title: The emotional consequences of social pragmatism: the psychophysiological correlates of self-monitoring.
abstract: Self-monitoring refers to the extent to which people regulate their self-presentation by tailoring their behaviors to social situations. To examine the psychophysiological correlates of self-monitoring, we measured heart rate, skin conductance level, and EEG alpha of the frontal and parietal scalp regions during baseline and while anticipating an impromptu speech task. High self-monitors showed lower cortical activity in the frontal and parietal scalp regions than low self-monitors. Furthermore, self-monitoring scores were negatively correlated with skin conductance level when anticipating social threat. Social anxiety and depression did not account for these results. The findings suggest that high self-monitors show lower autonomic and cortical arousal than low self-monitors when anticipating social stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215-2002, USA. shofmann@bu.edu
authors.forename: Stefan G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Hofmann
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012925:Social Conformity; D012928:Social Desirability; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*