The "Linguistic Implications Form" (LIF)

This clever measure of self-awareness was developed by Wegner and Giuliano (1980, 1983). People must complete ambiguous sentences by selecting the pronouns that seem to fit best. Although each pronoun is grammatically correct, people high in self-awareness pick more first-person singular pronouns.

This may be the most widely-used way of measuring situational levels of self-awareness. To score it, simply count the number of first-person singular pronouns.

Wegner's web page has a copy of this measure; you can also get a PDF version here.

A German version of the LIF developed by Prof. Andrea Abele is also available.

References for the LIF:

Wegner, D. M., & Giuliano, T. (1980). Arousal-induced attention to self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 719–726.

Wegner, D. M., & Giuliano, T. (1983). On sending artifact in search of artifact: Reply to McDonald, Harris, and Maher. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 290–293.

A few papers of the many papers that used the LIF:

Salovey, P. (1992). Mood-induced self-focused attention. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 699–707.

Silvia, P. J., & Abele, A. E. (2002). Can positive affect induce self-focused attention? Methodological and measurement issues. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 845–853.

Snow, C. J., Duval, T. S., & Silvia, P. J. (2004). When the self stands out: Figure-ground effects on self-focused attention. Self and Identity, 3, 355-363.

Stephenson, B., & Wicklund, R. A. (1984). The contagion of self-focus within a dyad. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 163–168.

P. Silvia, UNCG
Last Updated: May 07, 2005