Person—Situation Effects on Self-Presentation on the Telephone at Work

Abstract

Despite calls for aspects of the self to be examined while the individual is engaged in a natural social situation or in response to a task, self-presentation effects have been found predominantly in laboratory settings. The present study of 69 American workers, in contrast, investigated factors related to reported self-presentation in a frequently occurring natural social situation, namely, answering the telephone at work. Results indicated that workers higher in positive affect, lower in negative affect, and perceiving less role ambiguity presented a more formal telephone response. There was some evidence of an interaction between positive affect and role ambiguity in predicting category of response.