitors. Findings support the interpretation that the 2 types of individuals are equally aware of the implications of their attitudes, but that high self-monitors, being sensitive to situational demands, are less likely to carry out their previously formed intentions than low self-monitors, who are more attentive to internal cues. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of deception and level of self-monitoring on planning and reacting to a self-presentation.

Investigated whether type of impression intended (accurate or fabricated) and level of self-monitoring (high or low) affect the amount of information about a target person that individuals would acquire, at some cost to themselves, prior to interacting with that person. 66 female undergraduates were given the Self-Monitoring Scale 6 wks before the experiment began. As predicted, high self-monitors planning a fabrication purchased more information than high self-monitors planning an accurate impression or low self-monitors planning either type of impression. In addition, impression type affected both actors' and targets' reactions, whereas self-monitoring affected only the targets' ratings. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship Between Self-Monitoring and Leader Emergence Across Two Task Situations.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between self-monitoring and leader emergence across two types of group tasks. Seventy-eight males and 66 females participated in same-sex, three-person groups assigned at random to either a modified brainstorming task or an anagrams task condition. Subjects' self-monitoring scores were measured prior to their group participation. High self-monitors emerged more frequently as leaders than did low self-monitors in female brainstorming groups but not in male brainstorming groups. The relationship between self-monitoring and leader emergence in male and female anagrams groups was not statistically significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-monitors in conversation: What do they monitor?

164 undergraduates were administered M. Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale and then engaged in 10-min conversations in which their same-sex partners were similar or opposite to them in self-monitoring. Conversations were videotaped, and computer techniques were used to extract content-free patterns of speech and gaze. The pace of speaking, pausing, and interrupting suggested that high self-monitors were more facile speakers than low self-monitors. Contrary to expectations, low and high self-monitors conversed easily together, and low self-monitors changed more when placed with highs than highs changed when placed with lows. Patterns of gaze were similar for low and high self-monitors, and mutual gaze among all pairs was the result of random matching of individual gazes. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-Monitoring Without Awareness: Using Mimicry as a Nonconscious Affiliation Strategy.

This research sought to extend the current conceptualization of self-monitoring by examining whether self-monitoring motives and behaviors can operate outside of conscious awareness. Two studies examined nonconscious mimicry among high and low self-monitors in situations varying in affiliative cues. Participants interacted with a confederate who shook her foot (Study 1) or touched her face (Study 2). In both studies, high self-monitors were more likely to mimic the confederate's subtle gestures when they believed the confederate to be a peer (Study 1) or someone superior to them (Study 2). Low self-monitors mimicked to the same degree across conditions. Thus, when the situation contains affiliative cues, high self-monitors use mimicry as a nonconscious strategy to get along with their interaction partner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction between self-monitoring and manipulated states of self-awareness.

We conducted four experiments to examine the differential responses of high and low self-monitors to variations in public and private self-awareness. The first 2 experiments used an attribution of responsibility paradigm to test the hypothesis that high self-monitors would show greater responsiveness than low self-monitors to manipulations of public self-awareness. This hypothesis was supported. Two additional experiments tested the hypothesis that low self-monitors would be more responsive than high self-monitors to manipulations of private self-awareness. Manipulations of private self-awareness following a Velten (1968) positive-mood induction exercise strengthened the induced mood in low but not in high self-monitors. Thus, when the dependent measure had implications for their public self, high self-monitors were more responsive than low self-monitors to public self-awareness manipulations; low self-monitors, on the other hand, were more responsive than high self-monitors to manipulations of private self-awareness when the dependent measure required subjects to access aspects of their private self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-monitoring processes and Holland Vocational Preferences among college students.

