Impression management

For this week, reflect on your own thoughts regarding how we manage the impressions that others have of us. What are some situations where you recognized that you were engaging in impression management? Can you recognize a variety of strategies that you've employed to do so?


Impression management is a skill that all of us employ when we involve ourselves in a new situation with people we don't know. In September, I started a new job working at the Anoka Hennepin School District. Now, this district has quite a reputation for having policies that aren't exactly super-supportive of gays and lesbians. In light of this, I decided to be cautious in how open I was about my sexuality. For the first week of me working there, I avoided talking about my personal life, I did not bring in personal photographs like many of my coworkers have at their desks, and I remained relatively silent when the issue of sexual orientation came up. In this way, I was practicing impression management by withholding some important personal information about myself for fear that it would upset these new people or would paint myself in a negative light right away.


Another good example is if I am hanging out with a lot of heterosexual men versus when I'm hanging out with a lot of homosexual men. My mannerisms and topics of conversation vary quite significantly. If I'm with a lot of straight guys--like if I'm a party with my college or high school friends--I might hold back how expressive I am with my voice and body language and talk about sports or video games. If I'm with my gay friends, I tend to be more expressive and less inhibited with my language and body language, and might be more inclined to talk about relationships, people I find attractive, and so on. I alter my persona in order to create favorable impressions with each group. If I did this the other way around, for instance, I might not be as well accepted by either group.