Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale Research Articles

USE OF THE DRAMATURGICAL METAPHOR IN THE MEASUREMENT OF SELF-MONITORING

Factor analyses of the self-monitoring scale consistently reveal an acting ability factor, which refers to performance in the sense of theatrical entertainment and may have little to do with self-presentation in real-life interactions. A set of social acting items having face validity for ability to modify self – presentation in everyday life is shown to have very little in common with stage acting items of Snyder's Self-monitoring scale. The results point to the necessity of distinguishing between contingent and noncontingent self-presentation.

Assessment of basic social skills.

California State University, FullertonFollowing recent developments in the measurement of individual differences in nonverbal socialskills, we proposed a conceptual framework for defining and assessing basic social skills. Preliminarytesting resulted in the development of a 105-item, pencil-and-paper measure of seven basic dimen-sions of social skills, called the Social Skills Inventory (SSI). In a series of validation studies usingundergraduate students, the SSI demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity in relation toother measures of nonverbal social skill and traditional personality scales. Scores on the SSI alsopredicted some social group memberships, typical social behaviors, and the depth of social networks.This evidence suggests that the SSI could prove to be a valuable tool for research in personality andsocial psychology and for work in applied settings.In recent years there has been increased attention to denningand assessing individual differences in social abilities and inter-personal skills. Work in this area is progressing on severalfronts. Psychologists have become increasingly concerned withthe assessment and development of social skills for assistingclinical populations (see Curran & Monti, 1982; Trower, Bry-ant, & Argyle, 1978; Wine & Smye, 1981). Personality and so-cial psychologists have developed standardized instruments thatassess dimensions related to interpersonal skill and social effec-tiveness, for example, measures of constructs such as empathy(Hogan, 1969; Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972), shyness, sociabil-ity, (Cheek & Buss, 1981), and self-monitoring (Snyder, 1974,1979). Communication researchers have concerned themselveswith the assessment of communicative competence (Diez,1984;Wiemann, 1977;WiemannB E. L. Thorndike, 1920;R. L. Thorndike, 1936; R. L. Thorndike & Stein, 1937). How-ever, difficulties in assessing social intelligence, particularly theinability to discriminate social intelligence from general intelli-gence, led to the demise of this line of research. It was manyyears later that research on the measurement of social abilitieswas revived with the work of Ouilford and his colleagues onbehavioral intelligence (Guilford, 1967) and the development ofscales to assess empathy (Dymond, 1949; Hogan, 1969). MoreThis research was supported by intramural grants from CaliforniaState University, Fullerton (CSUF) and from a CSUF President's Sum-mer Research Grant.Special thanks go to Barbara Throckmorton, Kathy Lang, and BruceSmith for their tremendous assistance in data collection and to MariaHale, Patti Hopkinson, Larisa Lamb, Mary Lybeck, Kevin McNulty,Mitch Okada, and Debbie White for their help. Chris Cozby, RichardLippa, Keith Widaman, Stan Woll, and Judy Zimmerman made manyhelpful comments and suggestions.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ron-ald E. Riggio, Department of Psychology, California State University,Fullerton, California 92634.recent are the attempts to measure individual differences innonverbal communication skill (Rosenthal, 1979; see alsoO'Sullivan, 1983, for a historical overview).Although the present research is most closely aligned withthis latest orientation, it is impossible to define social skillswithout incorporating the work of a vast array of social scienceresearchers. There is perhaps no adequate single definition ofsocial skills. The variety and assortment of dimensions labeledas social skills is enormous. Yet there are certain consistenciesin the varying theoretical perspectives. Many social skill re-searchers agree that the basic sending and receiving of informa-tion represent key social skills. Indeed, Hall (1979) divided so-cial communication skills into two broad classes of sending andreceiving. Additional social skills involve cognitive abilitiessuch as interpersonal problem-solving skills and role-playingabilities (Meichenbaum, Butler, & Gruson, 1981).Many existing measures of social skills focus on a single, spe-cific type of skill, skill deficit, or skill-related construct such asassertiveness (Rathus, 1973), nonverbal sensitivity (Rosenthal,Hall, DiMatteo, Rogers, & Archer, 1979), fear of negative evalu-ation (Watson & Friend, 1969), or communication apprehen-sion (McCroskey, 1977). Some instruments that purport tomeasure singular dimensions of social skill may, in fact, be as-sessing constructs that are truly multidimensional; that is, com-prised of more basic independent social skills. Such appears tobe the case with Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS, Snyder,1974), which may be composed of three more basic social skills(Briggs , Cheek & Buss 1980 ; Riggio Friedman 1982 seealso Lennox & Wolfe, 1984). Similar multidimensionality mayunderly the constructs of empathy (Davis, 1983) and assertive-ness (Galassi, Galassi, & Vedder, 1981).The presen t study is an attemp to develop general frame-work for several basic dimensions of social skill and to reporton the construction of a self-report assessment tool to measurethese basic skill dimensions. This framework is derived frommultidisciplinary research on social and interpersonal skills,but it springs most directly from the attempts of social personal-ity psychologists to measure individual differences in nonverbalcommunication skills. Most notable of these attempts are thework of Rosenthal and his colleagues (Rosenthal et al., 1979)and Buck (1984) on measuring nonverbal sensitivity, Friedman

