Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of public self-consciousness and a cross-situational reactivity to embarrassing encounters on alcohol consumption among college students. Extending prior analyses of the relationship between public self-awareness and alcohol use, we examined the role of perceived peer drinking as a potential conditioning variable. Drawing on the central tenets of tension-reduction and self-presentational models, we tested competing sets of hypotheses concerning the relationship between beliefs about normative drinking practices, public self-consciousness, embarrassability, and drinking behavior. The analysis of self-report data from two undergraduate samples (n=276 and n=149) suggested that public self-consciousness and embarrassability affect alcohol use primarily among students with friends who drink heavily. Among these individuals, embarrassability moderated the public self-consciousness-alcohol use relationship in a manner consistent with the predictions of self-presentational theories. While individuals high in public self-consciousness who exhibited little reactivity to embarrassing situations were heavy drinkers, public self-consciousness was associated with low levels of alcohol consumption among students high in embarrassability. Neither set of analyses supported the tension-reduction hypothesis.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Communication apprehension has been described as a disposition, a trait, or a combination of the two. For years, the assumption was that CA was socially developed in an individual (Richmond & McCroskey, 1989). However, only recently has anyone tried to explain why people are communicatively apprehensive (see Beatty & McCroskey, 2001). The focus of this paper is to argue that the individual self-construals and embarrassability may provide some guidance for why people are communicatively apprehensive.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study aims to understand the use of face saving within the contexts of relationship types, gender, and problematic events. Face saving behaviors were categorized according to Putnam and Wilson’s (1982) conflict styles. Survey results indicated women used integrating face saving behaviors more frequently; dominance and avoidance were used similarly by both sexes. Potential romantic relationship types used avoiding face-saving behaviors more than other relationships. Romantic relationship types used integrating face saving behaviors most frequently.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper, I develop Goffman’s (1956) deceptively simple proposal that embarrassment is the most social of emotions because it arises whenever the interaction order and the reality and self sustaining performances enacted therein are threatened with disruption. Using this insight as a theoretical building block, I explore the empirical implications of the embarrassment-interaction link, and Goffman’s related proposition that disruption of the interaction order is more likely to occur when individuals attempt to manage multiple selves at the same time. I show that embarrassment is indeed connected to higher rates of social interaction and the probability of possessing multiple identities. I reason that if Goffman’s hypothesis is correct, then those who are older, women (especially those with young children), racial minorities, those who live in sparsely populated areas, and respondents who occupy ambiguous structural positions in the social structure should be less likely to experience embarrassment. The results are largely consistent with these hypotheses.