Use of first person pronouns as a function of increased objective self-awareness and performance feedback

Abstract

A recent integrating formalation in social psychology, the Duval-Wicklund theory of “objective self-awareness,” has the core assumption that attention focused on the self is always aversive and, hence, avoided. While faced with either a TV camera or a mirror, and after they had received false feedback concerning their creativity, 98 undergraduates guessed at the meaning of foreign language pronouns, the unobtrusive dependent measure of the direction of the focus of attention. The standard Duval-Wicklund effect was replicated—more attention to self, that is, more first-person pronouns—in the “camera” or “mirror” than in the “no camera” or “no mirror” conditions. However, within the camera or mirror conditions, avoidance of self-focused attention occurred only after negative feedback.