The Self-Monitoring Scale: A Factorial Comparison among Mexicans, Mexican Americans and Anglo Americans

The purpose of this study was to determine the factorial structure of Snyder's (1974) Self-Monitoring Scale (SM) for Mexican, Mexican American, and Anglo American samples. The SM Scale was translated into Spanish and the adequacy of the translation determined. Responses to the SM Scale by 138 Mexican, 154 Mexican American, and 145 Anglo American undergraduates were factor analyzed separately and as a total sample. The data for the entire sample partially replicated the findings of Gabrenya and Arkin (1980). Clear differences in the structure of SM responses for the three Ethnic/National groups exist. The meaning of subjects' responses to SM items are thus culturally dependent, although means and standard deviations of SM responses did not differ among the three groups. These findings are discussed in terms of appropriate and inappropriate uses for the SM Scale in social-psychological research.

USE OF THE DRAMATURGICAL METAPHOR IN THE MEASUREMENT OF SELF-MONITORING

Factor analyses of the self-monitoring scale consistently reveal an acting ability factor refer to performance in the sense of theatrical entertainment and may have little to with self-presentation in real-life interactions. A set of social acting items having face validity for ability to modify self-presentation in everyday life is shown to have very little in common with stage acting items of Snyder's Self-monitoring scale. The results point to the necessity of distinguishing between contingent and noncontingent self-presentation.

Relationship of physicians' nonverbal communication skill to patient satisfaction, appointment noncompliance, and physician workload.

A field study of 28 residents in family practice was conducted. Physicians' self-reports of empathy, self-monitoring ability, and affective communication skill as well as their objectively measured nonverbal communication skills were examined as predictors of patient satisfaction, appointment noncompliance, and physician workload (schedule density). Physicians completed the Hogan Empathy Scale, Snyder Self-Monitoring Scale, Affective Communication Test, short form of the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity, and a nonverbal encoding task. Patient satisfaction with communication, affective care, and technical care was assessed using a 25-item, visit-specific satisfaction scale. Appointment records were used to determine the number of patients seen by each physician and the compliance of patients with scheduled appointments. Results indicated that the three self-report measures were unrelated to the measures of patient noncompliance and patient satisfaction, but self-reported affective communication ability was significantly correlated with physician workload. Objectively measured physician sensitivity to audio communication predicted patient compliance: More sensitive physicians experienced fewer unrescheduled appointment cancellations. Nonverbal encoding skill was significantly related to patient satisfaction with affective care and to physician workload.

Biasing evaluations to appear unbiased: A self-presentational paradox

Subjects interviewed a confederate posing as a job applicant. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, half the subjects were insulted by the confederate at the end of the interview and half were not insulted. Half the subjects were observed by the experimenter during the final phase of the interview and evaluated the confederate publicly. The remaining subjects were unobserved during the interview and evaluated the confederate anonymously. As predicted, subjects who were publicly insulted were more favorable toward the confederate than were subjects who were privately insulted. Within the public/insult condition, subjects scoring high on Snyder's (1974, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 526–537) self-monitoring scale were more favorable toward the confederate than were subjects scoring low on this scale. The positivity bias occurred only on highly subjective ratings, which are most prone to the appearance of bias. The results are discussed in terms of the subjects' desire to avoid the appearance of bias by biasing their evaluations.

