| Abstract: | Forty-eight female college students interacted with female confederates enacting a self-critical, self-enhancing, or neutral role. Subjects interacting with the self-critical confederates (a) rated the confederate's task performance higher than the confederate rated it; (b) rated their own performance lower; (c) made more positive conversational comments to the confederate; and (d) made more self-critical conversational comments. Although self-critics received both direct and indirect support, privately they were perceived as poorly functioning individuals. There was some evidence that subjects interacting with self-enhancers raised their self-evaluations and downgraded the confederate's performance. Privately, self-enhancers were perceived as competent but socially unattractive. Self-criticism was discussed as a style of strategic self-presentation and the potential deleterious effects of the interpersonal consequences described in this article were considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
