Chap4 behavior control

Chapter 4

Behavior Control and
Self-Presentation

Copyright © 2002 by Allyn and Bacon

Chapter Outline
What is Self-Presentation?
Goals of Self-Presentation
Appearing Likable
Appearing Competent
Conveying High Status and
Power

WHAT IS
SELF-PRESENTATION?


WHAT IS
SELF-PRESENTATION?
• Self presentation - the process
through which we try to control the
impressions people form or us.
• Self presentation is synonymous with
impression management.


Considering only your physical
appearance, do you look:
• Socially dominant
• Kind and understanding
• Aggressive
• Intelligent
• Conscientious
1= not at all
9 = very much


To what extent do you make a
conscious effort to present yourself
in terms of:
• clothing
• physical body
• way you carry yourself
• hair
• car
1= not at all
9 = very much


To what extent do you make a
conscious effort to present yourself
in terms of:
• apartment/house/your room
• friends
• organizations/clubs
• other?
1= not at all
9 = very much


WHAT IS
SELF-PRESENTATION?
• WHY do people self present?
• WHEN do people self present?
• The Nature of Self Presentation


WHY DO PEOPLE
SELF-PRESENT?
• To acquire desirable resources

• To help “construct” our self-images

• To enable our social encounters to
run more smoothly.


WHY DO PEOPLE
SELF-PRESENT?
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.


WHEN DO PEOPLE
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 that are different
from the ones we desire.

esearch
The Spotlight Effect:

Cornell students were asked
to sit in room with five other
subjects while wearing a
Barry Manilow t-shirt.


esearch

The student who wore the
shirt then predicted how
many of the other students
in the room could recall and
identify who was on the shirt


esearch
50%
40%

30%

20%
10%
0%
Predicted Actual Control

The students who wore the t-shirt predicted that
nearly half of the others would know who was on
the shirt.

esearch
50%
40%

30%

20%
10%
0%

In reality, less than a quarter of the other
subjects recalled who was on the shirt.


esearch
50%
40%

30%

20%
10%
0%

Control students who watched the subjects on
video closely predicted how many students would
identify the shirt.

WHEN DO PEOPLE
SELF-PRESENT?

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


WHEN DO PEOPLE
SELF-PRESENT?

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


In deciding how to behave in a
given situation, do you:
• Examine your own attitudes,
feelings, and opinions?
• Consider what other people
expect of you and act
accordingly?
• Are you good at acting?
1= not at all
9 = very much

Self-monitoring

High self-monitors:
• Inconsistent across situations.
• Good at assessing what others want and
tailoring their behavior to fit those demands.
Low self-monitors:
• Look inside themselves to decide how to act.
• Don’t change as much across situations.


THE NATURE OF
SELF-PRESENTATION
• Self presentation is sometimes
deceptive, but usually not.
• More often, our self-presentations
focus on emphasizing our strengths
and minimizing our weaknesses.
• Because trust is necessary in social
relationships, people go to great
lengths to detect liars.

Think of an embarrassing moment
you’ve had
Was it linked to:
• Appearing unlikable
• Appearing incompetent
• Appearing weak
• Other?


Goals of Self-presentation

• To be seen as likeable (ingratiation)
• To be seen as competent (self-promotion)
• To be seen as powerful (intimidation)


The Goal: Appearing Likeable

Ingratiation: An attempt to get
others to like us.


Express Liking for
Others

Goal:
To appear
likeable


Expressing Liking for Others

We express our liking for
others using both verbal
flattery and nonverbal
behaviors such as smiling.


