Social Psychology Series
John Harvey, Series Editor
Empathy: A Social Psychological Approach, Mark H. Davis
Violence Within the Family: Social Psychological Perspectives, Sharon D. Herzberger
Social Dilemmas, Samuel S. Komorita and Craig D. Parks
Self-Presentation: Impression Management and Interpersonal Behavior, Mark R. Leary
Experimental and Nonexperimental Designs in Social Psychology, Abraham S. Ross and Malcolm Grant
Intergroup Relations, Walter G. Stephan and Cookie White Stephan
First published 1996 by Westview Press
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Leary, Mark R.
Self-presentation : impression management and interpersonal behavior / by Mark R. Leary.
p. cm.
Madison, Wis. : Brown & Benchmark Publishers, c1995.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8133-3004-1 (pbk.)
1. Self-presentation 2. Interpersonal relations. 3. Social interactions. I. Title.
BF697.5.S44L43 1996
158.2dc20 96-1276
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-3004-4 (pbk)
Publishers Note The publisher has gone to great l engths to e nsure the quality o f this book but regrets to inform the c ustomer that previously available online resources are no longer available with this title.
This book is about the ways in which human behavior is affected by peoples concerns with their public impressions. No matter what else people may be doing, they typically prefer that other people perceive them in certain desired ways and not perceive them in other, undesired ways. Put simply, human beings have a pervasive and ongoing concern with their self-presentations. Sometimes they act in certain ways just to make a particular impression on someone elseas when a job applicant responds in ways that will satisfactorily impress the interviewer. But more often, peoples concerns with others impressions simply constrain their behavioral options. Most of the time we are not inclined to do things that will lead others to see us as incompetent, immoral, maladjusted, or otherwise socially undesirable. As a result, our concerns with others impressions limit what we are willing to do. Self-presentational motives underlie and pervade nearly every corner of interpersonal life.
Herein lies an interesting paradox. Virtually everyone is attentive to, if not explicitly concerned about how he or she is perceived and evaluated by other people. Yet most people try to deny that they are personally bothered by such superficial concerns with public appearances. We sometimes suspect that other people are putting on a showthey are not as smart/wealthy/competent/ethical/connected/etc. as they try to appear. But, with a few exceptions, most of us deny that we put on similar shows for the various audiences we encounter throughout the day. Of course, such denials are, themselves, often self-presentational. To achieve our goals in social life, we must assure that others take our public impressions at face valuethat they do not doubt that we are who and what we appear to be. (This is one hazard of doing self-presentational research; people assume that a psychologist who studies self-presentation must be a particularly fervid impression manager.)
One theme of this book is that, far from being a sign of insecurity, vanity, or shallowness, a certain degree of concern for ones public impressions is essential for smooth and successful social interaction. Thats not to say that such concerns arent sometimes inappropriate, excessive, or even dangerous. But self-presentational excesses should not blind us to the fact that a certain degree of attention to the impressions we are making is often a good thing. Because the course of social interaction is strongly affected by the impressions the interactants have of one another, something would be amiss if people werent concerned about being perceived in ways that facilitate their goals. Indeed, people who show no concern for others impressions of them are generally derogated and ostracized. We label such people as rude, inconsiderate, socially unskilled, boorish, or even mentally disturbed.
This book is organized around four general issues or themes regarding the functions, causes, and effects of self-presentation in everyday life. The first two chapters provide us with a background for understanding self-presentation, with an emphasis on the tactics people use to manage their impressions. As we will see, virtually any behavior can be used for self-presentational purposes. Dont infer from this that all behavior is self-presentational; it certainly is not. Im simply saying that almost any behavior can be motivated by self-presentational concerns on some occasions.
The second issue we will address involves the question of why people are motivated to manage their impressions. This is, in fact, two questions, one asking why people should ever be motivated to manage their impressions, and the other asking why people are more motivated to impression-manage in some situations than in others and why some people are generally more motivated to impression-manage than other people.
The largest portion of the book, , examines the myriad of factors that affect the kinds of impressions people try to convey in a particular situation. As we will see, some of these factors involve features of the social setting, whereas others involve the persons own personal characteristics.
Finally, the book concludes with a look at what happens, both behaviorally and emotionally, when people think they are making undesired impressions on other people. Self-presentational worries can seriously disrupt social interactions and the behavior of people in them.
In writing the book, Ive tried to walk the very fine line between writing a relatively comprehensive, integrative review of the literature that will be of use to behavioral researchers interested in self-presenta-tional processes and a readable, user-friendly text that will provide interesting and educational reading for undergraduate and graduate students. The book would serve nicely as a supplemental text in undergraduate and graduate courses in social psychology and personality. I hope Ive successfully walked that line but, in the end, thats for you, the reader, to judge.
