Communicator Characteristics

I recently took a self-monitoring scale survey to assess my need to guard my behavior around other people and a need for cognition scale survey to guage my desire to acquire information and spend time thinking before making judgments or decisions.

Beginning with the self-monitorying scale survey, I scored a 58, on a scale of 0 (low self-monitor) to 100 (high self-monitor). Per the website (http://www.outofservice.com/self-monitor-censor-test/) "A high self-monitoring person is someone who monitors and adapts their own behavior to match their surroundings. A low self monitor tends to use their internal values and beliefs to figure out how to behave." This indicated that I am neither a high nor a low self-monitor. Essentially, my score indicates that I have no true push to one side. Much like a politician as they close in on elections, I am in the middle. Do I agree with the outcome of this survey? I do. When reflecting on my behavior around others, I find that I can sometimes be my true self, or conform to the group. I honestly do not know why I am that way. I think it has to do with my energy level, comfortability with the group, and my mood/esteem.

When reflecting on this survey, in terms of structure, I think it does an adequate job of assessing one's behavior and asks all of the appropriate questions. It truly takes the stance of quality, not quantity. Some surveys will ask 50 questions that seem to repeat itself. This survey asks 10-20 questions which hit on the key points 1-2 times. This makes it easy for the user to stay focused, while also getting an accurate reading.

The second survey, "Need for Cognition Scale," (http://www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/ncs/) I socred a 17. The range of scores goes from -72 to +72. Scoring a 17 means (per the website):

"An individual who has a high score on the Need for Cognition Scale is more likely than someone with a low score to be what advocates of liberal arts education might simply call "a thinker." More specifically, high scorers indicate that they readily engage in thinking about topics as they are presented, enjoy the thinking process, and are motivated to apply their thinking skills with little prompting. Such people are likely to be able to process and systematize information, sorting out the irrelevant from the important (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982, 1984). In an educational context, these personality traits and learned skills—particularly the ability to process information efficiently—can be linked with greater academic achievement (summarized in Sadowski & Gulgoz, 1996). Furthermore, as Sadowski and Cogburn have shown (1997), individuals who have high scores on the Need for Cognition Scale tend to be more conscientious and more open to experiences than are individuals who have a low need for cognition."

Having the score of 17, I learn toward the preference and actions of thinking, rather than not. But I am by no means a hardcore thinker. (Did I just insult myself???)

This survey took longer than the first one and I'm not sure that my results mean as much to me as the first one. I am not too moved by learning my preference of thinking as much as I am my behavior around others. My thinking behaviors is something I am already aware of and don't need a number for. I'm not so sure that this survey has as much to do with processing persuasive messages as much as the first. The concept of thinking does have quite a lot to do with processing persuasive messages, but the survey didn't live up to the expectations. The first survey gives you much more information about how a person conforms, while the second survey gives you a glimpse as to how complex an ad should be. But in my opinion, ads should always lean toward simple messages to grasp the largest audience! This is how newspapers steer their writing and grammer......coincidence??

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