Motivation for acquiring praise and motivation for avoiding rejection

Abstract

Public self-consciousness involves two contrasting attitudes toward self-presentation-exhibitionism and shyness. The purpose of this study was to explore the distinctivemotivational states which mediate these two attitudes. This paper consists of two researches. 395 under graduates (207 males, 188 females) participated in the former study and 452 undergraduates (288 males, 164 females) participated in the latter one. The first study employed a factor analytic technique and results pointed to the existence of the following two motivational states (1) acquiring praise and (2) avoiding rejection both of which were positively correlated with public self-consciousness. “Acquiring praise” was also found to be related to exhibitionism but "avoiding rejection" was not. The later was found to be related to shyness. The second study revealed that both motivational states were related to a tendency to seek out and value the experience of participating in a social group. The implications of these findings for theories of self-consciousness and self-presentation were discussed. © 1986, The Japanese Psychological Association. All rights reserved.