The influence of cognitive load on self-presentation: can cognitive busyness help as well as harm social performance?

Extra cognitive loads can hinder challenging self-presentations by usurping needed cognitive resources but also may sometimes improve them by shifting attention away from negative self-preoccupation. In Study 1, extraverts and introverts participated in an interview in which they presented themselves as either extraverted or introverted. Congruent self-presentations, which should be cognitively nondemanding, were unaffected by a cognitive busyness manipulation (rehearsing an 8-digit number). However, incongruent self-presentations were affected by busyness. Busyness decreased the effectiveness of extraverts who tried to appear introverted but increased the effectiveness of introverts who tried to appear extraverted. Study 2 found that introverts, who also tend to be socially anxious, reported less public self-consciousness and fewer negative self-focused thoughts when they were busy than when they were not busy.

Psychological involvement in parenthood among Ukrainians.

In a sample of 100 parents in Ukraine, the authors examined variables that affect the extent of psychological engagement in the role of parenthood. The participants completed questionnaires about their beliefs and expectations as parents. As predicted by the triangle model of responsibility (B. R. Schlenker, 1997; B. R. Schlenker, T. W. Britt, J. W. Pennington, R. Murphy, & K. J. Doherty, 1994), 3 variables significantly predicted psychological engagement: task clarity (i.e., a clear understanding of the duties of a parent), personal obligation (i.e., the duty to follow prescriptions for being a good parent), and personal control (i.e., personal control over aspects of child rearing). In addition, task clarity and personal obligation predicted the participants' expectations of the quality of their children's futures; however, personal control did not, perhaps because of contemporaneous economic and political instability in Ukraine.

Depression and the explanation of events that happen to self, close others, and strangers.

Depressive and nondepressive college students attributed causality for positive and negative events that happened to either themselves, a close other, or a typical student. Depressives made less optimistic attributions than nondepressives when explaining events that happened to themselves. However, depressives and nondepressives generally made similar attributions about others; both groups were optimistic when explaining events that happened to their best friend or romantic partner and less optimistic when explaining events that happened to the typical student. The results indicate that depressives do not treat close others as extensions of the self, at least in terms of their attributional patterns. Furthermore, depressives were aware of the extent to which their attributions benefitted or harmed the desired identity of the actor.

The triangle model of responsibility.

Responsibility acts as a psychological adhesive that connects an actor to an event and to relevant prescriptions that should govern conduct. People are held responsible to the extent that (a) a clear, well-defined set of prescriptions is applicable to an event (prescription-event link); (b) the actor is perceived to be bound by the prescriptions by virtue of his or her identity (prescription-identity link); and (c) the actor is connected to the event, especially by virtue of appearing to have personal control over it (identity-event link). Studies supported the model, showing that attributions of responsibility are a direct function of the combined strengths of the 3 linkages (Study 1) and that, when judging responsibility, people seek out information that is relevant to the linkages (Study 2). The model clarifies prior multiple meanings of responsibility and provides a coherent framework for understanding social judgment.

The impact of self-presentations on self-beliefs: effects of social identity and self-presentational context.

To examine the impact of self-presentations on private self-appraisals, subjects were induced to characterize themselves positively or negatively during a face-to-face interview, during a written interview, or on a private questionnaire. As hypothesized, subjects high in Social Identity (the tendency to root identity in social sources of experience) shifted their self-appraisals in the direction of their positive or negative role after a face-to-face interaction, but were less affected by role in their private self-characterizations. In contrast, subjects low in Social Identity were primarily affected by a private, positive self-characterization. The latter subjects were not indifferent to how they appeared to others, as indicated by their attempts to rationalize negative, face-to-face self-presentations; they simply did not define themselves in terms of their public appearance.

Children's reactions to transgressions: effects of the actor's apology, reputation and remorse.

This experiment examined children's reactions to a transgression in which one child's property was damaged by another who (a) had a reputation as a good or bad child, (b) apologized or did not, and (c) later expressed remorse when talking about the incident or was happy and unremorseful. As expected, actors who had a good reputation or were remorseful were seen as more likable, as having better motives, as doing the damage unintentionally, as more sorry and as less blameworthy. Further, actors who were good and remorseful were punished least, suggesting that punishment was applied in a rehabilitative fashion. The actor's reputation determined how his or her actions were interpreted: bad actors were seen as more worried about punishment when they expressed remorse and older children thought they apoligized merely to avoid punishment. Interestingly, apologies were effective in reducing punishment and making the actor seem more likable, and this was true irrespective of the other factors. The apology-forgiveness script may be such an ingrained aspect of social life that its appearance automatically improves the actor's position. The reactions of second and fifth graders were generally similar, although the younger children displayed less coherent relationships between judgements.

Self-presentation: managing the impression of consistency when reality interferes with self-enhancement.

The manner in which an individual's self-perceptions affect related self-presentations was investigated. One hundred and twenty subjects believed that they would participate in a group task where their individual performance would either be known to the group or be completely anonymous. On the basis of bogus feedback from prior tests, subjects expected to perform either extremely well or very poorly on the group task; control groups received no such feedback. Before the task began, group members exchanged personal information that allowed them to vary their self-presentations. Factor analysis revealed two self-presentational factors: competence and interpersonal relations. A Performance Expectations X Anonymity interaction was obtained on self-presentational claims to personal competence. Under public performance conditions (where future public events could invalidate an unrealistically positive self-presentation), self-presentations were consistent with subjects' expectations of actual performance. However, under anonymous conditions, self-presentations were quite favorable and unaffected by expectations of actual performance. The results support an incentive model and fail to support a consistency model. Subjects seemed to desire as self-enhancing and approval gaining a public image as possible but conceded to the demands of public reality when necessary.