Personality Characteristics of Extreme Scorers on the Self-Monitoring Scale

Extreme high and extreme low self-monitors rated themselves and were rated by four close acquaintances on Gough's Adjective Check List and Cattell's 16 PF Profile Sheet. The theory of Snyder implies that high self-monitors ought to use more adjectives in describing themselves and that their acquaintances ought to use more adjectives in describing them. The observed differences were in the right direction but were nonsignificant. Another implication is that there should be greater self-other and other-other agreement in ratings of low self-monitors; results did not support these predictions either. Snyder's theory implies a direct relationship between self-monitoring and social desirability. In this study, high and low self-monitors did not differ in reliance on likability of adjectives used in self-descriptions. Although the construct and the scale may be useful in some contexts, self-monitoring as measured by Snyder's Self-monitoring Scale seems to have little relationship to cross-situational consistency.

PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF EXTREME SCORERS ON THE SELF-MONITORING SCALE

Extreme high and extreme low self-monitors rated themselves and were rated by four close acquaintances on Gough's Adjective Check List and Cattell's 16 PF Profile Sheet. The theory of Snyder implies that high self-monitors ought to use more adjectives in describing themselves and that their acquaintances ought to use more adjectives in describing them. The observed differences were in the right direction but were nonsignificant. Another implication is that there should be greater self-other and other-other agreement in ratings of low self-monitors; results did not support these predictions either. Snyder's theory implies a direct relationship between self-monitoring and social desirability. In this study, high and low self-monitors did not differ in reliance on likability of adjectives used in self-descriptions. Although the construct and the scale may be useful in some contexts, self-monitoring as measured by Snyder's Self-monitoring Scale seems to have little relationship to cross-situational consistency.

Revision of the Self-Monitoring Scale.

Snyder's (1974) Self-Monitoring Scale exhibits a stable factor structure that does not correspond to the five-component theoretical structure he presents. Sets of face-valid items that better approximate the theoretical structure are described. Correlations between these sets of items and measures of other constructs reveal that four of the five components are positively related to social anxiety. Effective social interaction is supposedly the high self-monitor's forte, and social anxiety appears to be incompatible with this. The correlational results therefore question the entire theory and indicate the need for a narrower definition of the construct. Adopting such a definition from Snyder's review article (1979), we present a 13-item Revised Self-Monitoring scale which measures only sensitivity to the expressive behavior of others and ability to modify self-presentation. A 20-item Concern for Appropriateness scale is also described. This scale measures 2 variables that are directly associated with social anxiety--cross-situational variability and attention to social comparison information. Both scales have acceptable internal consistency, and both yield 2 subscale scores as well as a total score. Prospective users of either scale are advised to treat the 3 scores separately.

Revision of the self-monitoring scale.

Snyder's (1974) Self-Monitoring Scale exhibits a stable factor structure that does not correspond to the five-component theoretical structure he presents. Sets of face-valid items that better approximate the theoretical structure are described. Correlations between these sets of items and measures of other constructs reveal that four of the five components are positively related to social anxiety. Effective social interaction is supposedly the high self-monitor's forte, and social anxiety appears to be incompatible with this. The correlational results therefore question the entire theory and indicate the need for a narrower definition of the construct. Adopting such a definition from Snyder's review article (1979), we present a 13-item Revised Self-Monitoring scale which measures only sensitivity to the expressive behavior of others and ability to modify self-presentation. A 20-item Concern for Appropriateness scale is also described. This scale measures 2 variables that are directly associated with social anxiety--cross-situational variability and attention to social comparison information. Both scales have acceptable internal consistency, and both yield 2 subscale scores as well as a total score. Prospective users of either scale are advised to treat the 3 scores separately.

