Relation of Self-Projection Processes to Performance, Emotion, and Memory in a Controlled Interaction Setting

Self-projection, defined as the character and valence of one's situational, objective, or public self-awareness, was operationalized in the present study by subjects' ratings of how they were viewed by the other in an interactional context. It was expected that the nature of self-projection would be strongly influenced by trait measures of self-esteem and social anxiety, particularly given that interpersonal feedback was ambiguous. A measure of self-projection was developed on an independent sample and then assessed in 48 subjects in a controlled interaction paradigm. Self-projection, as expected, was found to be related to trait measures of social anxiety and self-esteem. In addition, specific dimensions of sew-projection were found to predict self-evaluations, emotions, aspects of performance, and memory for the other's speech, as well as subjects' perceptions of the other person in the interaction. A path model is presented depicting these general relations. Results are discussed in terms of the processes through which persons construe themselves as social objects.