Individual differences in children's understanding of social evaluation concerns

Recent research suggests that children's understanding of self‐presentational behaviour—behaviour designed to shape social evaluation—is a function of both cognitive and motivational variables. Furthermore, the motivational factors involved are likely to reflect individual differences in the salience of concerns about social evaluation. The present research represents a first effort to determine whether measures of such differences are indeed associated with the understanding of self‐presentational behaviour. In a first experiment, a teacher rating measure of self‐monitoring was found to be positively associated with the understanding of self‐presentational motives. In a second experiment, a more narrowly specified self‐report measure of public self‐consciousness was found to have a similar association with the understanding of self‐presentation, with no such association found for private self‐consciousness. These preliminary results make it clear that our formulations of development in social cognition must indeed include a consideration of individual differences in motivational orientations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Much do Chinese Applicants Fake?

More and more organizations have applicants who come from different cultural backgrounds, and according to new research, these cultural backgrounds matter for applicants' self‐presentational behavior (i.e., faking). If applicants come from China, can organizations assume that they will present themselves modestly, as suggested by Chinese norms? Or should organizations assume that there will be much self‐presentational behavior due to the high unemployment rate, at least among Chinese graduates? To answer this question, we obtained data from 307 Chinese applicants on their self‐presentational behavior, using the randomized response technique to ensure anonymity. We compared these data with similar data sets from the United States, Switzerland, and China. Contrary to the proposed modesty hypothesis in Chinese samples, perhaps due to high unemployment, self‐presentation was as prevalent in Chinese samples as in American samples.     

Applicants' Self‐presentational Behavior across Cultures: Less self‐presentation in Switzerland and Iceland than in the United States

Do US findings on applicants' self‐presentational behavior generalize to other countries? We argue that applicants in some countries are less motivated to present themselves favorably than applicants in others because countries vary in their unemployment rate (leading to differences in competition between job applicants) and their endorsement of modesty values, influencing their beliefs regarding self‐presentation. Using the randomized response technique, we obtained prevalence data on applicants' self‐presentational behavior from Iceland and Switzerland and compared them with previously published US results. The prevalence rates of self‐presentational behavior were fairly comparable in Iceland and Switzerland but significantly lower than in the United States. These results caution against using the same hiring strategy for all applicants from different cultures.     

Self‐Presentational Effects in the Implicit Association Test

Two studies rely on Schlenker and Leary 's (1982) conceptual framework to investigate self‐presentational biases in the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Study 1 shows that under specific conditions, the IAT is indeed sensitive to self‐presentation, especially for high self‐monitors. Study 2 suggests that participants can fake the IAT to appear in a favorable light. Possible process mechanisms are discussed and directions are provided for future research in consumer psychology.     

Self‐Presentational Cognitions for Exercise in Female Adolescents

The study's main purpose was to clarify the role of a range of self‐presentational cognitions in the relationship between social physique anxiety and exercise behavior. Female participants (N= 331; M age = 14.5 years) reported their exercise frequency and completed measures of self‐presentation. Exercise frequency was positively predicted by self‐presentational efficacy expectations (SPEE) and self‐presentational outcome value (SPOV). Moreover, SPEE moderated the relationship between social physique anxiety (SPA) and exercise frequency. SPA was negatively related to exercise frequency when SPEE was high, but positively related to exercise frequency when SPEE was low. Therefore, interventions designed to increase exercise frequency among adolescent girls should include strategies that both reduce SPA and enhance SPEE and SPOV.     

Upsetting others and provoking ridicule: Children's reasoning about the self‐presentational consequences of rule violation

This study examined children's understanding of the distinctive ‘self‐presentational’ impacts of moral and social‐conventional rule violations. A sample of 80 children aged 7–8 and 9–10 years generated examples of interpersonal events that would upset others and events that would elicit social attention to the self. As expected, both age groups consistently identified moral violations as leading to the former, and deviations from social norms as leading to the latter. Crucially, when children were asked to identify the social‐evaluative consequences of those breaches, they exhibited a significant increase with age in recognizing the self‐presentational risks of social‐conventional deviations.     

