PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Hyesun Kim
MA-Research
August 1998

Sociocultural Analysis of Self-Monitoring

    Self-monitoring was investigated in relation to cultural and personal individualistic versus collectivistic values.  The shortened version of Snyder’s 1974 Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS) was hypothesized less valid for collectivistic participants than Lennox and Wolfe’s 1984 Revised Self-Monitoring Scale (RSMS).  Participants from collectivistic cultures were hypothesized higher in self-monitoring than those from individualistic cultures, with personal values mediating between culture and self-monitoring.  Cultural individualism-collectivism (IC) was defined by ethnicity; personal values were assessed by scores on Triandis’(1986) IC Scale.  Hypothesis 1 was partially supported by various relationships between scores on the SMS and IC Scale, and for native English speakers, between scores on the RSMS and IC.  Hypothesis 2 was not supported.  There were interesting interactions among ethnicity, generation, sex, and native language.  Exploratory factor analyses showed different patterns of individualism and collectivism by ethnic group, as found by Triandis and colleagues in several studies.

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