This summer I traveled to
Walther’s Brunswikian Lens Model states that people emit clues about their personality when producing certain behaviors. Others can then judge these clues and make inferences about the individual’s character. The actual model consists of three parts: cue validity, cue utilization, and functional achievement. Cue validity refers to the accuracy of a particular behavioral clue reflecting on an individual’s personality. Cue utilization refers to how an observer will apply the behavioral clue. Since observers do not consider all the relevant cues when judging someone, they will select certain cues to analyze from the surrounding environment. Lastly, functional achievement is when both cue validity and cue utilization occur so that an observer correctly judges the individual being scrutinized.
In an online space such as facebook, the Brunswikian Model says people use the following four mechanisms to emit clues: self directed identity claims, other-directed identity claims, interior behavioral residue, and exterior behavioral residue. When analyzing Jane’s profile, she had several other-identity claims which are symbols that communicate to others how an individual wants to perceived.. She listed many interests from museums to secret handshakes to books intended for 12 year olds, which shows she is trying to assert her sense of humor, as well as her more mature side. Jane also has a map on her facebook to show how many countries she has traveled to, as well as the “happy hour” application which she probably included to be perceived as social. For self-directed identity claims, which are assertions made by the individual to reinforce how they see themselves, Jane included her relationship status with a current boyfriend. The majority of her identity claims were directed toward others.
Interior behavioral residue refers to the signs of her behavior that are evident within the space of facebook. Her high count of recent wall posts suggests that she is very social. As far as exterior behavioral residue, Jane has advertised in her status that she is attending a Maroon 5 concert. This is an exterior behavioral residue clue because it is occurring outside of the facebook environment.
Rating Jane on the big five personality traits seemed relatively easy. Because she had several recent wall posts and participated in the “happy hour” application I would classify her as highly extraverted. Judging her wall-to-wall interactions with others showed me that she is also quite agreeable, since she is pleasant and thorough in her responses. I would also rate her high in conscientiousness because she seemed to respond within the same day to all of her wall posts. Since she had several self-directed identity claims, I think that Jane is relatively open; however, she masks several information categories with humor such as being married to a friend. I don’t have enough information to rate her on neuroticism, but none of her “personality byproducts” led me to believe that she is at all neurotic.
Walther’s Brunswikian Model made it very easy to assess Jane’s personality from facebook. The identity claims and behavioral residues that she emitted made it easy for me to rate her on the Big Five personality factors.
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2 comments:
Lindsay,
You do a great job analzying Jane's profile and identifying all of the individual-environmental links. What I think would be interesting is analyzing the warrenting of these different components. As we already found out in our study of assessment and conventional signal in CMC, almost all of one's information online can be manipulated. If I were going to guess, I would think that self-directed identity claims and interior behavioral residue are the most warrented and reliable. Especially with interior behavioral residue, it is very difficult to hide traces of things you've done online, particularly because most of these traces are left unintentionally. For example, you can't change the information that appears on a facebook newsfeed - you can only limit some of what appears there. Other-directed identity claims and exterior behavioral residue are much less reliable. Things that you write for others to see can be very carefully crafted (like in Walther's Hyperpersonal Model and the idea of selective self-presentation). Also, external behavioral residue, such as pictures, can be easily faked in CMC. I think that you make some really good points about Jane's other-directed identity claims and how she has certain features on her profile page in order to influence how others percieve her. Overall, great post and analysis!
-Emily
I enjoyed your post because it flowed nicely. You clearly introduced your example, the Brunswikian Lens Model components, and the four mechanisms. I thought it was interesting how you looked at the Facebook profile of someone you met over the summer. This person I assume you didn’t know very well but could be recognizable within the group you were traveling with. I wonder if you felt the profile accurately portrayed her true personality.
You were able to mention many other-identity and external behaviors so does this imply that there was nothing to suggest her self-identity? Your big 5 personality trait assessment was based on what you observed on Facebook. Would that be different if you judged her based on observations in person? Did you have many common friends on Facebook? You stated that she responded within a day to all wall posts and she was always thorough in her responses.
Overall, I think you have a very good grasp of this topic, as you accurately portrayed this girl using the Brunswikian Model.
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