Children's reasoning about the self‐presentational consequences of apologies and excuses following rule violations

The accounts given by those who have violated a rule are likely to have important self‐presentational consequences, potentially reducing the negative impact of the breach on social evaluations of transgressors. However, little is known about young children's self‐presentational reasoning about such accounts. In the present study, a sample of 120 4‐ to 9‐year‐olds responded to rule violation stories where the transgressor uses either an apology, an excuse, or no account. Results showed that whereas children rated both account types similarly in terms of their impact on punishment consequences, even the youngest saw apologies as leading to significantly more positive social evaluation than excuses. Correspondingly, children were more likely to identify prosocial motives for apologies than for excuses, and more likely to identify self‐protective motives for excuses than for apologies. Explicit references to self‐presentational motives when explaining the accounts increased significantly with age, and were more likely following social‐conventional rather than moral rule violations.     

What you don't know won't hurt me:

This study addresses the implications of interpersonal communication technology use for personal relationships. Elements of an impression management model, which specifies the processes and outcomes of strategic uses of channel and message for self‐presentational goals, are tested. Respondents indicated their preference for interpersonal communication channels (telephone, answering machine, electronic mail, letters) in 4 types of episodes involving issues that either supported or threatened their own or their partner's self‐presentation. Findings supported the hypotheses predicting that individuals recognize mediated channels' capacity to manage ambiguity and clarity in interactional episodes and use those perceptions in forming their channel preferences. The constrictions of mediated channels are often seen as advantageous for interactions that could threaten positive impressions. The results support a functional perspective that views mediated communication channels as a tool for managing self‐relevant information in pursuit of self‐presentational goals.     

Low trait self-control predicts self-handicapping

Past research has shown that self‐handicapping stems from uncertainty about one's ability and self‐presentational concerns. The present studies suggest that low dispositional self‐control is also associated with self‐handicapping. In 3 studies (N = 289), the association between self‐control and self‐handicapping was tested. Self‐control was operationalized as trait self‐control, whereas self‐handicapping was operationalized as trait self‐handicapping in Study 1 (N = 160), self‐reported self‐handicapping in Study 2 (N = 74), and behavioral self‐handicapping in Study 3 (N = 55). In all 3 studies, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that low self‐control predicts self‐handicapping, independent of self‐esteem, self‐doubt, social desirability, and gender.     

Ethics and practices of re‐presentation: Witnessing self and other

Context: The challenge of producing ethical representational practices is of critical interest to both practitioner‐researchers and research theorists. For practitioners becoming researchers a central ethical question may be how to manage a relational presence in writing their research, in ways that acknowledge participants, the research relationship, and a researcher's own subjectivity. Focus: The article offers examples from practitioner research to illustrate and theorise how researcher subjectivity is managed through the use of witnessing practices as a representational strategy. Witnessing practices – translated into counselling research from narrative therapy – offer researchers a strategy to take up a reflexive, relational presence in research reports. Discussion: Researcher witnessing honours the contributions of research participants as well as making visible the shaping effects of the research on a researcher's life. Through witnessing self and other, and thus declaring presence, privilege and partiality, re‐presentational ethics are made transparent.     

To be an honest person or not to be a cheater: Replicating the effect of messages relating to the self on unethical behaviour

Previous research has found that negative‐valence appeals relating to the self (Don't be a cheater) are more effective at reducing unethical behaviour than appeals relating to behaviour (Don't cheat). We aimed to replicate these findings and examine whether positive‐valence appeals relating to the self (Be an honest person) and to behaviour (Answer honestly) could have a similar effect. We ran five experiments with Israeli and U.S. samples, using social interaction and anonymous settings, and different methodologies: Die roll, coin‐flip and number choice. A meta‐analysis of the five experiments revealed a small effect of the self‐appeals relative to the behaviour‐appeals. These findings provide additional support for the theoretical explanation offered in terms of the role of the self in regulating unethical behaviour. However, the effect sizes found in our experiments were smaller than the ones previously reported. We discuss the merit in using self‐appeals to reduce unethical behaviour, the possible advantage of positive‐valence self‐appeals, and the possible moderating role of the setting in which the behaviour takes place: Social interaction versus anonymous settings.     

