Effects of objective self awareness on reaction times for self-descriptive trait terms

• Main Author: Buchsbaum, Roxana
• Format: Others
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/9022/1/MR20687.pdf; Buchsbaum, Roxana <http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/view/creators/Buchsbaum=3ARoxana=3A=3A.html> (2006) Effects of objective self awareness on reaction times for self-descriptive trait terms. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

The directing of attention toward internal aspects of the self was studied within the framework of Duval and Wicklund's (1972) theory of objective self-awareness. According to the theory, individuals who become aware of a discrepancy between their actual behaviour and ideal standards of behaviour are motivated to change their behaviours in order to reduce the discrepancy. Whereas objective self-awareness has been induced in participants by the presence of a mirror, no specific manipulations with regard to trait-specific judgments while being self-aware have been employed in prior-research. In the current study, participants were presented with trait terms either while looking at their own image in a mirror or looking at a blank screen. Participants were expected to make self-descriptive judgments faster when primed with a matching trait term and in a state of objective self-awareness than when they were not self-focused. Contrary to expectations, priming facilitated response times for self-descriptive judgments in the absence of a mirror, when participants were not self-focused. This was only true for women. Possible explanations for this pattern of results are discussed within the framework of objective self-awareness theory