Photography and Self-Awareness The Act of Being Photographed

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Graham, Steven

Keywords

Photography, Self Awareness, Social Anxiety

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

This study was designed to test whether the act of being photographed causes an increase in selfawareness. Prior research has established that mirrors can be used to induce private self-awareness, whereas video-cameras manipulate public self-awareness and that trait levels of self-awareness moderate these effects. As such, it was hypothesized that participants would display an increase in public selfawareness when photographed, but that this effect would be moderated by social anxiety scores such that those high in social anxiety would not show as much of an increase due to a ceiling effect. Mirror, videocamera, and control conditions were included to test these hypotheses. Eighty-nine undergraduate students (37 males, 52 females) participated in this experiment. Levels of self-awareness were measured both before and after the manipulation via the Situational Self-Awareness Scale (SSAS; Mattick & Clark, 1998). The results did not support the hypotheses; there were no significant differences in self-awareness as a function of condition. The discussion centers on potential explanations, as well as the possible directions for future research.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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