The relationship between self-presentation styles and coping with social stress

Abstract

The need for a joint consideration of self-presentation and coping is emphasized. In doing so, differences between the acquisitive style and the protective styles of self-presentation were explored with respect to coping intentions and reactions. A video simulating the situation just before a public speech was presented to 168 students as a social stress scenario. High protective compared with low protective self-presenters were more engaged in avoidance coping and more concerned with intentions that indicate avoidance of social disapproval. Furthermore, they tended to use non-authentic self-presentation and were less engaged in entertaining the audience. An almost opposite pattern of results emerged for high acquisitive compared with low acquisitive self-presenters. Implications of these findings for Snyder's self-monitoring theory include the differentiation between acquisitive self-monitors, protective self-monitors, high self-monitors (high on both styles) and low self-monitors (low on both styles).