Last week whilst doing some work in a gym, I noticed a gym instructor interacting with several different gym users and colleagues. His behaviour, body language, and even the way he spoke, varied quite considerably depending on who he was talking to. The ‘image’ he was trying to portray seemingly included the consummate professional, ‘jack-the-lad’, lothario, womanizer, font-of-all-knowledge and medical expert! I was fascinated by this social chameleon who managed to seamlessly adjust his persona to match the situation. His colleague, however, seemed to interact with others in a far more consistent way.

As fitness instructors or personal trainers, we often (consciously or otherwise) try to influence the way in which other people see us. But how, and why, do we do this? Why do some people ‘change’ and others stay the same? In attempting to answer these I will draw heavily on social cognition, a sub-field of social psychology. There are, of course, plenty of other perspectives which I may look at in future posts.

The process of presenting a public image of the self to others is referred to as impression management. We may do this to influence particular people on specific occurrences, trying to induce a more favourable impression; think of how you behaved at your last job interview or during the practical assessment for your gym instructor or personal trainer qualification, for example. Or we may present a public image in an attempt to maintain an image of ourselves.

Impression management can reportedly increase our subjective well-being in that it can help us maximise rewards from social relationships and give us a sense of belonging, it can boost our self-esteem, and it can help us establish our desired identities.

How do we actually carry out impression management?

To carry it out we need to be able to see how we look from the perspective of other people, and modify our behaviour accordingly. My favourite authors in this field (Fiske and Taylor, 1991), list the main components we all often use when trying to elicit a positive, favourable impression in others:

• Behaviour matching: we try to match the behaviour of our target person. For example, if as personal trainers, we self-disclose we are more likely to get our clients do so as well (as long as you don’t give a tirade of intimate personal information – that might just be seen as creepy!)
• Conforming to situational norms: we use our knowledge of what is the appropriate behaviour in a certain situation, and adopt that behaviour. For all social settings, there is a pattern of social interaction that suggests the best identity for that setting. For example, working with a client suggests a different set of behaviours to socialising with your friends in the pub – hopefully!
• Ingratiation: appreciating or flattering others can generate a favourable response, particularly if done so sincerely. It can backfire though and you will be seen as using flattery with the deliberate intention of achieving your own ends, i.e. a sycophant or ‘smarmy’. I have seen personal trainers who believe giving feedback involves giving a deluge of compliments, missing the point of feedback completely and quite possibly annoying their client.
• Consistency: if we show consistency in our beliefs and behaviour, we are more likely to impress others as inconsistency is typically viewed as a sign of weakness. For example, if we preach the virtues of healthy eating to our clients and then openly eat a bag of doughnuts and other such food in front of them, then this inconsistency will elicit a less favourable impression.
• Matching verbal and non-verbal behaviours: if we are sincere, they usually match. If insincere or deceitful, our true feelings often ‘leak’ through our non-verbal behaviour; if others perceive an inconsistency between the two, non-verbal behaviour is typically taken as the ‘true’ message. Next time you’re in the gym, look at the personal trainer or gym instructor telling their client how well they are doing whilst actually watching TV or another gym user – enough said!
• Self-promotion: we like to be seen as competent, but this can also backfire as we also wish to be liked; it is possible we may be viewed as conceited or if over-exaggerating your accomplishments, a fraud.
• Intimidation: some people use this to convey the impression that they are dangerous in some way. Empty threats can however lead to a loss of credibility. Think of the personal trainer who thinks they are a drill sergeant, shouting and screaming at their clients. Another example that comes to mind is the guys who strut around in free weight areas everywhere, normally really nice guys, but the image they portray is often that of intimidation.
• Exemplification: we like to be seen as worthy and moral. Again, this can backfire if we are seen as sanctimonious and self-righteous.
• Supplication: this method of impression management involves you portraying an image of being helpless (known as strategic incompetence), but is often perceived as lazy and manipulative instead. We’ve all had the client that can’t do possibly do this … or that … or anything really, and wants you to take complete responsibility for them.

Do we always want to make a positive impression?

Sometimes we believe we can best serve our own interests by projecting a less favourable impression of ourselves. Having worked in education for so long I have seen this occur on numerous occasions, usually in the run-up to exams or assignment deadlines! I’ve had students tell me they are going to do badly and blame things about themselves such as lack of sleep, or examination nerves, or lack of time etc (simply, any excuse which does not relate to their actual competency!) This self-handicapping serves to manage my impression of them. These students want me to see their failure (if this happens) as attributable to something other than their competence (or lack of). There are many other theories which explain this phenomena, I’ll try to post on these later.

Tomorrow I will post on self-monitoring which will look at the second question I posed above.