An analysis of the Self-Monitoring Scale.

Abstract

A factor analysis of the Self-Monitoring Scale yielded three replicated factors: Acting, Extraversion, and Other-Directedness. Acting includes being good at and liking to speak and entertain. Other-Directedness is a willingness to change one's behavior to suit other people, and Extraversion is self-explanatory. Other-Directedness correlates positively with Shyness and Neuroticism and negatively with Self-Esteem. Extraversion correlates negatively with Shyness and positively with Self-Esteem and Sociability. Two of the scale's three factors, therefore, have opposite patterns of correlations with other personality dimensions. The three distinct factors help to explain certain discrepancies found in previous research with the Self-Monitoring Scale. For future research, we suggest that scores for each of the factors are more appropriate than full scale scores. We conclude that there may be a gap between the construct of Self-Monitoring and how it is operationalized in the scale.Stage actors make gestures, speak dialogue, and respond to cues-all in the service of portraying a particular character or role written by the author. Several decades ago, Erving Goffman (1956) used the stage metaphor to characterize the way each of us acts in social contexts. He suggested that we behave the way others expect us to, that we are alert to subtle cues in our social environment, and that in general we engage in self-presentation.A sociologist, Goffman ignored individual differences, but surely people vary in the extent to which they stage-manage their social behavior. To assess such individual differences, Mark Snyder developed the Self-Monitoring Scale (1974). A description of the high selfmonitor is also a definition of the concept:The prototypic high selt-monitoring individual is one who, out of concern for the situational and interpersonal appropriateness of his or her social behavior, is particularly sensitive to the expression and self-presentation of relevant others in social situations and uses these cues as guidelines for selfmonitoring (that is, regulating and controlling) hisWe thank Robert Helmreich and John Loehlin for their generous assistance.Requests for reprints should be sent to Arnold

Orientations toward personnel selection: Differential reliance on appearance and personality.

“…We also examined the possible independent contributions of independent factors that may exist within the overall measure of self-monitoring by correlating each of the dependent measures of the two studies (choice in Study 1, choice and reason in Study 2) with participants' scores on each of the three factors (Acting, Extraversion, Other-Directedness) suggested by Briggs, Cheek, and Buss (1980). We also calculated the correlation between each dependent measure and participants' scores on the original 25-item Self-Monitoring Scale.…”

Proposing Instrument to Measure Impression Management among Flood Victims

“…Although this scale construct helps us to understand a great many organizational phenomena, it also has its weaknesses. The Self-Monitoring Scale was multidimensional and did not assess a single unitary construct [20]. Lennox and Wolfe (1984) developed another scale to assess the ability to modify self-presentation and determine sensitivity to the expressive behavior of others [12].…”

An Item Response Theory Analysis Of The Self-Monitoring Scale

“…The majority of these investigations have focused on the factor structure of the SMS. Investigators have identified factor solutions ranging from one to four, with three factors being the most widely accepted solution (Briggs, Cheek, & Buss, 1980;Gangestad & Snyder, 1985). These three factors were labeled Acting, Extraversion, and Other-Directedness.…”

“…Past investigations of the SMS using factor analysis have suggested a multifactorial structure (e.g., Briggs et al, 1980;Hoyle & Lennox, 1991;John et al, 1996). The most often agreed upon solution posits three factors, generally labeled as Acting, Extraversion, and Other-Directedness (Briggs et al, 1980). To examine the psychometric properties of each subscale, separate IRT analyses were conducted on each of the three SMS subscales.…”

“…Based on previous SMS research (Briggs et al, 1980), the subscales were defined as follows: The Acting subscale consisted of items 5, 8, 18, 20, and 24 (see Figures 1, 2, and 3 for items), the Extraversion subscale consisted of items 12, 14, 20, 21, 22, and 23, the OtherDirectedness subscale consisted of items 2, 3, 6, 7, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 23, and 25. Items 1 and 4 were not included in any of the subscales (Briggs et al, 1980).…”