Express Liking for
Others

Goal:
To appear Create Similarity
likeable


esearch
Creating Similarity

Opinion Conformity as
an Ingratiation Strategy.
How likely are you to change your
opinions to agree with someone
else?
Would you be more likely to agree
with someone who’s attractive?


esearch
Creating Similarity

In an experiment conducted by Mark
Zanna and Susan Pack (1975),
women anticipated interacting with
a man who was either:
1. Highly Desirable
2. Not Highly Desirable

esearch
Creating Similarity

And who held either:
1. Traditional views of women
(believing the ideal woman to be
a passive, emotional homebody)
2. Untraditional views of women
(believing the ideal woman to be
independent and ambitious)

esearch
Creating Similarity


The women then filled out
questionnaires for the
male student to look at,
including one reporting
their own attitudes about
gender roles.

esearch
Creating Similarity
Opinion Conformity:
5.0
Amount of 4.0
Attitude
3.0
Conformity
(Shift toward 2.0

man’s views) 1.0
0.0
0.0
Undesirable Desirable
Man Man
Women about to interact with the
undesirable man did not shift their
opinions.

esearch
Creating Similarity
Opinion Conformity:
5.0
Amount of 4.0 3.7
Attitude
3.0
Conformity
(Shift toward 2.0

man’s views) 1.0
0.0
0.0
Undesirable Desirable
Man Man
However, women about to interact
with the desirable man adjusted their
opinions to match his more closely.

esearch
Creating Similarity

These findings demonstrate
that people sometimes
change their public
opinions to get desirable
others to like them


Express Liking for
Others

Goal:
likeable

Make Ourselves
Physically Attractive

Making Ourselves
Attractive people receive many
benefits, including:
–They are seen as more honest.
–They are more likely to be hired for
managerial positions and elected
to public office.
–They receive shorter sentences for
felonies.

Making Ourselves
Realizing this, most people try to
make themselves more attractive.
– In 1999, Americans had approximately
4.6 million plastic surgeries.
– Over 4 million Americans currently wear
braces or other orthodontic devices.
– People in the U.S. spend $33 billion a
year on diet foods, weight loss
programs, and health club

Express Liking for
Others

Goal:
likeable

Make Ourselves
Project Modesty Physically Attractive


Projecting modesty

Cultural differences in modesty:
African Americans most tolerant
of bragging.
Asian Americans most likely to
project modesty.


Appearing likeable

Sex differences in likeability:
Women more likely to:
• Smile
• Compliment others
• Agree with others
• Present themselves modestly


Appearing likeable
Why are women more agreeable?
One explanation stresses socialization -
women may get more social rewards
for being agreeable
Girls become more nonverbally
agreeable as they move through
adolescence and learn social
expectations.

Appearing likeable
Why are women more agreeable?
Another explanation stresses biology -
women have lower levels of
hormones that may incline men to be
more disagreeable and
confrontational.


Appearing likeable

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 with higher levels are more
confrontational and smile less.

Appearing likeable

We are generally interested in
being liked by people with whom
we want to start or maintain a
friendship and by people who are
in positions of power.


Appearing likeable

Multiple Audience Dilemmas
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.

Appearing likeable

Multiple Audience Dilemmas
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

The Goal: To Appear Competent

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


Staging Performances

Goal:
To Appear
Competent


Appearing competent
Because successes are sometimes
overlooked we may seek
opportunities to stage
performances, or demonstrate
our competence in public.
Conversely, people who are
incompetent at something will
avoid public stagings.

Claiming Competence

Goal:
To Appear
Competent


Appearing competent
Claiming Competence
People rarely just tell others about
their abilities. Why?
– Interferes with projecting modesty
– Commonly held belief that people
who are truly competent don’t need
to claim it.


Appearing competent
Claiming Competence
However, claims off competence are
appropriate:
– when they are invited (e.g. at job
interviews)
– When they are second-hand (e.g. if
friend talk us up or if we show
people letters of recommendation)


Claiming Competence

Goal:
Using the Trappings
To Appear of Competence
Competent


Appearing competent
Using the Trappings of Confidence
Good self-promoters often surround
themselves with the props and
habits of competence, such as:
– waiting to return our phone calls
– carrying cell-phones and pagers
– wearing clothes associated with
competence


Claiming Competence

Goal:
Using the Trappings
To Appear of Competence
Competent
Making Excuses or
Claiming Obstacles


Appearing competent
Making Excuses and
Claiming Obstacles
• Follows from the discounting and
augmenting principles (chap. 3)
• Some people go so far as to create
real obstacles.


Appearing competent
Making Excuses and
Claiming Obstacles
Self-handicapping: The behavior of
withdrawing effort or creating
obstacles to one’s future effort.