Examined the association between self-monitoring and occupational preferences. 237 undergraduates completed Snyder and Gangestad's (1986) revised self-monitoring scale and Holland's (1977) Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI). Regression analyses showed that men who valued congruence between their beliefs and behavior (i.e., low self-monitors) preferred social occupations. Men who were inclined to modify their behavior to fit social situations (i.e., high self-monitors) preferred enterprising occupations. In contrast, high self-monitoring women preferred artistic occupations. It is argued that these gender-neutral occupations permit high self-monitoring women to use their social skills but without the constraints found in male dominated enterprising occupations. Results support the assumption that people prefer occupations compatible with their social skills. Implications for career counseling and further research are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victimization, self-monitoring, and eyewitness identification.

38 undergraduate low self-monitors and 42 undergraduate high self-monitors (as determined by a scale of self-monitoring of expressive behavior) witnessed in small groups a staged crime of either their own wristwatches or a laboratory calculator. Campus police detectives took individual witness statements as if a real crime had occurred, and using biased or unbiased instructions, police administered a suspect-present photospread. Results show that victim witnesses who had been given biased instructions gave the least accurate identifications and that high self-monitoring Ss were least likely to reject the lineup when instructions were biased. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-monitoring and self-protective biases in use of consensus information to predict one's own behavior.

It is often important and useful for people to predict their own behavior in novel situations. Although theory suggests that such predictions should be based at least in part on consensus information, some past research in this area suggests that people ignore it. Previous investigators have argued that, instead of using cosensus information, people predict their own behavior on the basis of their personal histories. Two studies reported in this article demonstrate that people are willing to make use of consensus information in predicting their own behavior. However, self-monitoring is found to regulate consensus information use. High self-monitors are more responsive to complimentary consensus information than are low self-monitors, and low self-monitors are more responsive to threatening consensus information than are high self-monitors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexism and Beautyism Effects in Selection as a Function of Self-Monitoring Level of Decision Maker.

The authors, in two experiments, investigated the influence of the sex and attractiveness of applicants for male and female sex-typed jobs on selection decisions made by low and high self-monitors. In both experiments, attractiveness and the congruence between applicants' sex and the sex type of the job influenced selection decisions. In addition, high self-monitors were more influenced by attractiveness and sex of the applicant when hiring for sex-typed jobs than low self-monitors, but this difference in hiring pattern was not evident when the job was gender neutral. Results indicate that job applicants may encounter different employment opportunities as a function of their sex, their physical attractiveness, the sex type of the job, and the self-monitoring level of the decision maker. Implications of results are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude and activity preference similarity: Differential bases of interpersonal attraction for low and high self-monitors.

The paradigmatic research of Byrne (1971) on the similarity–attraction relation has been recently challenged by the view that it is the similarity of people's pastime preferences more than the similarity of their attitudes that may better predict both friendship and initial attraction (Werner & Parmelee, 1979). An integration of these two views is proposed in the hypothesis that the personality variable of self-monitoring (Snyder, 1974) may moderate both the attitude similarity–attraction relation and the activity preference similarity–attraction relation in initial interpersonal attraction. An experiment is reported in which low and high self-monitors formed impressions of four same-gender persons representing each of the crossed combinations of high and low value-based attitude similarity, and high and low activity preference similarity. As predicted, for low self-monitors, attitude similarity influenced initial attraction to the stimulus persons more than did activity perference similarity, and this was expressed most strongly on attraction ratings relevent to the attitude domain (i.e., judgments of respect and inferences of intellectually desirable personality traits). By contrast, for high self-monitors, activity preference similarity influenced initial attraction more than did attitude similarity, and this was expressed most strongly on attraction ratings relevant to the activity preference domain (i.e., judgments of liking and inferences of socially desirable personality traits). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achieving desired images while avoiding undesired images: Exploring the role of self-monitoring in impression management.

A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that high self-monitors more effectively manage impressions than low self-monitors do. Students in work groups indicated the extent to which they used 5 impression-management tactics over the course of a semester-long project. At the project's conclusion, students provided their perceptions of the other members of their group. The relationship between impression management and image favorability was then examined across 339 student-student dyads. The results generally suggest that high self-monitors can use impression-management tactics more effectively than can low self-monitors. In particular, high self-monitors appear to be more adept than low self-monitors at using ingratiation, self-promotion, and exemplification to achieve favorable images among their colleagues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-regulatory failure: Accentuate the positive?

