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A new measure, the Junior Self-Monitoring scale, was developed and related to individual differences in children's tendencies to engage in social comparison when making decisions. Snyder's work on self-monitoring in adults provided the theoretical framework for a developmental extension of this construct. As predicted, children scoring high in self-monitoring were more likely to attend to the decisions of other children, and to do so for a longer period of time, than were low seif-momtoring children. The scale may be useful for exploring the origins and developmental processes leading to adult individual differences in self-monitoring. Results were discussed in terms of the need for research on the ontogeny of individual differences in patterns of social behavior.The self is a topic of investigation that sits at the boundary of social, personality, and developmental psychology. Each of these disciplines typically takes a distinctive approach to research on the self, and each of them usually focuses on different issues. One theoretical approach to the self that has received a great deal of attention from both social and personality researchers, however, involves the construct of "self-monitoring" (Snyder, 1974(Snyder, , 1979. According to Snyder (1979), individuals differ in the extent to which they monitor, through self-observation and self-control, their expressive behavior and self-presentation. These individual differences may be conceptualized in terms of strategic processes. The prototypical high self-monitoring individual (HSM) is concerned about the situational and interpersonal appropriateness of his or her social behavior and is particularly sensitive to the self-presentation of relevant others in social situations. The cues provided by these relevant others serve as guidelines for monitoring (i.e., regulating and controlling) the HSM's own verbal and nonverbal self-presentation. The strategic question for the HSM is "What does the situation want me to be and how can I be that person?" By contrast, the prototypical low self-monitoring individual

Social desirability (SD) represents the problem of subjects responding with social norms rather than individual values. This paper briefly surveys the SD literature and considers its relevance for contingent valuation (CV) studies. In an empirical study, undergraduate students were administered the Mariowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, as well as CV questions. High SD scores were hypothesized to imply a greater likelihood of offering a protest reason for a zero bid and to increase bids for socially desirable commodities. While all hypotheses were not supported, the empirical results suggest that SD can influence CV responses and should not be dismissed prematurely.

A survey of individuals during a Giardia contamination incident provided data to calculate the cost of boiling, hauling, or purchasing water to avoid infection. Three different approaches to the valuation of time were used to assess the implications of the opportunity cost of time for the measurement of averting costs. Mean monthly household averting costs were $33.47 using family income to value time, $13.07 using the minimum wage to value time, and $5.60 using zero opportunity cost of time. Comparisons of the mean costs for different sources and household characteristics indicated the value of time from family income was too high and that the other methods of valuing time were superior.

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This study examined the stability of self-monitoring in children and the relationship between self-monitoring and personality and family variables. Participants were 93 1st-, 3rd-, and 5th-grade children and their parents. Children completed the Junior Self-Monitoring Scale, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (1st graders) or the Self-Perception Profile for Children (3rd and 5th graders), and a sociometric scale. Self-monitoring was stable for all children across a 15-month interval. As expected, self-monitoring was moderately related to extraversion, and for boys, higher self-monitoring scores were related to peer popularity and self-esteem. Children's self-monitoring was not related to their parents' self-monitoring, but was related to their ordinal position in the family and the number of children in the family.Individual differences in the construct of social self-monitoring have been extensively examined among adults, primarily using Snyder's (1974Snyder's ( , 1979 Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS). According to Snyder's conceptualization, high self-monitoring adults (HSMs) prototypically adopt an interpersonal orientation and intentionally use the behaviors of others as guidelines for their own appropriate verbal and nonverbal self-presentation. In contrast, low self-monitoring adults (LSMs) are less motivated to monitor the social environ ment and are more concerned with their own personal dispositions, affective states, and attitudes.The range of conceptually relevant adult social behaviors associated with self-monitoring is wide and cannot be completely summarized here (for a review, see Snyder, 1987). However, research indicates that HSMs are better than LSMs at describing the behaviors that would produce a desired impression in a social situation (Snyder & Cantor, 1980). High self-monitors also engage in more reciprocal self-disclosure (Shaffer, Smith, & Tomarelli, 1982), use social comparison information more frequently and for longer durations (Elliott, 1979), and are more likely to behave in ways that are inconsistent with their verbally expressed attitudes (Paulhus, 1982) than are LSMs. Self-monitoring is moderately related to extraversion and exhibitionism (Lippa, 1976; Snyder, 1987) but unrelated to Machiavellianism, repression-sensitization, and public or private self-consciousness (Snyder, 1987).