Appearing competent
Making Excuses and
Claiming Obstacles
Ways people self-handicap:
– Taking condition-impairing drugs
– Not practicing
– Consuming alcohol
– Choosing unattainable goals
– Giving competitors a performance
advantage

Appearing competent
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


Appearing competent
and Shyness
Compared to shy people, socially
confidant individuals are
especially likely to promote
themselves:
– after their reputations have been
shaken by failure
– but not if their true competence can
be easily checked by others

Appearing competent
and Shyness
Also, self-promoters often create a
social environment in which others
feel compelled to self promote.


Appearing competent
Situations which increase the
desire for competence
Competitive settings such as
workplaces, classrooms, and
athletic fields.
Recent failures increase the desire
for competence.


Display Artifacts of
Power

Goal:
To Convey
Status


Conveying status
Displaying the Artifacts of
Status and Power
• Doctors, CEOs, and other
powerful people have items which
indicate their position (waiting
rooms, fancy desks, etc.)
• Some people misappropriate these
items to gain respect.


Conspicuous
Power
Consumption

Goal:
To Convey
Status


Conveying status

Conspicuous Consumption
People often display their status
through:
– Spending lavishly on houses,
automobiles, and burial chambers
– Giving away and wasting money
– Being generally wasteful, even to the
point of damaging the environment

Conspicuous
Power
Consumption

Goal:
Basking in Reflective
To Convey Glory
Status
Cutting off reflected
failure


Conveying status
Personal Associations
Basking in reflected glory: The
process of presenting our
associations with successful, high-
status others and events.
Cutting off reflected failure: The
process of distancing ourselves from
unsuccessful, low-status others or
events.

Conspicuous
Power
Consumption

Goal:
Basking in Reflective
To Convey Glory
Status
Cutting off reflected
Non-verbal failure
dominance

Conveying status
Status and Power and
Nonverbal Expressions
Body language: The popular term for
non-verbal behaviors like facial
expressions, posture, body
orientation, and hand gestures.


Conveying status
Status and Power and
Nonverbal Expressions
Compared to low-status people, high-
status people are more likely to:
– Maintain eye contact when speaking
– Pay less attention when listening
– Interrupt others
– Place themselves in positions of prominence
– Touch others and enter others’ personal
space

Conveying status
Gender, Status, and Power
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.


Conveying status
Gender, Status, and Power
Men, more than women, focus on
displaying status and power.
– Biology also plays 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

Conveying status
The Self Presentational
Dilemma of Aspiring Women
Women face an especially difficult
self-presentational dilemma:
Women who present their status
and power are frequently
disliked by both men and women.


Conveying status
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.


Conveying status
Different Strategies for
Different Audiences
Men present differently to other
men than to women.
– Less likely to be violent in front of
women
– More likely to buy charity raffle
tickets, etc. in front of women.


Summary


Goal:
Appearing Likeable
Factors in the Person

• Gender


Goal:
Appearing Likeable
Factors in the Situation

• Audiences of Potential Friends
• Audiences of Power-Holders


Goal:
Appearing Likeable
Interactions

The values held by multiple
audiences interact to influence
how people get others to like
them.
Continued 

Goal:
Appearing Likeable
Interactions

If everyone in the audience holds the
same values, people can readily
sculpt their self-presentations to
conform with them.
Continued 

Goal:
Appearing Likeable
Interactions

When the audience is composed of
people having differing and
incompatible values, more creative
ingratiation tactics are necessary.


Goal:
Appearing Competent

• Competence Motivation
• Shyness


Goal:
Appearing Competent

• Competence Settings
• Impending or Actual Failure


Goal:
Appearing Competent
Interactions
Compared to shy people, socially
confident individuals promote
themselves in exaggerated ways after
their public reputation for competence
has been shaken by failure but not if
their true competence can be easily
checked by others. Continued 

Goal:
Appearing Competent
Interactions
Self promoters create social
environments in which others feel
compelled to self-promote as well.


Goal:
Conveying Status and Power

• Gender


Goal:

• Competition for Existing Resources
• Availability of Unclaimed Resources


Goal:
Interactions
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.

Chap4 behavior control

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (18)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Chap4 behavior control