Measuring self-monitoring ability and propensity: a two-dimensional Chinese scale

Self-monitoring characterizes individual differences in a person's ability and propensity to regulate self-presentation (M. Snyder, 1974, 1979). On the basis of this idea and existing scale items (R. D. Lennox & R. N. Wolfe, 1984; M. Snyder, 1974), a 23-item 2-dimensional Chinese Self-Monitoring Scale was devised with subscales measuring the Ability and the Propensity to regulate self-presentation according to situational cues. The two subscales displayed different correlational patterns with the Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Lie subscales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ; S. B. G. Eysenck & H. J. Eysenck, 1975). The new scale, with stable factor structure and satisfactory internal consistency, may discriminate among self-presentational styles beyond the prototypes of high and low self-monitoring.