Chapter 4: Presenting The Self

Front 1

What Is Self-Presentation?

Back 1

Self presentation - the process through which we try to control the impressions people form or us.

Self presentation is synonymous with impression management.

Front 2

Why Do People Self Present?

Back 2

People self present for many reasons, including:

To acquire desirable resources
To help “construct” our self-images
To enable our social encounters to run more smoothly.
Self-presentations help us get what we want, and they help us create desired self-images.

They also help others to know how we expect to be treated, and so they help our social encounters to run more smoothly.

Dramaturgical perspective - the perspective that much of social interaction can be thought of as a play, with actors performances, settings, scripts, props, roles, and so forth.

Front 3

When Do People Self Present?

Back 3

We are most likely to self present:

When we think others are paying attention to us.
When others can influence whether or not we reach our goals.
When those goals are important to us.
When we think observers have impressions of us different from the ones we desire.
All of us are, at times, attuned to how we appear to others. Some people, however, are especially sensitive to how they come across.

Public self-consciousness - the tendency to have a chronic awareness of oneself as being in the public eye.

Self Monitoring - the tendency to be chronically concerned with one’s public image and to adjust one’s actions to fit the needs of the current situation.

High self monitors are inconsistent across situations, and good at assessing what others want and tailoring their behavior to fit those demands.

Low self monitors don’t change as much across situations.

Front 4

The Nature of Self Presentation

Back 4

Self presentation is sometimes deceptive, but usually not. Few of us, after all, falsely claim to be rock stars or secret agents.

More often, our self-presentations focus on emphasizing our strengths and minimizing our weaknesses.

Despite our best efforts, self-presentation sometimes fails.

Social anxiety - the fear people experience when they doubt whether they’ll be able to create a desired impression.

Most of us rarely use deceptive self-presentations because the costs of being labeled dishonest or immoral are great. And because trust is necessary in social relationships, people go to great lengths to detect liars.

Front 5

Appearing Likable

Back 5

Ingratiation: An attempt to get others to like us.

When we are liked, others will go the extra yard for us, excuse our mistakes, and generally make our lives easier.

As a consequence, we are often willing to go to great lengths to get others to like us.

Front 6

Appearing Likable

Back 6

Strategies of Ingratiation

Front 7

Appearing Likable

Back 7

Gender

Women are somewhat more likely than men to use ingratiation tactics.<

Men can be as ingratiating as women, but it appears that other self-presentational goals -- such as the desire to be viewed as powerful or dominant -- compete more strongly for men's attention.

Why is ingratiation more important for women?

Women are particularly rewarded for presenting themselves in agreeable ways (Deaux & Major, 1987)
Women have lower levels of testosterone then men.
Testosterone: A hormone present in both males and females -- but usually in much greater quantities in males -- responsible for important aspects of sexual development. People who have high levels of testosterone

use more confrontational ways off getting what they want
are less friendly
are less concerned about others' welfare

Front 8

Appearing Likable

Back 8

Audiences of Potential Friends and Power Holders

We tend to use ingratiation strategies both around good friends and around people with whom we would like to become friends.

Front 9

Appearing Likable

Back 9

Multiple Audiences

We sometimes find ourselves in circumstances in which we want to be liked by multiple audiences, who differ in what they value.

Multiple audience dilemma - situation in which a person needs to present different images to different people, often at the same time.

We try to manage these dilemmas by:

Segregating the audiences
Moderating our presentations
Presenting different messages on different communication channels
Texturing messages so they mean different things to the different audiences

Front 10

Appearing Competent

Back 10

Self-promotion - An attempt to get others to see us as competent.

Physicians must appear competent if they are to acquire and retain patients
Salespeople must appear competent if they are to be promoted into the managerial ranks
Children must appear competent if they are to be chosen by classmates to play kickball during recess.

Front 11

Appearing Competent

Back 11

Competence Motivation and Shyness

Competence motivation: The desire to perform effectively

Shyness: The tendency to feel tense, worried, or awkward in novel social situations and with unfamiliar people

Compared to nonshy people, shy individuals are less likely to promote themselves boldly.

Instead, shy people focus on preventing unfavorable public images.

Front 12

Appearing Competent

Back 12

When Competence Matters

Different places activate different self-promotional concerns. (Your desire to be appreciated as a good dancer is more likely to come to mind in a nightclub than during a psychology lecture)

Similarly, certain people are more likely to arouse concerns about competence than are others. (You're likely to prefer being viewed as a good dancer by a romantic partner than by the clerk at the supermarket checkout)

Recent failures and the fear of impending failure both increase the desire for competence. The desire to appear competent may be particularly strong in pressure-filled competitive circumstances.

Front 13

Appearing Competent

Back 13

Competence Checks

Even socially confident individuals are attuned to the riskiness of self-promotion.

Socially confident individuals are more likely than shy people to promote themselves after their reputations have been shaken by failure. But this is less true if their actual competence can be easily checked by others (Shepperd et. al., 1995).

Front 14

Appearing Competent

Back 14

The Interpersonal Cycle of Self-Promotion

Self-promoters often create a social environment in which others feel compelled to self-promote.

Front 15

Conveying High Status and Power

Back 15

Individuals who have high status and power gain access to greater educational opportunities and material resources. They are more likely to be accepted into influential social circles that offer opportunities to make money, find desirable mates, and wield political power. And they are less likely to be hassled by others.

Front 16

Conveying High Status and Power

Back 16

Men, more than women, focus on displaying status and power.

Men are socialized to present themselves as dominant and learn that girls prefer dating dominant men.

Biology also plays a crucial role

Females in many animal species choose to mate with males best able to provide food, territory, etc.

Men who have higher levels of testosterone are more aggressive
Women face an especially difficult self-presentational dilemma:
Women who present their status and power are frequently disliked by both men and women

Front 17

Conveying High Status and Power

Back 17

Threats to Personal and Material Resources
People are most likely to present themselves as having high status and power when:

Existing resources are threatened.
Newly available resources lie unclaimed.

Front 18

Conveying High Status and Power

Back 18

Different Strategies for Different Audiences
The gender of the presenter interacts with the gender of the audience to determine which tactics work best to convey images of status and power.

Men typically use more direct, physical tactics when presenting to men than to women.

On the other hand, men are more likely to buy charity raffle tickets, etc. in front of women.