Effects of Self-Presentation on One’s Self-Regulatory Resources When One Is Faced with the Multiple Audience Problem

Ikuo Daibo,Yu Kasagi

doi:10.4236/psych.2015.612141

Abstract

This study examined the effects of self-presentation on participants’ self-regulatory resources when the participants were faced with the multiple audience problem. In the experiment, participants (N = 38) were assigned to either the consistent condition or inconsistent condition, and were asked to make a speech in three sessions. The inconsistent condition was manipulated such that the participants would be confronted with the multiple audience problem in speech session 3. After the three speech sessions, the participants were told to work on 200 multiplication problems (3 digits × 3 digits) until they had finished solving all the problems or until they gave up or felt that they were unable to continue working on the problems. An experimenter timed the participants with a stopwatch as they worked on the problems. The results showed that the participants in the inconsistent condition gave up faster than the participants in the consistent condition. Moreover, the participants in the inconsistent condition solved less multiplication problems than the participants in the consistent condition. On the basis of these results, we concluded that when one was faced with the multiple audience problem, self-presentation was extremely difficult and entailed effortful forms of self-presentation that depleted one’s self-regulatory resources. Further research is necessary to examine the effects of compensatory self-enhancement, which has been found to be an effective coping strategy on self-regulatory resources when one is faced with the multiple audience problem.

Highlights

Presenting oneself effectively to others results in one making friends and in occupational success, psychological well-being, and other desirable outcomes (Leary, 1995; Rosenfeld, Giacalone, & Riordan, 2002; Schlenker, 2003)
It was predicted that the participants in the inconsistent condition, who were confronted with the multiple audience problem, would give up faster on the mathematics problems than the participants in the consistent condition, who did not have to face the multiple audience problem
The analysis revealed that the participants in the inconsistent condition solved less multiplication problems than the participants in the consistent condition (t (36) = 5.22, p < .001)

Summary

Introduction

Presenting oneself effectively to others results in one making friends and in occupational success, psychological well-being, and other desirable outcomes (Leary, 1995; Rosenfeld, Giacalone, & Riordan, 2002; Schlenker, 2003). People are often at a loss about how to behave in a situation where their behaviors are simultaneously being witnessed by several sets of individuals to whom they wish to presentdifferent personalities An example of such a situation would be a female college student who is talking to her boyfriend in the classroom and who is aware that her same-sex friends are listening to the conversation. These difficult self-presentation dilemmas in which a person is faced with two or more “audiences” while simultaneously wanting each audience to form or maintain a different impression of him/her is referred to as the multiple audience problem (Fleming, 1994; Fleming, Darley, Hilton, & Kojetin, 1990). It is important to determine and elucidate the mechanism due to which people fail to effectively self-present in a multiple audience context

Methods

Results

Conclusion