Impression Management

What is self presentation?

Refers to how people attempt to present themselves to control or shape how others (the audience) view them.

• involves expressions, behaviour to create a desired outcome.

• there is an increased pressure to resent positive attributes only which results in an individual withholding information and misrepresent themselves for social gain.

What are the three important functions of self presentation serves?

1. Facilitate social interaction.

2. Enables individuals to obtain social rewards.

3. Helps people privately construct desired identities.

What does social media have to do with impression management?

Social interactions mainly occur on social media in the 21st-century.

• with this in mind, social presentation occurs a lot via social media.

• individuals deliberately misrepresent themselves in order to gain social awards such as likes or comments by peers as well as people they don't know

• due to the increased exposure on social media, self promotion is now widely done via social media.

What is self-concept?

Refers to our private sense of self who are and what is it that makes us so

• self-concept helps individuals build their identity and see themselves whereas, social identity is linked to perception or beliefs of how others view and individual

What are these three components of self-concept?

1. Ideal self: the person you want to be.

2. Self-worth: how much you like, except or value yourself (can be impacted by a number of factors i.e. others opinions, comparing to others, role in society)

3. Self-image: how you see yourself (i.e. physical characteristics, personality, social role)

What is validation in relation to self-concept?

Validation of self-concept is achieved by users carefully crafting their online presence by posting images that show only the enviable moments or that reflect the ideal concept of beauty or success.

• if there is a lack of responses on a post, it can reinforce negative concept which can lead to ongoing failed attempts.

• on the journey to validation individuals can develop disorder such as narcissism, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.

What are self monitors?

Self monitoring refers to a personality trait that involves the ability to monitor and regulate self presentation, emotions and behaviours in response to social environments and situations

Describe a high self monitor:

• worries about their image.

• strives for the best version of themselves.

• changes behaviour in social interactions to fit in.

• more likely to engage in strategic use of social media

• more prone to cognitive dissonance

Describe a low self monitor:

• more concerned with genuineness even if it means being the old one out

• guided by own true feeling and beliefs.

• have fewer but closer friends

• less engagement on social media and refrain from using it as a mean of validation or self presentation

What is impression management?

Impression management refers to the goal directed conscious or unconscious attempt to influence the perception of yourself to others. This is done via:

• self presentation

• information and posts on social media.

• expressions.

• Materials and objects represent yourself

What are three factor factors that can affect impression management?

Primacy effect, recency effect, schema.

What is the primacy effect?

Refers to the phenomenon where information received at the beginning carries more weight than the info that follows, explains why first impressions matter

What is the recency effect?

Refers to the phenomenon where the most recent info received carries more weight than the info received prior, more recent info is more influential to impression formation

What is schema?

Refers to our internal template of what we know and what to expect in any given situation.

Our schema generally develops and involves based on experience.

Informs our thinking, interpretation and memories we take in and from