Am I gullible? I guess so. . .

I’ve been going back and forth about this blog. . .hmm do I disclose personal information or do I try to make it sound really generic so that I can better present myself to you, my fellow classmates and my professor? What should I say to make sure you don’t hate me or that you like me and that I come off as a competent and intelligent young woman? These are all questions I ask myself because of my desire to shape your thoughts about me, my self presentation- the different strategies that I can take that may help you form what you think of me and what I think of myself (Schlenker, 2003, Vohs et al., 2005).

Really, in creating this blog, I’ve already completed some strategic self-presentation. I picked a color scheme thinking about what kind of impression I’d make on you. I did the same thing with my profile picture and with the format by which I write in this blog.

What does that say about me? I’ll tell you what I think it says. It says that I am conscious of the fact that you are making an impression of me by what you are seeing and reading and that I am making in effort to influence your thoughts. Smart? Deceitful? You be the judge-actually, you are the judge. (To be honest, it sounds kind of deceitful to me, but I’ll take your profiles at face value as I’ll take my own)

Along the same lines of deceitfulness, I’ll tell you that I am a high self-monitor, I am conscious of my public image and tend to regulate my behavior to meet your demands (Snyder, 1971). Sounds deceitful right? Well I call it my need to fill other people’s needs and serve other people.

I believe that this earth is made up of good and honest human beings that speak truths and do righteous acts. Call me gullible, call me naïve or call me any other adjective of your choice; I’ll blame the thought that I am schematic for honesty. As a result, reading for this entire course, reading about social judgment, perception, presentation, ingratiation and self-handicapping truly makes me question by belief in a world filled with honest beings [To be honest, I question my belief all the time, but these subjects gave me another opportunity to doubt my thoughts:]

Schlenker, B.R. (2003). Self-presentation. In M.R. Leary & J.P. Tangney (Eds). Handbook of self and identity (pp 492-518). New York: Guilford.

Snyder, M. (1987). Public appearances private/realities: The psychology of self-monitoring. New York: Freeman

Vohs, K.D., Baumeister, R.F., & Ciarcocco, N.J (2005) Self-regulation and self-presentation: regulatory resource depletion impairs impression management and efforful self presentation depletes regulatory resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 632-657.


ahh. I almost forgot to post a picture! What does THIS PICTURE SAY ABOUT ME?!


and this one?



what about this one?