7 She Likes To Party

The Brunswikian Lens Model describes the way in which we use environmental cues to form impressions about others. Two factors determine whether an accurate impression will be formed: cue validity and cue utilization. Cue validity refers to the extent to which a cue accurately reflects a personality trait, while cue utilization refers to whether a particular cue is used to asses personality traits. When a cue is valid and utilized, functional achievement occurs, enabling accurate impression formation.

This model describes four types of environmental cues often used in judging personality traits. These cues include self-directed identity claims, other-directed identity claims, internal behavioral residue, and external behavioral residue. Examples of each cue type exist within almost everyone’s Facebook profile, guiding impression formation between real-world friends and virtual acquaintances whose interactions will never exceed the bounds of Facebook.

Despite never having met my best friend’s cousin, I think I would be able to assess her personality fairly accurately. My first impressions of Sara were based solely on her posts on my friend’s wall, which were always ridiculous, amusing, and mildly eccentric. The posts somehow became a frequent topic of conversation among our friends and a few of us became Facebook friends with Sara just to see what she would write on our walls. Because the extent of our interaction has been mutual profile access augmented by the rare wall post, my only cues to her personality come from Facebook.

All of the cue types described in the Brunswikian Lens Model are present in Sara’s profile. Other-directed identity claims, which are presented for the purpose of conveying a particular persona to others, include the pictures she posts and her personal information. Her pictures unfailingly depict an outgoing, spontaneous person who enjoys partying and finding every opportunity to be ridiculous. Though her photo collection is extensive, her presentation of personal information, which consists of just three interests, could be described as minimalist. The sparseness of her profile could be an attempt to buck the trend, which is compatible with the rest of her identity claims. In addition, one of her interests, “living with flair,” seems to perfectly capture the image she strives to portray. Self-directed identity claims, which are inward attempts to reinforce a self-concept, may include both of the cues previously labeled as other-directed. It is possible that her pictures help to remind her which social group she belongs to, while her “interests” are explicit statements of her lifestyle objectives. The application she displays, “Addicted to The Office,” may be another instance of an identity claim that does double-duty as both self- and other-directed, reminding herself and others that she has a good sense of humor.

External behavioral residue, consisting of cues that are inadvertent byproducts of behavior outside a given space (Facebook, in this case), is readily available in Sara’s profile. Wall posts from others confirm that Sara’s friends like to party and hope to attend a Spice Girls reunion concert. We can assume that she sanctions their preferences and the pictures her friends have posted show that Sara actually lives the life she professes to live. As for internal behavioral residue, which consists of behavioral byproducts within a given space, one friend commented on her wall that he was removing some of his Facebook applications for her benefit. From this, we can infer that she disapproves of displaying multiple applications.

Based on these environmental cues, I would judge Sara to be highly open, highly extroverted, less conscientious, fairly agreeable, and slightly neurotic. Whether this assessment is a functional achievement depends on the validity of the cues she has presented.