Choosing friends as activity partners: The role of self-monitoring

Two experiments with 105 undergraduates assessed the involvement of self-monitoring (SM) processes in friendship. Exp I focused on the differential considerations that are involved when high SM and low SM Ss choose friends as partners for leisure-time activities. High SM Ss chose friends as activity partners on the basis of their friends' particular skills in the activity domain. Low SM Ss chose friends as activity partners on the basis of general feelings of liking for their friends. Exp II examined the internal structures of the preferred social worlds of high SM Ss and low SM Ss. High SM Ss preferred relatively partitioned and compartmentalized social worlds in which they would engage in particular activities only with specific partners. Low SM Ss preferred relatively homogeneous and undifferentiated social worlds in which they would spend time with friends who were globally similar to them. Implications for understanding the processes by which individuals facilitate the enactment of their characteristic behavioral orientations, as well as for understanding the nature of friendship itself, are discussed. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).