Social psychologists believe that impression management is more appropriate to manage an appropriate image of ourself because people display different aspects of themselves in different situation. And thus they maintain those impressions through particular interactions, presentations and tactics to prove themselves.
We usually talk as if there is a single self which is stable and well defined. But social psychologists believe it is more appropriate to think of self as multiple selves because people display different aspects of themselves in different situations. Schlenker ( 1980) has termed this as 'impression management' and defined it as the conscious or unconscious attempt to control images that are projected in real or imagined social interactions. When there images deal with some aspects of self we call the process as self presentation.
Cooley (1902/1922) and Mead (1934) have put forth a theory known as :
They have stressed that participants in social interactions try to take the role of the others and see themselves as others see them. This process helps them to know how they appear to others and also guide their social behavior so that it has the desired effect. By taking the role of others, a person can choose the right clothes and the right speech patterns to communicate with others. For example: politicians, and leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi would wear the traditional dresses of the places which they visited and also spoke few words of local language.
Erving Goffman has drawn parallels of this behavior to the world of theater and formulated a theory of "self presentation in everyday life." Goffman ( 1959/ 1967) has described social interaction as a theoretical performance in which each individual acts out "live" -3 set of carefully choose verbal and nonverbal acts that expresses one's self. In self presentation, one of the fundamental rules of social interaction is mutual commitment. i.e. all the members of the interaction use certain face:-saving devices, so as to maintain a face. Through maintaining face is not the goal of the social interaction it is rather necessary for social interaction to continue. Incidents that threaten the face of a participant also threaten the survival of the relationship. Therefore we somehow try to avert the embarrassment that might occur and threaten the relationship by overlooking or by helping others apologize fer the social blindness that they commit. Thus for Goffman, social interaction requires its participants to be able to regulate their self presentation so that it will be perceived and evaluated appropriately by others.
C.N.Alexander has put forth another theory called the 'situated identities' theory,
There is a pattern of social behavior for each social setting and .Alexander claimed that people strive to create the most favorable situated identities for themselves in their social encounters. for example a college professor might aim for a highly academic identity when presenting a paper at a seminar, a somewhat more relaxed identity during lectures and a casual and informal situated identities at a social gathering and with friends. This is simply a role a person is performing in different situations. However a situated identity is tied much more to a specific situational context than a role is. Where role focuses on behaviors that are expected, situated identities deal more with the images one choose to project in a particular social interaction .
Each of the three theories of self presentation agrees that other people are forming impressions of us and are using these impressions to guide their interactions with us. Further each theory also points to variety of tactics that individuals use to manage and control the irnage they present to other.
There are number of reasons that self presentation occurs ;
One is to gain social approval : finding it pleasant to be liked by others. If you make a favorable person impression on another you may gain many benefits from that person. It serves as a means to other goals.
Impression management a self representation may also allow a sense of control in a situation. Thus combination of reactions serve as powerful motivation for the use of self presentation tactics.
There are a variety of tactics that people use in presenting themselves to others Jones and Pittman (1982) have identified five major tactics of self representation which differ according to the particular attribute the person is hying to gain. They are :
• Ingratiation
• Intimidation
• Self promotion
• Exemplification
• Supplication
Ingratiation : This is the most common of presentation techniques and is defined as a class of strategic behavior illicitly designed to influence a particular other person concerning the attractiveness of one's personal qualities. In other words, the main goal of the ingratiator is to be seen to be likeable.
There are number of ways in accontplishing this and one of the most_common tactics is to give compliment to another person. However a successful ingratiator knows when to compliment people and also has certain amout of credibility and sincerity. He uses his discrimination properly. ~
Another tactics is to confirm to other person's opinions and behaviors. We tend to like people whose beliefs, attitudes and behaviors are similar to our own. But, there is a danger here, i.e. if the other person (target) suspects ingratation this factor does not work.
Intimidation : Is to arouse fear in other people. This is in contrast to ingratiation. In intimidation by creating the image of dangerous person, the intimidator seeks to control and interaction by the exercise of power. Intimidation is mostly used in relationships that are non voluntary in which escape is not easily accomplished. Example a street robber with a threat to kill if money or jewelry is not handed over. Some times parents do it with their children and also teachers with their pupils.
Self Promotion: If a person wants to show himself as competent person at some activity this is the tactic mostly used. He does this by accepting or acknowledging some of the minor flows or weaknesses he has to target person and then go and emphasis the positive traits that the target person was not aware of him. However, there is one danger in using self promotion. ie. the mismatch between the self promoted claims of competencies and the reality. For example if a person claims to the target person that he is very good at some things and of that skill comes up to be tested and he does not show any competency then he looses his credibility.
Exemplification : Here the goal is to influence the impressions that others are not conscientious workers. The person here wants to prove that he has. more integrity and moral worthiness compared to others, and wants to arouse guilty in the target person. He wants to create an impression of a sufferer.
Supplication : Here the person advertises his/her weakness and dependence on other person. He is seeking sympathy. This is usually a last resort i.e. when a person is unable Jo use any other strategies, he resorts to gaining sympathy. The person is presenting an image of helplessness hoping to elicit a sense of obligation from the target.
The person may use all five self presentation tactics on different occasions. Some people may specialize in one or other tactic and may use it on more than·one occasion. Whatever choice or combination, the person's aim is to create the desired impression on someone else, there by increasing the chances of obtaining the desired effect.
People strive to influence the images that others from of them during social interaction has been found to be true even through research on self presentation. Though everyone engages in such actions from time to time, there are important differences in the extent to which they control their self presentation. Some people engage in such actions from time to time, there are important differences in the extent to which they control their self presentation and -some people engages in this tactics more often and with greater skill .
People differ in exercising control over their verbal and non-verbal cues of self presentation and this is termed as self monitoring of expressive behavior (Synder 1979). High self monitoring persons are particularly sensitive to the expressions and the self presentations of others in social situation and they use these as cues in monitoring, their own self presentation for purpose of impression management.
High self monitoring persons are good at learning what is socially appropriate in new situations, have good control of their emotional expression and effectively use these abilities to create the impression they want to display. In fact they can adapt themselves to any social situation, For example: they can adopt the mannerism of a reserved, withdrawn and introverted person and then they can abruptly do about face and portray themselves. as equally convincing, friendly, outgoing and extroverted person. In self-presentation situations, high self-monitoring persons are quite likely to seek out social comparisons and information about the appropriate patterns of behavior. They put in considerable effort in attempting to read and understand others and behave accordingly and guide their self presentation so as to gain approval or power of an interaction. However self presentation on impression management is not for deceptive purposes but is an adaptive skill in environments where there is a complex mixture of people and policies.
Self-Presentation and Human Nature: Self presentation is a basic fact of social life. People influence the images of their 'selves' that are projected to others but where is the 'real' self in all this? As already known, each of us have multiple selves which we present to different people in different ways but all of them are many aspects of only one 'true self' self presentation factors is selecting certain characteristics and omitting other. Therefore, presentation of self is an integral part of everyday social interaction.
People often show different sides of themselves to different groups of people. It is more appropriate to think of self as multiple selves because people display different aspects of themselves in different situations.
One of the fundamental rule of social interaction is mutual commitment. All the members of the interaction should have the similar norms to achieve the goals. Social interaction requires its participants to be able to regulate their self presentation so that it will be perceived and evaluated appropriately by others.
The three theory of self presentation agree that other people are forming impression of us and are using these impressions to guide their interaction.
Impression management in self presentation. may also allow a sense of control in situation. The variety of tactics that people use in presenting themselves to other. Given by Jones and Pittman. i) Ingratration ii) intimidation iii) self-promotion. iv) exemplification v) supplication.
The person may use all five presentation tactics on different occasions. Everyone engages in such actions from time to time, there are important differences in the extent to which they control their self presentation. Some people engage in these tactics more often and with greater skill. Therefore presentation of self is an integral part of everyday social interaction.
IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT
According to William James' observation, people often shows different sides of themselves to different groups of people. Youngsters who are demure and obedient before their parents and teachers and may swear and swagger in the company of their friends. Most parents do not show their actual self to their children as they do to their colleagues or intimate friends.We usually talk as if there is a single self which is stable and well defined. But social psychologists believe it is more appropriate to think of self as multiple selves because people display different aspects of themselves in different situations. Schlenker ( 1980) has termed this as 'impression management' and defined it as the conscious or unconscious attempt to control images that are projected in real or imagined social interactions. When there images deal with some aspects of self we call the process as self presentation.
THEORIES OF SELF PRESENTATION
Cooley (1902/1922) and Mead (1934) have put forth a theory known as :
A Symbolic Interactionism:
They have stressed that participants in social interactions try to take the role of the others and see themselves as others see them. This process helps them to know how they appear to others and also guide their social behavior so that it has the desired effect. By taking the role of others, a person can choose the right clothes and the right speech patterns to communicate with others. For example: politicians, and leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi would wear the traditional dresses of the places which they visited and also spoke few words of local language.
Theory of Self Presentation :
Erving Goffman has drawn parallels of this behavior to the world of theater and formulated a theory of "self presentation in everyday life." Goffman ( 1959/ 1967) has described social interaction as a theoretical performance in which each individual acts out "live" -3 set of carefully choose verbal and nonverbal acts that expresses one's self. In self presentation, one of the fundamental rules of social interaction is mutual commitment. i.e. all the members of the interaction use certain face:-saving devices, so as to maintain a face. Through maintaining face is not the goal of the social interaction it is rather necessary for social interaction to continue. Incidents that threaten the face of a participant also threaten the survival of the relationship. Therefore we somehow try to avert the embarrassment that might occur and threaten the relationship by overlooking or by helping others apologize fer the social blindness that they commit. Thus for Goffman, social interaction requires its participants to be able to regulate their self presentation so that it will be perceived and evaluated appropriately by others.
Situated Identities Theory :
C.N.Alexander has put forth another theory called the 'situated identities' theory,
There is a pattern of social behavior for each social setting and .Alexander claimed that people strive to create the most favorable situated identities for themselves in their social encounters. for example a college professor might aim for a highly academic identity when presenting a paper at a seminar, a somewhat more relaxed identity during lectures and a casual and informal situated identities at a social gathering and with friends. This is simply a role a person is performing in different situations. However a situated identity is tied much more to a specific situational context than a role is. Where role focuses on behaviors that are expected, situated identities deal more with the images one choose to project in a particular social interaction .
Each of the three theories of self presentation agrees that other people are forming impressions of us and are using these impressions to guide their interactions with us. Further each theory also points to variety of tactics that individuals use to manage and control the irnage they present to other.
There are number of reasons that self presentation occurs ;
One is to gain social approval : finding it pleasant to be liked by others. If you make a favorable person impression on another you may gain many benefits from that person. It serves as a means to other goals.
Impression management a self representation may also allow a sense of control in a situation. Thus combination of reactions serve as powerful motivation for the use of self presentation tactics.
SELF PRESENTATION TACTICS
There are a variety of tactics that people use in presenting themselves to others Jones and Pittman (1982) have identified five major tactics of self representation which differ according to the particular attribute the person is hying to gain. They are :
• Ingratiation
• Intimidation
• Self promotion
• Exemplification
• Supplication
Ingratiation : This is the most common of presentation techniques and is defined as a class of strategic behavior illicitly designed to influence a particular other person concerning the attractiveness of one's personal qualities. In other words, the main goal of the ingratiator is to be seen to be likeable.
There are number of ways in accontplishing this and one of the most_common tactics is to give compliment to another person. However a successful ingratiator knows when to compliment people and also has certain amout of credibility and sincerity. He uses his discrimination properly. ~
Another tactics is to confirm to other person's opinions and behaviors. We tend to like people whose beliefs, attitudes and behaviors are similar to our own. But, there is a danger here, i.e. if the other person (target) suspects ingratation this factor does not work.
