Self-monitoring
Self-monitoring, a concept introduced in the 1970s by Mark Snyder, describes the extent to which people monitor their self-presentations, expressive behavior, and nonverbal affective displays. Snyder held that human beings generally differ in substantial ways in their abilities and desires to engage in expressive controls. Self-monitoring is defined as a personality trait that refers to an ability to regulate behavior to accommodate social situations. People concerned with their expressive self-presentation tend to closely monitor their audience in order to ensure appropriate or desired public appearances. Self-monitors try to understand how individuals and groups will perceive their actions. Some personality types commonly act spontaneously and others are more apt to purposely control and consciously adjust their behavior. Recent studies suggest that a distinction should be made between acquisitive and protective self-monitoring due to their different interactions with metatraits. This differentiates the motive behind self-monitoring behaviours: for the purpose of acquiring appraisal from others or protecting oneself from social disapproval.
Low vs high self monitors
Someone who is high in self-monitoring is more likely to align their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to that of their partners. In comparison to low self-monitors, high self monitors participate in more expressive control and have a concern for situational appropriateness. High self-monitors can act like "social chameleons": they change the way they present themselves depending upon who they are with.Some traits of high self-monitors include readily and easily modifying their behavior in response to the demands of the situation, whereas low self-monitors care little about modifying their behavior in response to the situation and tend to maintain the same opinions and attitudes regardless of the situation. High self-monitors find it much easier to modify their behavior based on the situation than low self-monitors do. High self-monitors would be more likely to change their beliefs and opinions depending on who they are talking to, while low self-monitors would tend to be consistent throughout all situations. This has been studied mainly in correspondence with relationships. Compared to low self-monitors, high self-monitors will have more dating and sexual partners, are more interested in having sex with people they are not in love with, and are more likely to have had sex with someone only once, as well as be more likely to deceive potential romantic partners. High self-monitors are more likely to choose a romantic partner who is attractive but unsociable, while low self-monitors are more likely to choose a partner who is unattractive but sociable. High self-monitors are also more likely to take on leadership positions than low self-monitors.
Differences in individuals' propensity for self-monitoring have a heritable component, but the likelihood that a person becomes a high self-monitor also varies between social contexts and groups. For example, on average, sexual minorities are more likely to be high self-monitors than their otherwise similar heterosexual counterparts, but this difference exists primarily in geographic areas where the stigma against minority sexual orientations is strong. In the United States, for example, differences in self-monitoring based on sexual orientation have been documented in rural areas and small towns but do not seem to exist in the context of large cities, which tend to be more tolerant of minority sexual orientations.
Scale
Snyder's self monitoring scale was developed in 1974. It measures whether or not an individual has the will and ability to change how they are perceived by utilizing impression management in various social interactions. The score is based on twenty five true or false statements that the individual answers according to their thought process and is used to determine how an individual may manipulate nonverbal signals and adjust their actions according to a situation. The twenty five statements are intended to identify a person's concern about their own presentation and social appropriateness when it comes to social events. This may be seen by the way in which they speak and what topics they bring up. The statements also imply how a person acts in comparison to the other people in the same setting. By using comparison, people can pick up on cues for how to behave as well as present themselves.The twenty five statements also help to identify how well a person controls expressive behavior as well as how well a person controls expressive behavior in addition to how they act despite certain feelings. For example, because of good self monitoring skills, a person may act kind and tolerant of someone whom they dislike. Lastly, these statements help us to identify how different situations tailor a person's behavior. An individual may act one way in a situation and a complete opposite way in the next situation. The score is calculated based on the individuals response to the True or False questions. A low score on the self-monitoring scale can range anywhere from 0-8 and a high score ranges from 15 to 22.Individualistic differences
Social approach
It has been argued that individualism should influence self-monitoring. Cultures high on individualism focus on the self, not others. In individualistic cultures, knowing the context is not necessary to predict others' behavior; thus people from individualistic cultures are more likely to be low self-monitors. Cultures low on individualism, in contrast, value conformity to ingroups and group memberships. In collectivistic cultures, knowing the context and social status of the other person is essential to predicting his or her behavior.On the surface, it might appear that highly individualistic cultures would reinforce low self-monitoring and collectivistic cultures would reinforce high self-monitoring. This, however, is not the case. High self-monitors imagine what the prototypic person for the situation would be and try to be that person, while low self-monitors "draw upon an enduring self-image or self-conception that represents knowledge of her or his characteristic actions in the behavioral domains relevant to the situation". Members of collectivistic cultures' self-conception include their relationship with others present in the situation. They, therefore, must take status relationships into consideration when deciding how to behave in a particular situation. This suggests they do not base their behavior on how a prototypic person would behave in the situation.
Job performance
It has been shown that there is a significant relation between an individual's performance at his/her job and his or her ability to change their self-presentation in order to most adapt to the situation. Self-monitoring was most important during early tenure. This history of finding individual difference variables that relate to job performance has been unsuccessful. Some of the reasons why it is difficult to use individual difference variables to predict job performance is because there is a failure to consider contextual effects such as informational influence and pressures for conformity. Other difficulties are a result from attempting to use personality measures without having a good understanding of the nature of the job and the individual's development in the job. This results in the individual differences being assessed without fully understanding why they should affect job performance directly or how they may affect an individual's performance when you take into consideration increased job knowledge that an individual may gain through experience.One case that shows how success could be related to individual predispositions is in organizations where individuals hold boundary-spanning positions. Boundary spanners purpose is to filter and transfer information across organizational boundaries. The individuals that are responsible for this transfer of information may be in roles both inside and outside the organization. Therefore, they should be able to respond to social and informational stimuli, inside and outside the organization. The nature of this job makes it likely that an individual's performance in this role is likely to be influenced by the degree to which that person can perceive, understand and adapt to different social situations as appropriate. In essence, an individual who is a high self-monitor would be better at responding to different social cues and hence be more equipped to transfer information effectively across organizational borders and consequently be a higher performer.
Over time, however, the competitive advantage that high self-monitors have over low self-monitors is reduced as job knowledge increases through experience and poor performers leave boundary spanning roles.
Social impacts
Riggio et al., suggests that self-monitoring as defined by the self-monitoring scale is composed of many elements which are central to social interaction. It was determined that the elements of self-monitoring appear to be "charisma", "performance", and "social sensitivity". Therefore, it is determinable that those with high levels of self-monitoring had greater skill at navigating and bridging social situations, while in contrast, those with lower levels of self-monitoring may struggle in the same situations.The differences between how high self monitors and low self monitors treat relationships and social situations stem from differences in what they seek to gain out of their social life and their understanding of self. High self-monitors view their self as a product of social interactions and their own adaptability in various social settings. In contrast, low self-monitors view their self as a product of personal dispositions and their effects on social situations. High self-monitors look for friends with similar activity preferences, while low self-monitors look for friends with similar attitudes. High self-monitors also generally end up becoming close to other high self-monitors, and vice versa with low self-monitors.