Impression management

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Impression Management (IM) is the conscious or unconscious control of the impression that people or organizations make on others. Impression management is also increasingly used as a public relations concept . As an action concept, impression management can create or change images . In the German-language social psychological literature, the term self-portrayal is also used as a synonym .

term

The impression management theory - an explanatory concept of social psychology that public relations are also looking at with growing interest. - is neutral on the assumption that people constantly strive to steer and control the impression they make on others: "Impression Management refers to those strategies and techniques that individuals use to control the images and impressions that others form of them during social interaction »

This means that impression management is behavior that plays an important role in everyday communication , but also for public relations work in organizations - especially for image building .

According to Ebert and Piwinger, impression management is "impression control through self-presentation or control of the information relevant for creating an impression".

history

One of the first and most influential scientists to study the purposeful nature of human communication is Erving Goffman . In his programmatic book «We all play theater», Goffman places human social behavior in close relation to the illusory and role world of theater. Similar to the proponents of the theory of symbolic interactionism, he assumes that people in social interactions must first analyze information (conversation content, clothing, face, voice, hairstyle, status symbols, reputation, expertise) about their interaction partner in order to then get an impression to build. This in turn depends heavily on one's own attitudes, feelings and clichéd imagery. The image that we develop of other people has a lot to do with our own expectations of reality. The management of the impression consists in manipulating this transfer of information in a targeted manner: We intentionally play social roles in relation to our environment . The focus of impression management is therefore on the strategic and tactical use of self-presentation: The "self" is understood as the image that a person enforces by providing their social audience with information that leads to a desired cognitive representation . The most vivid example of this is the handling of photographs: Many people destroy unspectacular photos of themselves while they describe successful photographs as realistic.

In doing so, they act according to the basic principle of impression management: We specifically select information from which we expect positive effects (status symbols, social contacts, hobbies, styles, etc.) and present them for the whole. We anticipate potential reactions and expectations of the audience . Our image of the other depends to a great extent on our own expectations. Impression management techniques can be aimed at short or long term effects. They can be assertive or defensive in character. Many individual techniques of systematic impression control can be classified on this classic scale, which were described and examined in detail by Michael Weißhaupt, for example.

Examples

A classic situation in which impression management techniques are used is the job interview : The calculated choice of clothing, appearance, the content of the conversation that are presented to the other person, as well as the style of appearance are used here as a means of impression management . Even before an interview, application photos are used as another classic IM tool. The hiring person also uses impression management during the interview to present the new position and the company.

Originally researched in the USA, IM is also a topic of social psychology in Germany because, as a calculated concept of self -portrayal, it can achieve image-building or image-changing effects.

Strategies and techniques

There is an abundance of (long-term) strategies and (short-term) techniques for impression management. They are divided into assertive (in the sense of offensive, proactive) and defensive. The former try to build a certain image, the latter want to avoid damage to the image and serve as a defense. Ingratiation (ingratiation, making oneself popular) is one of the assertive strategies . Self-handicapping , for example, is defensive , in which external explanations are prepared for possible failures. For example, if you do not do your best in an exam, you can blame it for failure.

See also

literature

  • V. Bazil, M. Piwinger: The sound makes the music. About the function of the voice in communication. In: G. Bentele , M. Piwinger, G. Schönborn (Eds.): Communication management. (Losebl. 2001ff.), Article 1.28, Munich 2005.
  • D. Bromley: Reputation, Image, and Impression Management. New York 1993.
  • HD Mummendey : Psychology of Self-Expression. 2nd Edition. Göttingen u. a. 1995.
  • M. Piwinger, L. Rosumek: Attractiveness as a communicative value driver. Communication also needs sex appeal. In: Günter Bentele, Manfred Piwinger, Gregor Schönborn (ed.): Communication management. (Loose leaf 2001 ff.), Art. No. 4.21, Munich 2006.
  • L. Rosumek: Strikingly good: portrait photos as an instrument of impression management. In: G. Bentele, M. Piwinger, G. Schönborn (Eds.): Communication management. (Loose leaf 2001ff.). Article 5.19, Munich 2003.
  • L. Rosumek: You shouldn't lie - border areas of impression management of people and organizations. In: G. Bentele, M. Piwinger, G. Schönborn (Eds.): Communication management. (Loose leaf 2001ff.). Article 5.19, Munich 2005.
  • C. Cunningham: Social Networking and Impression Management: Self-presentation in the Digital Age , Rowman & Littlefield, 2013, ISBN 978-0-7391-7811-9
  • JT Tedeschi, S. Lindskold, P. Rosenfeld: An introduction to social psychology. St. Paul 1985.
  • RE Wood, TR Mitchell: Manager behavior in a social context. The impact of impression management on attributions and disciplinary actions. In: Organizational Behavior and Human Performance. December 28, 1981, pp. 356-378.
  • Jack Nasher: Convinced !: How to show competence and win people over . Campus Verlag, 2017.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Piwinger, H. Ebert: impression management - As of Nobody Someone will. In: G. Bentele, M. Piwinger, G. Schönborn (Eds.): Communication Management (Losebl. 2001ff.), Article 1.06, Munich 2001.
  2. ^ M. Snyder: Impression management. The self in social interaction. In: LS Wrightsman, K. Deaux (Eds.): Social psychology in the eighties. 3. Edition. Monterey 1981, p. 112.
  3. ↑ E. Buss, U. Fink-Heuberger: Image Management. How to increase your image capital! Success rules for the public image of companies, parties and organizations. Frankfurt am Main 2000, p. 18.
  4. ↑ H. Ebert, M. Piwinger: Impression Management: The necessity of self-presentation . In: Manfred Piwinger, Angar Zerfaß (Ed.): Handbuch Unternehmenskommunikation , Wiesbaden, 2007, pp. 205–225. Quoted from: Susanne Femers, Public Relations from a social psychological point of view . In: Romy Fröhlich, Peter Szyszka, Günter Bentele (ed.): Handbook of Public Relations: Scientific foundations and professional action. With Lexikon , Springer-Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-531-18917-8 , pp. 63–84, p. 74 .
  5. ^ E. Goffman: We all play theater. The self-expression in everyday life. Munich 2003. (first published 1959)
  6. ↑ R. Bergler, T. Hoff: Psychology of the first impression. Cologne 2001.
  7. ↑ M. Weißhaupt: Impression Management. In: Attitude interviews: Effects of various self-expression tactics on the perception and assessment of people. Tübingen 1997, p. 38ff.
  8. ↑ EE Jones: Ingratiation: A social psychological analysis. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York 1964.
  9. ^ E. Aronson , TD Wilson, RM Akert: Social Psychology. 6th edition. Pearson Studium, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8273-7359-5 , pp. 153-155.