Assignment #2

The psychological space I decided to enter for assignment #2 was a chat room. I choose this method of communication because I’m so familiar with asynchronous, non-anonymous dimensions of online space such as Facebook. I was anxious to see what type of impression I would get of another individual through a more synchronous and anonymous dimension. Therefore, I entered one of the first free rooms I discovered. At first the room seemed chaotic and sleezy with users nicknamed “hornydawg69” asking for “hot babes” to chat with him. However, after observing the room for several minutes, one individual with the username “William28” asked if anyone in the room was looking to actually talk. Therefore, I decided to enter a private conversation with “William”.

“William” is a shy 28-year-old male from Southern California. He explained to me how he works as a freelance artist and never went to college. We spent over an hour sharing information about ourselves—everything from where we lived to what side of the bed we slept on. “William” constantly gave off a very “warm” impression of himself. Additionally, I made the following observations about “William” while analyzing him on the Big Five Personality Traits:

Extraversion: At first I would have rated “William” low on the extraversion scale because he seemed shy and a little skeptical to open up and share information with me. However, as soon as I put myself out on a limb and shared something quite personal with him, his level of extraversion skyrocketed. I believe this is because I revealed information about myself that put him more at ease to share information with me (self-disclosure). At first I thought he might have felt particularly extraverted once he realized the extreme degree of anonymity that existed between us during our chat. However, this hypothesis was quickly disproved when we exchanged emails at the conclusion of our talk. About two minutes after saying good-bye to “William” my inbox was flooded with pictures of himself attached and a desire to chat more
Openness: I believe that “William” was a very open person. I was quite honest and blunt when communicating with him and he never once judged me harshly or seemed narrow-minded.
Neuroticism: “William” never displayed any neuroticism. He spoke to me in a mature, calm manner for the entire duration of the conversation and never showed any signs of moodiness or anxiety.
Conscientiousness: I found “William” to be very conscientiousness because he was organized and thorough. He always explained himself well when talking and listened attentively when I was sharing information.
Agreeableness: “William” rated very high on the agreeableness scale as well. When I explained a personal problem to him, he showed appropriate sympathy and then went on to give some affectionate advice. Additionally, he complimented me (explaining to me that I was such an amazing girl) almost beyond what was necessary when provided the opportunity.

I believe my impression of “William” was more in line with the Hypersonal Model than any other model. Although in reality I only talked with “William” for a little over an hour, I felt as if I already had a very intense impression of him and had accurately judged his character. It’s very likely that the reason I found “William” to score so well on all the Big Five Personality Traits is because he was actively engaging in selective self-presentation to expose only the positive sides of his personality and he successfully kept his neuroticism and disagreeableness hidden from our online chat. Additionally, due to over attribution, I had a much more confident, yet stereotypical impression of “William”. Lastly, I found myself confirming my impression of “William’s” personality by complimenting him on his “kindness, agreeableness, etc…” This behavioral confirmation could have further shaped “William’s” behavior to confirm my exaggerated beliefs of him.