The effects of self-monitoring on the expressive display of masculinity-femininity

Do self-monitoring processes influence (1) the correspondence between assessed personality and expressive masculinity-femininity, and (2) the cross-channel consistency (face, body, voice) of expressive masculinity-femininity? To answer these questions, 36 male and 36 females completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) and Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale, and then were videotaped as teachers. Five groups of naive judges rated these stimulus subjects on expressive masculinity-femininity, basing their respective ratings on: video pictures and voices, just pictures, just faces, just bodies, or just voices. A sixth group of judges rated subjects on physical attractiveness. The results indicated that judged physical attractiveness was significantly correlated with judged masculinity-femininity, with men being judged more masculine and females more feminine the more attractive they were. BSRI femininity correlated strongly with judged masculinity-femininity, and BSRI masculinity, less so. Finally, self-monitoring did prove to moderate the correspondence between personality and expressive behavior, and the cross-channel consistency of masculinity-femininity cues: however, these moderating effects were different for males and females.

Self-monitoring and sex as moderator variables in the statistical explanation of self-reported marijuana and alcohol use.

Self-monitoring and sex are examined as likely moderators of some of the known effective predictors of self-reported use of marijuana and alcohol. The theory of self-monitoring implies that in comparisons between low and high self-monitors, dispositional predictors account for more of the variance in reported use among low self-monitors and environmental predictors account for more of the variance among high self-monitors. With the two classes of predictors established via principal-components analysis and with subgroups defined by scores on Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale, data from 807 college students showed that self-monitoring does not affect the action of either dispositional or environmental predictors. Thus, the self-monitoring construct promises explanatory leverage that in these tests, the scale is not able to deliver. When subgroups are defined by sex, analyses of reported alcohol use yield small but significant moderator effects: Women's use is more predictable from environmental variables, whereas men's use is more predictable from dispositional variables. These effects are consistent with the conclusions of recent meta-analyses of results from studies of sex differences in conformity to group pressures.

THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF BEM AND ALLEN'S MEASURE OF CROSS-SITUATIONAL CONSISTENCY

The reliability and validity of Bem and Allen's technique of measuring cross-situational consistency was investigated. Subjects answered questions concerning consistency in academic behavior and general consistency and filled out Snyder's Self-monitoring Scale twice. Whereas the test-retest reliability of the Bem and Allen type questions was quite low, the reliability of the Self-monitoring Scale was relatively high. The correlation between self-reports of variability in academic behaviour and actual variability in grades was significant, while the correlation between self-reports of general consistency and sell-monitoring scores was not. The problem of using a single-item technique to measure consistency was discussed.

セルフ・モニタリング尺度に関する研究

This study attempted to examine the internal structure of Snyder's Self-Monitoring (SM) scale. Factor analysis of SM scale yielded three factors: Extraversion, Other-Directedness, and Acting. In correlational analyses with other personality measures, Extraversion correlated positively with Maudsley Personality Inventory-E (MPI-E) scale and Self-Esteem scale and negatively with Social anxiety of Self-Consciousness (SC) scale. Other-Directedness correlated positively with Public Self-Consciousness of SC scale. Acting correlated positively with MPI-E scale. Extraversion factor was founded to discribe the behavior of extraverts. Other-Directedness factor was interpreted to be a concern for the appropriateness of social behavior. Acting factor was related to tactfulness and liking for speaking to and entertaining others. These three factors showed highly positive inter-correlations, and each factor had some degree of internal consistency. These findings suggested that the factorial structure of the SM scale was not unidimensional but multidimensional.

Intraindividual consistency in personality assessment: The effect of self-monitoring

Low and high scoring individuals on Snyder's Self-Monitoring (SM) Scale were compared for differences in (a) variability in personality descriptions provided by 10 acquaintances, and (b) discrepancies between their self-ratings and the averaged acquaintance ratings. Each subject was rated by 10 different persons (e.g., parent, sibling, roommate, teacher), and the standard deviations of their ratings on each subject for 14 personality dimensions served as dependent measures. Contrary to the first hypothesis, no differences in the variability of acquaintance ratings were observed between SM groups. The second hypothesis received substantial empirical support. High SM subjects showed a significantly larger discrepancy between self-ratings and the mean acquaintance ratings, primarily because they rated themselves more highly on traits than their acquaintances did. High self-monitors also showed less similarity in the shape of the two personality profiles generated by self- and acquaintance ratings across the 14 traits. The discrepancies observed in high SM subjects between self-ratings and the averaged acquaintance ratings (the latter considered to be more objective) extends the finding of Snyder and Tanke (1976) that high SM subjects showed less congruence between self-reported attitudes and behavior. It is suggested that high SM individuals are particularly high on evaluation apprehension and that in both studies they acted in ways which they believed would enhance their self-presentations.

