Date of Award

6-2014

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

George Bizer

Language

English

Keywords

peers, socializing, monitoring, performance

Abstract

Prior research demonstrates that high self-monitors tend to alter their behavior based on social situations, and more generally, that certain cues can be given to people that can influence them to alter their performance on an exam. It has not, however, taken into account the introduction of motivation that could affect the performance of high self-monitors. Thus, the current research was conducted to establish a connection among performance, self-monitoring, and motivation via a social component. All participants completed a practice GRE exam as well as several personality questionnaires, including Snyder’s Revised Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1975). About half of the participants were randomly assigned to receive fabricated information (the social component) regarding their peers’ performance on the GRE, stating that their peers had performed well above average on the test. An effect between condition and self-monitoring was not found, such that high self-monitors exposed to the social component did not perform significantly better than did low self-monitors. While no conclusive results were found, our research provides insight into self-monitoring and the importance of relevant and strong social components of manipulation.

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