Intimidation : Is to arouse fear in other people. This is in contrast to ingratiation. In intimidation by creating the image of dangerous person, the intimidator seeks to control and interaction by the exercise of power. Intimidation is mostly used in relationships that are non voluntary in which escape is not easily accomplished. Example a street robber with a threat to kill if money or jewelry is not handed over. Some times parents do it with their children and also teachers with their pupils.
Self Promotion: If a person wants to show himself as competent person at some activity this is the tactic mostly used. He does this by accepting or acknowledging some of the minor flows or weaknesses he has to target person and then go and emphasis the positive traits that the target person was not aware of him. However, there is one danger in using self promotion. ie. the mismatch between the self promoted claims of competencies and the reality. For example if a person claims to the target person that he is very good at some things and of that skill comes up to be tested and he does not show any competency then he looses his credibility.
Exemplification : Here the goal is to influence the impressions that others are not conscientious workers. The person here wants to prove that he has. more integrity and moral worthiness compared to others, and wants to arouse guilty in the target person. He wants to create an impression of a sufferer.
Supplication : Here the person advertises his/her weakness and dependence on other person. He is seeking sympathy. This is usually a last resort i.e. when a person is unable Jo use any other strategies, he resorts to gaining sympathy. The person is presenting an image of helplessness hoping to elicit a sense of obligation from the target.
The person may use all five self presentation tactics on different occasions. Some people may specialize in one or other tactic and may use it on more than·one occasion. Whatever choice or combination, the person's aim is to create the desired impression on someone else, there by increasing the chances of obtaining the desired effect.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SELF PRESENTATION
People strive to influence the images that others from of them during social interaction has been found to be true even through research on self presentation. Though everyone engages in such actions from time to time, there are important differences in the extent to which they control their self presentation. Some people engage in such actions from time to time, there are important differences in the extent to which they control their self presentation and -some people engages in this tactics more often and with greater skill .
People differ in exercising control over their verbal and non-verbal cues of self presentation and this is termed as self monitoring of expressive behavior (Synder 1979). High self monitoring persons are particularly sensitive to the expressions and the self presentations of others in social situation and they use these as cues in monitoring, their own self presentation for purpose of impression management.
High self monitoring persons are good at learning what is socially appropriate in new situations, have good control of their emotional expression and effectively use these abilities to create the impression they want to display. In fact they can adapt themselves to any social situation, For example: they can adopt the mannerism of a reserved, withdrawn and introverted person and then they can abruptly do about face and portray themselves. as equally convincing, friendly, outgoing and extroverted person. In self-presentation situations, high self-monitoring persons are quite likely to seek out social comparisons and information about the appropriate patterns of behavior. They put in considerable effort in attempting to read and understand others and behave accordingly and guide their self presentation so as to gain approval or power of an interaction. However self presentation on impression management is not for deceptive purposes but is an adaptive skill in environments where there is a complex mixture of people and policies.
Self-Presentation and Human Nature: Self presentation is a basic fact of social life. People influence the images of their 'selves' that are projected to others but where is the 'real' self in all this? As already known, each of us have multiple selves which we present to different people in different ways but all of them are many aspects of only one 'true self' self presentation factors is selecting certain characteristics and omitting other. Therefore, presentation of self is an integral part of everyday social interaction.
SUMMARY
People often show different sides of themselves to different groups of people. It is more appropriate to think of self as multiple selves because people display different aspects of themselves in different situations.
One of the fundamental rule of social interaction is mutual commitment. All the members of the interaction should have the similar norms to achieve the goals. Social interaction requires its participants to be able to regulate their self presentation so that it will be perceived and evaluated appropriately by others.
The three theory of self presentation agree that other people are forming impression of us and are using these impressions to guide their interaction.
Impression management in self presentation. may also allow a sense of control in situation. The variety of tactics that people use in presenting themselves to other. Given by Jones and Pittman. i) Ingratration ii) intimidation iii) self-promotion. iv) exemplification v) supplication.
The person may use all five presentation tactics on different occasions. Everyone engages in such actions from time to time, there are important differences in the extent to which they control their self presentation. Some people engage in these tactics more often and with greater skill. Therefore presentation of self is an integral part of everyday social interaction.