A Conceptual Overview of the Self‐Presentational Concerns and Response Tendencies of Focus Group Participants

Focus group respondents are often requested to perform tasks that require them to convey information about themselves. However, despite the potential for respondents to have self‐presentational concerns, research on focus group productivity has virtually ignored extant scholarship on impression management. This shortcoming is addressed by presenting a conceptual overview of the effects of self‐presentational concerns on focus group participation. A product of this overview is a conceptual model that posits that the amount and nature of information that people convey about themselves to others is a function of their eagerness to make desired impressions and their subjective probabilities of doing so. According to the model, when focus group participants are highly motivated to make desired impressions, they may be reluctant to present unbiased images of themselves. However, they are not likely to deceive unless they are confident in their abilities to ascertain and enact desired images. Those who are motivated to make desired impressions but are doubtful of doing so are likely to protect themselves by concealing self‐relevant information or avoiding self‐relevant issues. Implications of this model for research and practice are discussed.     

Adolescents' self‐attributed moral emotions following a moral transgression: Relations with delinquency,confidence in moral judgment and age

The study investigates adolescents' self‐attributed moral emotions following a moral transgression by expanding research with children on the happy‐victimizer phenomenon. In a sample of 200 German adolescents from Grades 7, 9, 11, and 13 (M = 16.18 years, SD = 2.41), participants were confronted with various scenarios describing different moral rule violations and asked to judge the behaviour from a moral point of view. Subsequently, participants' strength of self‐evaluative emotional reactions was assessed as they were asked to imagine that they had committed the moral transgression by themselves. Results indicate that the intensity of self‐attributed moral emotions predicted adolescents' self‐reported delinquent behaviour even when social desirability response bias was controlled. Further, as adolescents' metacognitive understanding of moral beliefs developed, self‐attributed moral emotions and confidence in moral judgment became more closely associated. No general age‐related change in adolescents' self‐attributed moral emotions was found. Overall, the study provides evidence for a coordination process of moral judgment and moral emotion attributions that continues well beyond childhood and that corresponds with the more general notion of the formation of a moral self in adolescence.     

Mother's choice: An exploration of extended self in infant clothing consumption

Consumption behaviour has long been linked to identity and notions of the self, where materialistic behaviours and attitudes are seen as determinants of self‐image. Previous literature has focused on mothers' consumption in general, but not specifically in regard to identity construction through purchasing for an infant. There is a dearth of academic research understanding mothers' consumption behaviour that links identity construction with infant clothing, where the child is part of the mothers' extended self and display of self‐identity. This qualitative, exploratory study provides insight into how mothers construct and express their identity through the extended self, contributing to consumer culture theory. The study examines the purchasing motivations of 14 mothers, utilizing depth interviews and projective association techniques. The findings indicate three predominant drivers underlying mothers' consumption, namely prioritizing the child, self‐representation and conspicuous branding. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐regulation of Group Members: The Case of Regulatory Focus

For a long time, research on motivation and (inter)group behaviour mainly focused on needs and motives, but did not take self‐regulation (i.e., the processes underlying motivated action) into account. Similarly, self‐regulation research concentrated on the regulation of the personal self, but did not study the regulation of the social self. The current article summarizes work applying self‐regulation approaches to intergroup behaviour. Within this approach, it has been shown (a) that the social self is regulated based on the same mechanisms as the personal self, (b) that intergroup contexts impact on group members’ self‐regulation strategies, and (c) that the fit between an individual's self‐regulation strategy and the behavioural options provided by the group impact on group liking and potentially also on the integration of the group into the self‐concept. The relation between current and earlier approaches to motivation in groups and further avenues for research on group‐based self‐regulation are discussed.     

Teacher–child conflict and aggressive behaviour in first grade: the intervening role of children's self‐esteem

High levels of teacher–child conflict have repeatedly been found to amplify children's aggressive behaviour. Up to now, however, research on possible mechanisms explaining this link is largely lacking. The current study aimed to test whether children's self‐esteem is an intervening mechanism. Participants were 139 children (70 boys, M age = 6.18 years) and their teachers from 35 classes in 19 schools who were followed longitudinally throughout first grade. Teacher–child conflict was measured during the first trimester (October to December), children's self‐esteem (three child interviews) during the second trimester (January to March) and children's aggressive behaviour during the first and third trimester (April to June). Teacher–child conflict had a significant indirect effect on changes in children's aggressive behaviour across first grade through its effect on children's self‐esteem. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of self and peer perceptual differences on student social behaviour

