Raymond N. Wolfe

Revision of the Self-Monitoring Scale

Snyders (1974) Self-Monitoring Scale exhibits a stable factor structure that does not correspond to the five-component theoretical structure he presents. Sets of face-valid items that better approximate the theoretical structure are described. Correlations between these sets of items and measures of other constructs reveal that four of the five components are positively related to social anxiety. Effective social interaction is supposedly the high self-monitors forte, and social anxiety appears to be incompatible with this. The correlational results therefore question the entire theory and indicate the need for a narrower definition of the construct. Adopting such a definition from Snyders review article (1979), we present a 13-item Revised Self-Monitoring scale which measures only sensitivity to the expressive behavior of others and ability to modify self-presentation. A 20-item Concern for Appropriateness scale is also described. This scale measures 2 variables that are directly associated with social anxiety--cross-situational variability and attention to social comparison information. Both scales have acceptable internal consistency, and both yield 2 subscale scores as well as a total score. Prospective users of either scale are advised to treat the 3 scores separately.

Personality as a Predictor of College Performance

Total SAT score, average grade earned in high school, and 32 personality variables are examined via forward multiple regression analyses to identify the best combination for predicting GPA in a sample of 201 psychology students. Average grade earned in high school enters first, accounting for 19% of the variance in GPA. Self-control enters second, and SAT third; these account for 9% and 5% of the variance, respectively. No other predictors accounted for substantial portions of variance. This pattern of results converges with findings reported by other investigators using other measures of personality. It was recommended that the global trait of self-control or conscientiousness be systematically assessed and used in college admissions decisions.

The Antecedents and Consequences of Academic Excuse-Making: Examining Individual Differences in Procrastination.

Students from two colleges (n = 546) differing in admission selectivity completed measures of academic procrastination and excuses. Procrastination was higher among students at the selective college than students at the nonselective college. Academic procrastination was motivated by task aversiveness for students at the selective college and by fear of task failure and fear of social disapproval for students at the nonselective college. At the nonselective college only, procrastinators compared to nonprocrastinators reported more often using both legitimate and fraudulent excuses in college and during the current semester. Participants reported that excuses were self-generated for the purpose of gaining more assignment time and that most instructors did not require proof for excuses. The characteristics of courses and instructors likely to promote excuse-making by both procrastinators and nonprocrastinators also were examined. These results reflect the need by administrators and personnel to consider individual and situational differences when implementing student-centered intervention programs.

Self-monitoring and the association between confidence and accuracy ☆

Abstract A personality prediction task in which a confidence rating accompanies each judgment is used to test the hypotheses that self-monitoring is positively related to accuracy, positively related to confidence, negatively related to calibration, and capable of acting as a moderator of the relationship between accuracy and confidence. Data from 101 university students support two of these predictions: High self-monitors exhibit more confidence and poorer calibration than low self-monitors. Concern for appropriateness is found to be unrelated to all other variables studied. Results are discussed in the context of socioanalytic theory and recent theories of self-presentation, affectivity, and the relationship between illusions and well-being.

A Commonsense Approach to Personality Measurement

The sun, the moon, the clouds, and the stars provided ancient astrologers with clues to people’s characters and destinies. Other oracles relied on other sources of information: The hydromancer read the airs, winds, and waters; the necromancer consulted with the dead; the haruspex interpreted patterns of lightning or the entrails of a sacrificed animal; the alchemist read shapes formed by a thin stream of molten lead poured into a bowl of water. These soothsayers were regarded as unenlightened by their rivals and descendants, who offered more personalized pronouncements based on elements of the client’s own physical structure: The chiromancer read the lines on one’s palm; the physiognomist, facial features; the phrenologist, skull conformation. More recently, psychologists have sought to discern people’s character by interpreting records of their self-expression, such as samples of handwriting, projective test responses, and nonverbal behavior. Today’s methods of personality measurement arose from this venerable tradition. Many of them still contain remnants of the occult (the word comes from the Latin occultus, past participle of a verb meaning to cover up, to hide) that need to be dispelled.

Conceptual Structure and Conceptual Tempo

College students selected for extremes of concrete and abstract conceptual structure were given 4 visual information-processing tasks: Matching Familiar Figures, Design Recall test, Embedded-figures test, and a task requiring identification of familiar objects presented tachistoscopically at 1/100 sec. Schroders theory of conceptual structure provided a basis for predicting that abstract Ss would proceed more reflectively on the tasks than would concrete Ss, i.e., abstract Ss were expected to show longer response times and a higher proportion of correct responses. Results showed little generality of either speed or accuracy over tasks, and no support for the conceptual structure hypothesis. Non-parametric analysis of over-all performance indicated that abstract Ss and males tended to be both faster and more accurate in visual tasks than concrete Ss and females, respectively.

Psychometric Properties of the Revised Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scales

The 60-item version of Grasha and Riechmanns Student Learning Style Scales (six scales, 10 items per scale) was administered to a large sample of college freshmen on each of three campuses (total N = 870) in the northeast. The Participative, Avoidant, and Collaborative scales showed acceptable internal consistency, but the Dependent, Independent, and Competitive scales did not. Factor analyses of items and scales produced no solution approximating simple structure in any sample. Neither items nor scales yielded a factor pattern resembling the theoretical structure postulated by Grasha and Riechmann in any sample, although scale scores in two samples yielded a Participative-Avoidant factor that is one of the theoretical dimensions. Properties of the 60-item version are thus very similar to those reported for an earlier 90-item version.

CRITIQUE OF "ACCURACY OF PREDICTION OF OWN PERFORMANCE AS A FUNCTION OF LOCUS OF CONTROL

A study (Steger, et al., 1973) has important weaknesses in design and method, and suffers further from incomplete presentation and a slightly erroneous interpretation of results.

Two Views of Anomia and the Nature of Normlessness

(1968). Two Views of Anomia and the Nature of Normlessness. The Journal of Social Psychology: Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 91-99.