ACTION IDENTIFICATION AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT: THE OPTIMALITY HYPOTHESIS

The present research examined within the framework of action identification theory the issue of self-awareness and its effect on impression management. The optimality hypothesis predicts that people should successfully perform an act when their prepotent identification for what they are doing closely matches their capacity to perform the action. In general, difficult acts warrant lower level identities, whereas easy acts warrant higher level identities for optimal performance. The belief was that self-awareness (a focus on the self-relevance of one's behavior or a focus on the mechanics of one's behavior) parallels the dimension of identification level (high vs. low). Thus, self-focused attention should impair people's performance only to the extent that it pulls their attention away from an optimal level of identification of the action. Overall, the findings support this notion and suggest that when a task is difficult or unfamiliar, it is better to focus on the lower level details of performing the act rather than on the significance or implications of the act. Theoretical issues and implications for self-presentation are discussed.