Investigated variables that affect self-regulatory dysfunctioning in a high-mastery context. 66 college students participated by voluntarily enrolling in a 3-wk program in preparation for mathematics portions of graduate admissions tests. Stratified random assignment resulted in 6 groups matched in math ability. Groups varied in frequency of self-monitoring (high and low) and valence of self-monitoring (positive, negative, and performance-feedback control). Positive self-monitors recorded instances of accurate problem solving, negative self-monitors recorded inaccurate problem solving, and performance-feedback Ss did not self-monitor. In accord with predictions, positive self-monitoring (relative to negative self-monitoring) led to decreased accuracy in performance, lower rates of written self-observation, less time spent self-observing performance, and lower rates of attendance at program sessions. In comparison to performance feedback, positive self-monitoring led to decreased time spent self-observing performance and to lower rates of persistence during an optional problem-solving period. Low-frequency self-monitoring did not lead to predicted decrements in self-regulation. Implications for the development of strategies designed to promote sustained self-regulated behavior change and for the study of self-regulatory failure are discussed. (65 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of reciprocity and self-monitoring on self-disclosure with a new acquaintance.

48 high- and 48 low-self-monitoring undergraduates, selected on the basis of their scores on the Self-Monitoring Scale, interacted with a confederate who self-disclosed at either a high or low level. These interactions were audio recorded in a setting lacking experimental demand to allow Ss to get acquainted. The effects of reciprocity and self-monitoring on self-disclosure were measured by ratings of audiotapes. Results show that, overall, the reciprocity phenomenon was operative, but in contrast to previous research, lower self-monitors reciprocated at the same level as their partner under conditions of both low and high disclosure, whereas high self-monitors self-disclosed at a high level regardless of their partner's disclosing behavior. This is explained by the tendency of high self-monitors to exhibit their consistent background self-presentation behavior of appearing outgoing, friendly, and extraverted in a natural acquaintance process. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does development do the deed?: Clinical experience and epistemological development together account for similarities in therapeutic style.

Introduces the concept of epistemological development as a variable that may bring some clarity to mixed results regarding the relationships among theoretical orientation, clinical experience, and the conception of an ideal therapeutic relationship, and therapeutic style. Data are reported on the relationships among the aforementioned variables for 161 therapists (aged 23–69 yrs) of 6 distinctive theoretical schools. Results suggest not only that orientation is far more responsible than experience for variation of therapeutic styles, but also that differences between more and less experienced therapists only arise when high levels of both experience and epistemological development are present. Results also suggest that a group composed of more experienced and more developed cognitive and psychodynamic therapists was more homogeneous in therapeutic style than the group composed of all other therapists of the same orientations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-monitoring and dating relationships.

Four investigations, with 479 university students, examined the involvement of self-monitoring propensities in dating relationships. Studies 1 and 2 examined willingness to change dating partners and form close, intimate dating relationships with other partners. Only Ss high in self-monitoring, as measured by the Self-Monitoring Scale, were willing to terminate current relationships in favor of alternative partners. In Study 3, for those involved in multiple dating relationships, high self-monitoring Ss reported having dated a greater number of partners in the preceding year than low self-monitoring Ss; for those in steady, exclusive dating relationships, low self-monitoring Ss reported having dated their current partner for considerably longer than high self-monitoring individuals. Study 4 examined growth of intimacy in dating relationships. The link between length of relationship and level of intimacy was more pronounced for low than high self-monitoring Ss. Findings suggest that high self-monitoring individuals adopt an "uncommitted" and low self-monitoring individuals a "committed" orientation toward dating relationships. Implications for understanding the evolution of intimate relationships, including marital ones, are discussed. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)