176 Chapter 5strong as my goal of not offending the physi-
cian so I would receive patient referrals.
Other aspects of the situation influence
behavior. Some situations have high behav-
ioral constraints; they provide strong cues as
to how to behave. In these situations, most
people will behave in accordance with those
cues. For example, church is a situation with
high behavioral constraints. Most people,
regardless of individual difference variables,
will behave in the same way during a church
service: sit quietly, listen, try to stay awake,
sing when others are singing, and recite pas-
sages when others recite passages. There is a
set script for behavior. Deviations from these
behaviors, such as giggling, are quite notice-
able. Other situations are low in behavioral
constraints. A party is such a situation. Some
people will be loud and mingle with the
crowd; others will sit quietly with one other
person and talk for hours. Either behavior is
acceptable. What situations are high and low
in behavioral constraints with respect to gen-
der? A wedding is a situation high in behav-
ioral constraints. Clear guidelines dictate how
the bride and groom are to dress and behave,
and the guidelines are quite different for the
two of them. The classroom is a situation low
in behavioral constraints with respect to gen-
der. There are clear guidelines for behavior
(sit quietly, take notes, raise hand to answer
a question), but these guidelines do not differ
for women and men.
Deaux and Major’s (1987) model of
sex differences, shown in Figure 5.12, shows
how these three components—perceiver,
target, and situation—interact to deter-
mine whether sex differences appear. Let’s
go through the model, step by step, with an
example. In this example, the perceiver is
a father, the target is his 3-year-old daugh-
ter, and the situation is that they are playing
with toys at a day care.whom I expect will disagree with me, such as
vegetarians. In other areas, however, I may
be less certain about an issue. I may be able
to see both the pros and cons of day care for
children; thus I will not be outspoken in ad-
vocating or rejecting day care in any situa-
tion and may tend to agree with both sides of
the argument.
In some situations, you will be very
much concerned with how you appear to
others. These situations include ones in
which other people have power over you and
situations in which you need something from
these other people. If you are a Democrat,
and you discover your professor is a Republi-
can, you may decide to conceal your political
views. Why? Because you want the professor
to like you, especially if you feel grades are
going to be subjective. Obviously there are
exceptions. If you feel strongly about being a
Democrat or are a low self-monitor, you may
share your political views with the professor
anyway.
The following personal example il-
lustrates how self-verification may oper-
ate in some situations and self-presentation
may operate in others. In most situations, if
someone asked, “Do you mind if I smoke?”
I would say yes. I would be behaving true to
my self-concept as a nonsmoker and one not
very fond of smoke. However, a number of
years ago, I was in a situation where I was
surrounded by a half dozen male physicians
who I was hoping would refer patients to a
study I was conducting. The chief among the
group, who was sitting next to me in a non-
smoking building, started the meeting by
turning to me and asking, “Do you mind if
I smoke?” I found myself quickly replying,
“No, I don’t mind at all.” In this particular
situation, self-presentation won out over
self-verification; my goal of behaving in ways
consistent with my self-concept was not asM05_HELG0185_04_SE_C05.indd 176 6/21/11 8:03 AM