Self-anlysis of Online Impression Formation Assignment (Saidu Ezike)

Due to the fact that my interest lies in the broadcast/media field, I felt it would be a great idea to contact an employee from a TV station via e-mail in hopes of being mentored while remaining within the guidelines of this assignment. For confidentiality purposes, we’ll call this target Sally and leave her workplace anonymous. I will say, however, that the target was a 28-year-old black female from New York City who was married with two children. She mentioned to me that she “love[s] [her] job but [has] to take a lot of [expletive].” In terms of the big five traits, this is my impression of her:

Neuroticism: I felt that her Neuroticism was very high. Her unpleasant emotions hit peaks with a number of questions I asked regarding the workplace; it was mind-boggling. Since we have only been in e-mail conversation for about 3 days, I did not expect for her to speak of the negatives of her work; especially in the manner she did. For example, by the third day of me speaking with her, she used profanity to discuss some of the experiences of being the one of the few minority females in the workplace. For the most part, using profanity in conversation comes after one has developed a sense of comfort with their partner. It is difficult to determine whether or not we have developed a sense of comfort with each other.

Agreeableness: Since she gave me an honest perspective of her work, I felt that she was somewhat obliged to let me “cry on her shoulder.” Since she allowed me to do this comfortably, I would say that her agreeableness is very high. I even got to tell her that I felt that at times, she might be a little sensitive to racism without her being offended. A lot of times, due to the way racism is portrayed, it’s easy to say that someone is being racist when they actually aren’t. I pointed her to a number of YouTube links regarding this issue.

Extraversion: She is not very extraverted at all as a matter of fact, she mentioned that she often has to “fake being outgoing” in order to get on good side of her co-workers. She feels that she doesn’t need to be extraverted in public since she is already married. It was hard to analyze her extraversion because it seems that she is willing to mentor those on the rise but chances are if she saw me in the street, she likely would not say hello unless I approached her. I also noticed that when she speaks, she uses a number of periods after her thoughts. Honestly, I felt her punctuation was a little intimidating but after a few e-mails, I became used to the punctuation.

Openness: I would say that this is the trait where I will give her the most intense impression. I told her a number of weird facts about myself and rather than delaying in her response, she actually praised my creativity. This made me look up to her as a mentor. She admitted that she has been through humbling experiences in her life, which lead her to become more willing to hear the ideas I proposed to her. He answered just about every question I asked her.

Conscientiousness: “If I wasn’t conscientious, I would be where I was now.” The aforementioned quote from Sally mirrors my views towards her. She gave me a rundown of actions she took to get to where she is now and the road was not easy. Coming from a relatively poor family, she had to create and host makeshift TV shows in her neighborhood all while obtaining her education.

My impressions of Sally were relatively intense considering the fact that we have not been speaking very long. Also, I actually think that my impression is opposite of Walther’s Social Information Processing Theory. My impression of Sally would have formed slower if we had been talking face to face since I feel that she is relatively shy when it comes to FtF interaction. Once a sensitive subject was touched upon we were able to speak on a deeper level. I know that, if we had been face to face, I would have been relatively intimidated or embarrassed to ask her some questions that I asked through e-mail.Due to this intensity, rather than being on the Cues-Filtered Out perspective, my impression is on lines with the hyperpersonal model, especially behavioral confirmation.

Although she has been very honest with me in our conversation, she has “played the part” when it comes to her profession. Some of the terminology she uses, I feel, is to make sure I know that she is very intelligent. She made it clear in her language that although she is speaking to me the way she is, she is still my mentor. I couldn’t help but respect that and it is highly likely that I followed along the lines of the over attribution process since I look up to this lady. I am inclined to believe everything she says to the highest degree and have intense impressions of her since I plan on being in her position a few years from now.