Mark Snyder

On the nature of self-monitoring: matters of assessment, matters of validity.

An extensive network of empirical relations has been identified in research on the psychological construct of self-monitoring. Nevertheless, in recent years some concerns have been expressed about the instrument used for the assessment of self-monitoring propensities, the Self-Monitoring Scale. Both the extent to which the measure taps an interpretable and meaningful causal variable and the extent to which the self-monitoring construct provides an appropriate theoretical understanding of this causal variable have been questioned. An examination of reanalyses of studies of self-monitoring, analyses of the internal structure of the Self-Monitoring Scale, and further relevant data suggest that the measure does tap a meaningful and interpretable causal variable with pervasive influences on social behavior, a variable reflected as a general self-monitoring factor. We discuss the evaluation and furthering of the interpretation of this latent causal variable, offer criteria for evaluating alternative measures of self-monitoring, and present a new, 18-item Self-Monitoring Scale.

Sustained helping without obligation: Motivation, longevity of service, and perceived attitude change among AIDS volunteers

A conceptual framework that identifies psychological and behavioral features associated with antecedents, experiences, and consequences of volunteerism is presented, and an inventory that measures 5 specific motivations for AIDS volunteerism is developed and cross-validated. Then a field study of 116 AIDS volunteers is presented in which a helping disposition, volunteer motivations, and social support (as antecedents), and personal satisfaction and organizational integration (as experiences) are used to predict duration of service over 2 1/2 years. Structural equation analyses indicate that dispositional helping influences satisfaction and integration but not duration of service, whereas greater motivation and less social support predict longer active volunteer service. The model is generalized to the prediction of perceived attitude change. Implications for conceptualizations of motivation, theoretical issues in helping, and practical concerns of volunteer organizations are discussed.

Hypothesis-testing processes in social interaction.

In the course of social relationships, individuals often attempt to make judgments about the personal attributes of other people. At times, this quest for knowledge may involve the testing of hypotheses about other people. When we form our early impressions of new acquaintances, we may wish to test hypotheses based upon our expectations about their personal dispositions (Is this new acquaintance as friendly as a mutual friend has

Self-Monitoring Processes

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the identification, consequences, and processes of self-monitoring. Empirical research on self-monitoring processes began with the construction and validation of the Self-Monitoring Scale, an instrument designed to translate the self-monitoring construct in an instrument that reliably and validly identifies it. Self-monitoring is the proposition that individuals can and should exercise control over their expressive behavior, self-presentation, and nonverbal displays of affect. Self-monitoring processes meaningfully channel and influence worldviews, behavior in social situations, and the unfolding dynamics of interactions with other individuals. It is the intent of this chapter to trace the origins and development of the social psychological construct of self-monitoring, to chart the behavioral and interpersonal consequences of self-monitoring, and to probe the cognitive and psychological processes of self-monitoring. The chapter provides some guidelines for conceptualizing and investigating the interplay of individuals and their situations.

The Motivations to Volunteer Theoretical and Practical Considerations

Why do significant numbers of people engage in the unpaid helping activities known as volunteerism? Drawing on functional theorizing about the reasons, purposes, and motivations underlying human behavior, we have identified six personal and social functions potentially served by volunteering. In addition to developing an inventory to assess these motivational functions, our program of research has explored the role of motivation in the processes of volunteerism, especially decisions about becoming a volunteer in the first place and decisions about continuing to volunteer.

Reconstructing the Past: Some Cognitive Consequences of Person Perception

An experiment was conducted to investigate systematic retrospective distortions of past events precipitated by ones current beliefs about another individual. Participants read an extensive narrative about the life of a woman named Betty K. Either immediately after reading the case history or 1 week later, some participants learned that she was currently living a lesbian life-style; others learned that she was currently living a heterosexual life-style; still others learned nothing about her life-style. The impact of this new information on recognition memory for factual events in Betty K.s life was assessed 1 week after reading the case history. Participants selectively affirmed events that supported and bolstered their current interpretations of Betty K. Performance was the same whether participants learned this information immediately after reading the case history or 1 week later. Additional evidence suggests that these results are best characterized as the product of an interaction between stereotyped beliefs about sexuality and genuine memory for factual events. Implications of these findings for the nature, function, and consequences of social knowledge are discussed.

Self-monitoring: Appraisal and reappraisal.

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 Scales 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.

To carve nature at its joints: On the existence of discrete classes in personality.

In principle, units of personality may be of two varieties: dimensional variables, which involve continuously distributed differences in degree, and class variables, which involve discretely distributed differences in kind. There exists, however, a prevailing and rarely questioned assumption that the units of personality are continuous dimensions and an accompanying prejudice against class variables. We examine this prejudice, the arguments that generated it, and those that uphold it. We conclude that these arguments are applicable to class variables as they often have been explicated, in phenetic terms; by contrast, genetically explicated class variables are not vulnerable to these arguments. We propose criteria for conjecturing and present methods for corroborating the existence of class variables in personality. Specifically, we test a class model of a construct whose conceptual status makes it reasonable to evaluate whether or not the differences between individuals represented by this construct constitute discrete classes. Finally, we examine the implications for conceptualizing and investigating the nature and origins of personality.

Behavioral confirmation in social interaction: From social perception to social reality

Abstract A perceivers actions, although based upon initially erroneous beliefs about a target individual may channel social interaction in ways that cause the behavior of the target to confirm the perceivers beliefs. To chart this process of behavioral confirmation, we observed successive interactions between one target and two perceivers. In the first interaction, targets who interacted with perceivers who anticipated hostile partners displayed greater behavioral hostility than targets whose perceivers expected nonhostile partners. Only when targets regarded their actions as reflections of personal dispositions did these behavioral differences in hostility persevere into their subsequent interactions with naive perceivers who had no prior knowledge about them. Theoretical implications of the behavioral confirmation construct for social perception processes are discussed.

Hierarchical nanofabrication of microporous crystals with ordered mesoporosity

Shaped zeolite nanocrystals and larger zeolite particles with three-dimensionally ordered mesoporous (3DOm) features hold exciting technological implications for manufacturing thin, oriented molecular sieve films and realizing new selective, molecularly accessible and robust catalysts. A recognized means for controlled synthesis of such nanoparticulate and imprinted materials revolves around templating approaches, yet identification of an appropriately versatile template has remained elusive. Because of their highly interconnected pore space, ordered mesoporous carbon replicas serve as conceptually attractive materials for carrying out confined synthesis of zeolite crystals. Here, we demonstrate how a wide range of crystal morphologies can be realized through such confined growth within 3DOm carbon, synthesized by replication of colloidal crystals composed of size-tunable (about 10-40 nm) silica nanoparticles. Confined crystal growth within these templates leads to size-tunable, uniformly shaped silicalite-1 nanocrystals as well as 3DOm-imprinted single-crystal zeolite particles. In addition, novel crystal morphologies, consisting of faceted crystal outgrowths from primary crystalline particles have been discovered, providing new insight into constricted crystal growth mechanisms underlying confined synthesis.