PUBLIC SELF-ATTENTION AND PERSONAL STANDARDS - THE IMPACT OF GROUP COMPOSITION

Increases in self-attention as a function of decreases in the relative size of one's subgroup in a heterogeneous group context have been sho wn to result in increased regulation of behavior toward social (normat ive) standards for behavior. The present study demonstrated increased regulation of behavior toward a personal standard for behavior as a fu nction of variations in group composition. One hundred twenty-five sub jects individually completed the Creativity subscale of Scott's Person al Value Scale assessing attitudes toward originality. They then compl eted a word-association task in groups ranging in size from 2 to 8. Or iginality of word-associations was determined by reference to previous ly established word-association norms and norms based on frequency of responses given in the present study. Results indicate that originalit y in responses increase as the relative size of one's own subgroup dec reases (indexing increases in self-attention) for subjects who value o riginality. Discussion centers on the distinction between experimental ly manipulated public and private self-attention and standards that ar e adopted for behavioral self-regulation.