Differences in Self-Monitoring of Expressive Behavior in Depressed and Nondepressed Individuals

Recent research has indicated an association between depression and lack of social skill. The present investigation sought to extend these findings to the self-monitoring of expressive behavior by administering Snyder's (1974) Self-monitoring Scale and Beck's (1967) Depression Inventory to samples from two very different populations, community-residing women volunteers and psychiatric patients. It was predicted that nondepressed subjects would tend to be high in self-monitoring their expressive behavior, while depressed subjects would tend to monitor their expressive behavior less. Data from both samples supported this hypothesis and were discussed as evidence for the validity of the self-monitoring scale.

Personality correlates of hypnotic susceptibility: needs for achievement and autonomy, self-monitoring, and masculinity-femininity.

Abstract A total of 1300 subjects in six samples completed a short battery of personality questionnaires and the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A). Measured hypnotic susceptibility correlated significantly with scores on Tellegen's Absorption Scale (mean r = .27), but not with the Achievement and Autonomy Scales of the PRF (mean r = .11 and .09, respectively), or with Snyder's Self-monitoring Scale (mean r = .01). Subject gender did not moderate the correlations between personality and hypnosis; nor did achievement, autonomy, or self-monitoring scores moderate the correlation between absorption and hypnotizability. Overall, women scored slightly higher than men on HGSHS:A. A further analysis employing Bem's Sex-Role Inventory showed only that the hypnotizability scores of undifferentiated men and women were depressed relative to their androgynous counterparts.

Self-Monitoring Scale

Factor analyses of Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale were conducted with two samples of introduction, psychology, students obtained during consecutive rears. Four factors replicated across years for both males and females: theatric al acting ability, sociability/social anxiety, other-directedness, and speaking ability. The correlations of these factors with several personality instruments were examined to aid in interpreting the factors. The findings indicated that this scale is not unidimensional, raising the possibility that some of its factors, notably sociability/social anxiety,, mat, interact differentially with characteristics of experimental situations.

Attitude–behavior consistency: An individual difference perspective.

Past research suggests that an attitude representing a summary of prior behaviors toward the attitude object is more predictive of subsequent behaviors than is an attitude based on nonbehavioral information. The implications of this finding for an individual difference approach to the issue of attitudebehavior consistency were examined. It was predicted that only individuals whose past behaviors have been relatively invariant (low behavioral variability) and who tend to infer their attitudes from those past behaviors (low selfmonitoring) would express attitudes that summarize past behaviors and, hence, strongly predict future behaviors. In the first session, subjects completed Snyder's self-monitoring scale. In addition, subjects' attitudes toward religion were assessed, and subjects were asked to indicate the extent to which they varied from one situation to another in how religious they were. In the second session approximately 1 month later, several measures of subjects' reports of religious behaviors since the first session were obtained. Attitude-behavior correlations were then computed within each of the four groups of subjects produced by a Low-High Self-Monitoring X Low-High Variability classification scheme. As predicted, only low self-monitors whose past religious behaviors had been relatively invariant manifested high attitude-behavior correlations across all behavioral measures. The implications of the results for the individual difference variables and for the attitude-behavior consistency controversy are discussed.

The relation between the ethics of personal conscience—social responsibility and principled moral reasoning

Three samples of college students were tested on Hogan's Survey of Ethical Attitudes (SEA) and Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT), a test of moral reasoning ability in the Kohlbergian tradition. In addition, one of the samples took Collins's revision of Rotter's Internal-External Scale (I-E) while another sample took Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale. There was a small but reliable tendency for subjects who endorsed the "ethics of personal conscience," as measured by the SEA, to show greater maturity in moral reasoning, as assessed by the DIT. This result was seen as raising some interesting questions about the relation between liberalism-conservatism and moral maturity. The subjects who advocated the ethics of social responsibility tended to show more internal locus of control as measured by the I-E scale. There also was a tendency for subjects who preferred the morality of conventional role-conformity, as measured by the DIT, to have high scores on the Self-Monitoring Scale. The correlations between personal conscience and mature moral reasoning, while significant, were small enough to make it seem that people of various social and political attitudes are likely to achieve maturity in moral reasoning.