Background. The development of socially appropriate behaviour is increasingly seen as an important part of a student's education. Aim. To examine whether changes in a student's behaviour, as part of an ongoing social empathy intervention, can in part be explained by the difference between the student's self‐perception of their behaviour and their peers‐perception of their behaviour. Method. A school population (383 students from year levels 4 to 6) was assessed for a range of prosocial and antisocial behaviours. Assessments were made by the students themselves, and by peer nominations of their classmates. A perceptual difference index was calculated to determine the difference between the student's self‐assessment and their peers' assessment of their behaviour. Results. Hierarchical regression found that students' prosocial behaviour increased more over the course of the school year when self‐perception of their prosocial behaviour more closely matched the perceptions of their class‐peers. Similarly, students' antisocial behaviour decreased more over the school year when their self and peer perceptions of their antisocial behaviour were more closely aligned. Very few personal demographics were associated with either type of behaviour, and overall there was found to be a great deal of stability in behaviour. Conclusion. This study highlights the importance of taking into account students' personal characteristics when developing interventions to encourage socially appropriate behaviour. Furthermore, it suggests that in order to achieve positive change, any intervention must engage student's self‐beliefs regarding their behaviour.     

Consumer complaints and recovery through guaranteeing self‐service technology

Self‐service technologies are shaping the future of consumer behaviour, yet consumers often experience service failure in this context. This conceptual paper focuses on self‐service technology failure and recovery. A consumer perspective is taken. Recovering from self‐service technology failure is fraught with difficulty, mainly because of the absence of service personnel. The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical framework and associated research propositions in respect to the positive role that service guarantees can play in the context of self‐service technology failure and recovery. It contributes to the consumer behaviour domain by unifying the theory pertaining to consumer complaint behaviour, service recovery, specifically consumers' perceptions of justice, and service guarantees, which are set in a distinctive self‐service technology context. It is advanced that service guarantees, specifically multiple attribute‐specific guarantees, are associated with consumer voice complaints following self‐service technology failure, which is contingent on the attribution of blame in the light of consumers' production role. Service guarantees are argued to be associated with consumers' perceptions of just recovery in the self‐service technology context when they promise to fix the problem, compensate only when the problem cannot be remedied, offer a choice of compensation that is contingent on failure severity, afford ease of invocation and collection, and provide a personalised response to failures. Previous classifications of SSTs are used to highlight the applicability of guarantees for different types of SSTs. Managerial implications based on the theoretical framework are presented, along with future research directions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐Regulation: Relations with Theory of Mind and Social Behaviour

It is argued that self‐regulation skill is necessary both for displaying constructive behaviour and for controlling negative social behaviour, and self‐regulation might affect social behaviours by increasing the ability to understand others' minds. In this research, in order to examine different aspects of self‐regulation and their similarities and differences in terms of their relations with other constructs, we focused on both effortful control and executive function and investigated their concurrent associations with socially competent and aggressive behaviours and theory of mind (ToM). The participants were 212 preschool children in Turkey. We assessed executive functions with behavioural measures and effortful control with mother reports. We used six tasks for comprehensive assessment of mental state understanding. Children's social competency and aggressive behaviour were assessed with teacher reports. Structural equation modelling results showed that when age and receptive language were controlled, ToM was significantly associated with social competence but not aggressive behaviour. Both effortful control and executive functions were significantly related to social competency and ToM; the pathways from each self‐regulation skill were similar in strength. ToM was linked with social competence, but it did not have a mediating role in the relations of self‐regulation with social competence. The findings highlighted the importance of self‐regulation for socio‐cognitive and social development in the preschool years. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Leadership predictors of innovation and task performance: Subordinates' self‐esteem and self‐presentation as moderators

This study examined self‐related subordinate variables as moderators of relationships between supervisors' leadership behaviours (transformational as well as active‐corrective transactional leadership) and subordinates' innovative behaviour and task performance. Based on behavioural plasticity and self‐monitoring theory, we hypothesized that these associations would be moderated by subordinates' organization‐based self‐esteem and by their propensity to modify self‐presentation, a major facet of the self‐monitoring construct. Field survey data (N=161) collected in research and development, marketing and human resources departments of several German companies revealed that transformational leadership positively predicted both criteria, whereas active‐corrective transactional leadership negatively predicted innovation. As hypothesized, transformational leadership related more strongly and positively to innovation for subordinates low in organization‐based self‐esteem. When subordinates were low in self‐presentation propensity, active‐corrective transactional leadership was negatively, and transformational leadership was positively associated with task performance.