Monitoring my Presentation

Being a relatively high self monitor, I constantly check how I present myself to others through my self-presentation. Self-monitoring being the tendency to regulate one's own behavior to meet the demands of social situations and self-presentation being the processes we use to shape how others think of us and what we think of ourselves (Snyder, 1987; Shlenker, 2003). This constantly makes me feel like I'm being watched by those around me, even though I know in all actuality that they are not. Essentially, what I'm speaking of is the spotlight effect (Gilovich and Savitsky, 1999).

I'd like to believe that everyone suffers from the spotlight effect. I mean, how many times have you ever been sitting in class and your tummy rumbles? Or how about you're walking somewhere and you trip on something, but not really and pass it off as a slight hop in your stride then look around to see if anyone saw this? Perhaps you were in class like the person in this here comic and did something similar to them...

http://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic1-020810.php

Overall, I constantly check myself and look around to see what others are doing at the same time, especially when meeting new people or even talking with current friends and acquaintances. Self-presentation means a lot to me. Recently, I've been applying it everything my friends have been doing. My roommate, Matt, and friend, Cameron, are both applying for RA spots next year. Between Matt and myself we've been sitting around making jokes about how you could use ingratiation to get this or self-promotion to get that. Matt is a big fan of exemplification if you haven't already read his blog. However, when we were going over intimidation in class the first thing that came to my mind was the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team. Before every game they perform a ritual called the Haka to get them ready for battle. So I leave you with a video that would sure as hell intimidate me if I were part of the opposing team.







Gilovich, T. & Satvisky, K. (1999). The spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency: Egocentric assessments of how we are assessed by others. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, (165-168).

Schlenker, B. R. (2003). Self-presentation. In M. R. Leary & J. P. Tangney (Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (pp. 492-518). New York: Guilford.

Snyder, M. (1987). Public appearances private/realities: The psychology of self-monitoring. New York: Freeman.