title: Self-monitoring: appraisal and reappraisal.
abstract: Theory and research on self-monitoring have accumulated into a sizable literature on the impact of variation in the extent to which people cultivate public appearances in diverse domains of social functioning. Yet self-monitoring and its measure, the Self-Monitoring Scale, are surrounded by controversy generated by conflicting answers to the critical question, Is self-monitoring a unitary phenomenon? A primary source of answers to this question has been largely neglected--the Self-Monitoring Scale's relations with external criteria. We propose a quantitative method to examine the self-monitoring literature and thereby address major issues of the controversy. Application of this method reveals that, with important exceptions, a wide range of external criteria tap a dimension directly measured by the Self-Monitoring Scale. We discuss what this appraisal reveals about with self-monitoring is and is not.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque 87131, USA. sgangest@unm.edu
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Gangestad
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Snyder
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards; D011594:Psychometrics; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012927:Social Control, Informal