Synonym
Definition
Self-monitoring is a personality variable defined as the extent to which individuals are willing and able to engage in the expressive control of their public self-presentations, which is measured using the Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS; Snyder 1974; Snyder and Gangestad 1986). Recent work indicates that self-monitoring is better described as comprising two distinct forms of self-presentation, acquisitive and protective. Accordingly, researchers have repurposed the SMS to assess these two self-monitoring dimensions (Wilmot et al. 2015).
Introduction
Self-monitoring (Snyder 1974) is a major construct of interest in the personality and social psychological literature. Traditionally, self-monitoring has been assessed using total SMS scores, which are interpreted as tapping a single, unitary variable that is categorically distributed (i.e., high vs. low self-monitors; Snyder and Gangestad 1986). At the turn of the century, quantitative reviews appeared to provide...
References
Briggs, S. R., & Cheek, J. M. (1988). On the nature of self-monitoring: Problems with assessment, problems with validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 663–678.
Briggs, S. R., Cheek, J. M., & Buss, A. H. (1980). An analysis of the Self-Monitoring Scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 679–686.
Day, D. V., Schleicher, D. J., Unckless, A. L., & Hiller, N. J. (2002). Self-monitoring personality at work: A meta-analytic investigation of construct validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 390–401. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.390.
Gangestad, S. W., & Snyder, M. (2000). Self-monitoring: Appraisal and reappraisal. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 530–555. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.126.4.530.
Snyder, M. (1974). Self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 526–537.
Snyder, M., & Gangestad, S. (1986). On the nature of self-monitoring: Matters of assessment, matters of validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 125–139.
Wilmot, M. P. (2015). A contemporary taxometric analysis of the latent structure of self-monitoring. Psychological Assessment, 27, 353–364. doi:10.1037/pas0000030.
Wilmot, M. P., DeYoung, C. G., Stillwell, D., & Kosinski, M. (2016). Self-monitoring and the metatraits. Journal of Personality, 84, 335–347. doi:10.1111/jopy.12162.
Wilmot, M. P., Kostal, J. W., Stillwell, D., & Kosinski, M. (2015). Using item response theory to develop measures of acquisitive and protective self-monitoring from the original Self-Monitoring Scale. Assessment. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1073191115615213.
Wilmot, M. P., Ones, D. S., & Barbuto, J. E., Jr. Self-monitoring and status: A meta-analysis. (Manuscript submitted for publication).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Wilmot, M.P. (2017). Self-Monitoring Scale. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_82-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_82-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences