Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Sheets, Virgil

Abstract

The literature concerning the nature and presentation of the self is briefly reviewed, and the role of self-monitoring as a moderator in the presentation of self through display of possessions is discussed. It is hypothesized that high self-monitors differ from low self-monitors in the extent to which their private and public living spaces reveal their personality.Photographs of living rooms and bedrooms of 40 homeowners of different living status were collected to serve as stimuli and measure of the homeowner's personality and self-monitoring were taken.The photographs were presented to unacquainted observers who rated the homeowner's personality on the same scale.The correlations and discrepancy scores between the self-reported personality scores and observer's ratings were calculated for high and low self-monitoring homeowners for each living status category.The results, although partially consistent with findings of previous research,failed to provide clear support for the proposed and factors that could have influenced the obtained pattern of results are discussed.Lastly, limitations of the present study are acknowledged, and directions for further research are proposed.

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