Your Public Persona: Self-Presentation in Everyday Life

by Mark Leary

Humans are social animals, and the impressions we make on others can critically impact the quality of our lives. Consequently, we spend much of our lives, both consciously and unconsciously, working to shape other people’s ideas about who we are. In this eye-opening 12-lecture series with Professor Leary, explore the “self-presentational underpinnings of human behavior” as well as the what, how, and why of impression management.

People form impressions of us - who we are and what we’re like - very quickly and, right or wrong, those impressions determine significant aspects of our outcomes in life, both in the present as well as the future. In just a few short minutes, others assess our personality, interests, attitudes, and moods, taking into account everything from the content of our words to the style of our clothing, and much more. Sometimes their assessments are accurate, other times less so, but the impressions other people form of us significantly impacts how they treat us.

Social interactions and the impressions that drive them are vitally important aspects of human behavior. In this compelling course, learn about how we shape the impressions other people form of us - at work, at home, in our social lives, and in the world at large.

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Genres: Psychology, Audiobook, Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[مُهنا · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lessons on how your own personas affect your personal life and the impact of different peoples personas influence the societal norms.
It is interesting to see light being shed on how we all wear different masks around different people, but all those masks are you and acting differently does not make you false. It just makes you you.

[Adriyana Grotseva · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected the lectures would talk more about your public persona, different types, tips and psychology behind human interactions, etc. it turned out to be very simplistic… The main insights for me from it are:

Most of the people self-representation efforts are to be seen as likable, competent and virtuous.
Humility isn’t about portraying yourself more negatively than you really are - that is either self-effacing lie or false modesty. Humility involves recognizing and acknowledging your positive characteristics, strengths and accomplishments but at the same time understanding that no matter how good you are at something, it doesn’t entitle you to be treated special as a person. Humble people perceive and present themselves accurately but they don’t make a big deal out of their positive characteristics and accomplishments. They know they are like everyone else with positive and negative characteristics.
People present themselves in a better light if they know they won’t be found out.
Social behaviors like smiling, paying attention, nodding, backchanneling (vocal sounds unification that you are listening) help people remain involved in a interaction and present as pleasant without actually saying much.
Choking under pressure - when you think too much about what you are doing, you start worry about it and choke under pressure. Simply being observed raises the stakes, makes people self-conscious and leads them to think too much about what they are doing. And even natural and automatic behavior as walking, can become awkward and uncoordinated, when people try to walk naturally when others are watching.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

This audio course is reasonably good, but it goes into great detail about a subject that the professor seemed to cover in the first few lectures. He then used the same principles and applied them to various specific situations that were obvious extrapolations to me. The professor says it is all science and I am inclined to agree, but for a commercial course like this, I would have shortened it. I didn't need that much detail. It sounded repetitive after a while.

I doubt I will listen to this audio course again although I did enjoy listening to it the first time despite the repetition/extrapolation.

[Chad Schultz · Rating 3 out of 5]

#bookreview for "Your Public Persona: Self-Presentation in Everyday Life"
By Mark Leary
Did you know that people change their behavior to try to fit in?
Did you know that guys will do dumb, dangerous stuff to impress others?
Did you know people will change their responses based on what they think the other person wants to hear?
Really? Oh. Well, in that case, you won't learn anything from this book.
I hoped for terrific, practical tips, and was disappointed.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book in my eyes. The introduction of the idea that whether we like it or not, we are always adapting our persona was helpful in the framing of the content and our behavior. It really sets the stage for the reasoning behind the rest of the content.

[JanaT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Burdened by several stereotypes, such as women somehow have to put with their position and try to sit on two chairs and hope for the best... Missing more information on how the society develops.

[Arthur Krause · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insights. Nice concepts. Most of the stuff is kind of known but still good to hear it.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's OK, well organized book on the topic. At the same time maybe I missed it but didn't seem like it's providing much possible tips for things to do.

[Phillip Fitzsimmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was harmless. Everything he said sounded pretty obvious to me. It is well done and pleasant but not inspiring or revealatory

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting series of lectures focused on the psychology of the public presentation of the self. Great at the beginning, tapered off a bit at the end.