ABSTRACT
The pioneering self-presentation researchers would most likely have had mixed reactions to Dr. Holmes’ remark. On the one hand, theorists such as Jones and his colleagues (Jones, 1964; Jones & Pittman, 1982; Jones & Wortman, 1973) would have wholeheartedly agreed that “we have a special face for each friend.” On the other hand, they would surely have questioned Holmes’ assertion that self-presentation activities were inadvertent and nonconscious. Jones and Pittman (1982), for example, proposed that people’s tendencies to present themselves differently to their various relationship partners reflect active, motivated strategies tailored to evoke specific reactions. Social actors, according to Jones and Pittman, are actors in the truest sense, making conscious and deliberate attempts to appear likable, competent, intimidating, and so on, depending on their interaction goals.
