TY - JOUR
T1 - Culture, Gender, and the Self
T2 - Variations and Impact of Social Comparison Processes
AU - Guimond, Serge
AU - Branscombe, Nyla R.
AU - Brunot, Sophie
AU - Buunk, Abraham P.
AU - Chatard, Armand
AU - Désert, Michel
AU - Garcia, Donna M.
AU - Haque, Shamsul
AU - Martinot, Delphine
AU - Yzerbyt, Vincent
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2007/6
Y1 - 2007/6
N2 - Psychological differences between women and men, far from being invariant as a biological explanation would suggest, fluctuate in magnitude across cultures. Moreover, contrary to the implications of some theoretical perspectives, gender differences in personality, values, and emotions are not smaller, but larger, in American and European cultures, in which greater progress has been made toward gender equality. This research on gender differences in self-construals involving 950 participants from 5 nations/cultures (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, and Malaysia) illustrates how variations in social comparison processes across cultures can explain why gender differences are stronger in Western cultures. Gender differences in the self are a product of self-stereotyping, which occurs when between-gender social comparisons are made. These social comparisons are more likely, and exert a greater impact, in Western nations. Both correlational and experimental evidence supports this explanation.
AB - Psychological differences between women and men, far from being invariant as a biological explanation would suggest, fluctuate in magnitude across cultures. Moreover, contrary to the implications of some theoretical perspectives, gender differences in personality, values, and emotions are not smaller, but larger, in American and European cultures, in which greater progress has been made toward gender equality. This research on gender differences in self-construals involving 950 participants from 5 nations/cultures (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, and Malaysia) illustrates how variations in social comparison processes across cultures can explain why gender differences are stronger in Western cultures. Gender differences in the self are a product of self-stereotyping, which occurs when between-gender social comparisons are made. These social comparisons are more likely, and exert a greater impact, in Western nations. Both correlational and experimental evidence supports this explanation.
KW - culture
KW - gender differences
KW - power distance
KW - self-construal
KW - social comparison
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34547417579&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1118
DO - 10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1118
M3 - Article
C2 - 17547492
AN - SCOPUS:34547417579
SN - 0022-3514
VL - 92
SP - 1118
EP - 1134
JO - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
IS - 6
ER -