JOURNAL OF SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY, 1992, 14, 339-351 Self-Presentational Processes in Exercise and Sport Mark R. Leary Wake Forest University This article examines the effects of self-presentational processes on four aspects of sport and exercise: the motivation to engage in physical activity, people's choices of physical activities and the contexts in which they engage in these activities, the quality of athletic performance, and people's emotional reactions to engaging in sport and exercise. Key words: self-presentation, physical activity, impression management, mo- tivation, athletic perfonnance Self-presentation, also called impression management, refers to the pro- cesses by which people monitor and control how they are perceived by other people (Schlenker, 1980). Although for many, the concept of self-presentation often evokes images of Machiavellian deceit, self-presentation is neither inher- ently deceptive nor manipulative. On the contrary, it is a natural and necessary component of human interpersonal behavior. There are few social situations in which people can afford to disregard the self-presentational implications of their behavior (Goffman, 1959). Each person's response to another is based, in part, on that individual's impression of the other's personality, abilities, motives, and other attributes. Thus, people's outcomes in life depend to an extent on their conveying impressions that lead others to respond in desired ways. Even when people are not consciously trying to make a particular impression, they neverthe- less monitor others' reactions, often at a nonconscious or preattentive level, and adjust their behavior when they believe they are making undesired impressions (Leary & Kowalski, 1990). The fact that people monitor and control how they are being perceived and evaluated does not imply that the impressions they try to create are necessarily deceptive. Although people do sometimes try to convey images of themselves that are different (usually better) than how they see themselves, most self-presenta- tions are reasonably consistent with the person's own self-concept (Leary & Kowalski, 1990). Rather than involving conscious dissimulation, self-presentation usually entails a selective presentation of those parts of oneself that will make desired impressions on specific people within a particular social encounter, com- bined with the selective omission of self-relevant infonnation that will create Mark R. Leary is with the Department of Psychology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109. 339