Barely 6:00 a.m. and I am out of posts for the day :(

I started grad school working in biological bases of personality. So about 30 
years ago I remember still talking about these things, including the general 
area 
of cognitive styles. About 10 years later I had a conversation with a 
personality 
professor at USC about this area, and how I hadn't seen much published about 
cognitive styles in that past decade and he indicated that the whole area was 
pretty dead, as empirical studies had failed to support the basic premises of 
these "styles". 

Self-monitoring, as I have read about it seems to fall into that category of 
personality research. At first I thought it might relate to the more closely 
researched area these days of metacognitive self-regulation, but that's not it 
at 
all.

It's my impression, and I certainly have not looked at this area closely in at 
least 
20 years, is that a very few of those original "cognitive styles" have stayed 
alive 
only because there was some biological basis to underlie the "style," so that 
personality dimensions such as introversion/extraversion,  survive but 
dimensions such as sensation seeking or impulsivity--both of which ironically 
failed to find consistent support of biological differences between 
individuals--
are no longer discussed.

This website seems to have a pretty fair discussion: 
http://personality-project.org/perproj/others/heineman/COG.HTM 
as does this one: 
http://social.jrank.org/pages/149/Cognitive-Style.html

The story is more complicated. I remember reading a really fat edited book 
(edited by London and Exner--geez, the stuff we remember!) about 30 years 
ago that considered about two dozen cognitive styles in great detail, probably 
including most of what was known at the time. As I said, 10 years later nothing 
new seemed to appear. I also looked at field dependence and independence as a 
secondary variable in my dissertation but it was a bust. 

Annette



Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
University of San Diego
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
619-260-4006
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:43:06 -0400
>From: Michael Britt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  
>Subject: [tips] Is the "self-monitoring" concept dead?  
>To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" 
<[email protected]>
>
>In grad school we studies Snyder's personality construct of "self- 
>monitoring".  I recall it being an interesting idea at the time but  
>now I don't see anyone talking about it, nor do I see the concept  
>covered in the Personality texts I have. Does anyone know - Is the  
>idea pretty much dead?
>
>Michael
>
>
>Michael Britt
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>www.thepsychfiles.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>To make changes to your subscription contact:
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>Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])


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