"Everybody is looking at me": imaginary audience, identity and social context

Abstract

The relationships between the imaginary audience and identity development, gender and the social educational context were explicated. One hundred and nineteen post secondary students (mean age 22.57, 100 females, 19 males) completed the Extended Objective Measure of Ego-Identity Status, Adolescent Egocentrism Scale and New Imaginary Audience Scale. Demographic information was also collected. ANOV AS, t-tests and correlations were run to investigate group differences in imaginary audience effects based on gender, identity status and social context (primarily educational status: newer vs. more experienced students). Two results contradict earlier studies: there was no significant difference based on gender, and non-crisis identity statuses (foreclosure and diffusion) showed greater audience effects than crisis identity statuses (moratorium and achievement). Some direct and indirect support was found for the hypothesis that social context plays a role in creating the imaginary audience.