How well do impression formation models explain self-presentation in the real-world? - tutorial 2 Flashcards
The Leary and Kowlaski model
Impression motivation
impression construction
impression motivation
(factors that influence the desire to create particular impressions in others’ minds)
goal-relevance of impression
value of desired goals
discrepancy between desired and current image
impression construction
(Factors that influence how people may alter their behaviours to affect others’ impressions of them)
self-concept
desired and undesired identity images
role constraints
target’s values
current or potential social image
does self-presentation matter in the present day?
Appearance and success in politics
Leadership qualities (think manager-think male; clothing/jewellery/hair and make up
Women looking sexy in high vs. low status jobs
Hart et al. (2011)
Voters typically evaluate an attractive candidate more favourably than an (otherwise equivalent) unattractive candidate.
However, some voters “correct” for the biasing influence of physical appearance. When?
Correction occurs when political experts evaluate a political candidate under nondistracting conditions.
- Under these “high cognitive capacity” conditions, voters primarily correct for physical unattractiveness.
However, correction fails to occur when voters possess low levels of expertise or are distracted.
Bottom line – attraction can fool people who lack cognitive capacity or expertise (and that can mean a lot of people!)
Styling politicians is big business!
Klatt et al. (2016)
Women underrepresented in senior positions. The “think-manager-think-male” phenomenon - leadership associated with male rather than female attributes.
Although styling has been shown to influence the evaluation of women’s leadership abilities, we don’t know which bits matter.
In a 2×2×2×2 (skirt/trousers, with/without jewellery, loose hair/plait, with/without makeup) between-subjects design, participants evaluated a woman in a photograph.
Women with makeup, trousers, or with jewellery were rated as more competent than women without makeup, with skirts, or without jewellery.
A combination of loose hair and no makeup was perceived as warmest
Women with loose hair were more likely to be hired than those with braids.
In sum, even subtle changes in styling have a strong impact on how women’s leadership abilities are evaluated.
Glick et al. (2005)
Hypothesis: women who dress in a sexy versus business-like manner evoke negative emotions and perceptions of lesser competence if employed in high- (but not low-) status jobs.
Male and female undergraduates shown video of SAME female target who was (a) dressed in sexy or business-like attire and (b) allegedly either a manager or a receptionist.
For the neutral condition, the woman wore little makeup, black trousers, a poloneck, a business jacket, and flat shoes.
For the sexy condition, the same woman wore more makeup and her hair was tousled. She wore a tight, knee-length skirt, a low-cut shirt with a cardigan over it, and high-heeled shoes.
Participants exhibited more negative affect toward the sexily attired manager and rated her as less competent than the neutrally attired manager.
In contrast, the appearance manipulation had no effect on emotions toward or competence ratings of the receptionist.
These findings suggest that a sexy self-presentation harms women in high-, but not low-, status jobs.
conclusions
Self-presentation remains an important factor in certain domains
Attributes (still!) associated with stereotypes may play an important part in perpetuating self-presentation strategies (e.g., playing up male attributes for leadership roles, “What is beautiful is good” stereotype – emphasising attractive qualities for both male and female politicians)
Impression management models can allow us to map on motives and techniques that underlie self presentation
what is impression management?
This is the process by which people control the impressions others form of them.
This can also be called self-presentation
This process has two discrete components: impression motivation & impression construction
impression motiv
This is the degree to which people are motivated to control how others see them.
In other words, these are factors that influence the desire to create particular impressions in others’ minds
These factors include: (1) goal-relevance of impressions; (2) value of desired goals; and (3) discrepancy between desired & current image
goal-relevance of impressions
people are motivated to impression manage when the impressions they make are relevant to the fulfilment of goals
value of desired goals (/outcome)
the motivation to make an impression increases as a function of the value or importance of desired goals.
discrepancy between desired and current image
people are motivated to impression manage because of the degree of discrepancy between the image they would like others to hold of themselves and the image they believe others already hold.
impression construction
This involves the kinds of impressions people try to construct or the process of determining precisely the kind of impression one wants to make.
In other words, these are factors that influence how people may alter their behaviours to affect others’ impression of them.
These factors include: (1) self-concept; (2) desired and undesired identity images; (3) role constraints; (4) target values; and (5) current or potential social image
what are goal generally?
social and material outcomes, self-esteem maintenance and identity development.
