SELF-MONITORING CONTROVERSIES

Nobody will out-argue the fact, that all of us are in social situations each day. Even being alone, we think over what impression we made on others, what we should do that the others valued us more favourably, that we were more attractive. Creation of good image and its preservation is very urgent in recent time period, when supply considerably exceeds demand in labour market, and a good impression directly affects job search, career success; when short-term interpersonal relations dominate, and communication, affiliation needs haven't died out yet, and, searching for new contacts, we want to be attractive, emotionally accepted, loveable. Much information, various instructions can be found, on how to create a good impression, how to present yourself to the employers, how to expose the best qualities of your personality in the presence of the surrounding people. However, still too little is written and spoken about one of the essential factors of personality attractiveness – self-monitoring, i.e., analysis, checking and correction of verbal and non-verbal information sent about you, about your behaviour, comparing it with social norms, behavioural standards, other people's reactions and expectations. Thus, it is not sufficient to master straightforwardly good image creation technique, because it is extremely important to perceive and to become aware of the others' reactions to our behaviour, to control oneself for social interactions to be effective and to ensure social situation's adequacy. For example, the sender of the information about himself can consider that he fascinated the surrounding people by his competence, humour or irreproachable appearance, whilst for the other people such demonstrated traits can not arouse any impression and even conversely – can cause rejection reactions. Therefore, wishing at least “not to fall out” from the social context, it is necessary to analyse information, received as a feedback, to develop self-monitoring competence.