The definition of self: Private and public self-evaluation management strategies.

Evaluation of subjects' own performances and beliefs about an audience's evaluation of subjects' own performances were manipulated to examine their effects on self-definition. Pairs of subjects worked independently on tasks said to be valid indicators of a fictitious trait called cognitive perceptual integration (CPI). Relevance of CPI to a subject's self-definition was indexed by (a) an oral measure taken by an interviewer, (b) a self-descripti on measure, and (c) an unobtrusive behavioral measure. Subjects who believed they actually outperformed another subject indicated on all three indexes that CPI was more relevant than did subjects who were outperformed by the other subject. This difference was more pronounced when the other subject was described as similar than when described as dissimilar. Subjects confronted by an audience who believed that they (the subjects) outperformed the other subject (independent of the subjects' actual performances) indicated that CPI was more relevant than did subjects confronted by ap audience who believed they were outperformed by the other. Similarity of the other subject did not moderate this effect. The results were interpreted as evidence for both private and public self-evaluation management strategies.