The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Achievement 201

for independence and separation may really

be their desire to form broader social connec-

tions with others, such as those achieved by

power and status. Women and men may be

equally social but in different spheres: Women

invest in a small number of relationships, and

men orient themselves toward the broader so-

cial structure and embed themselves in larger

groups. An example of men’s interdependence

that Baumeister and Sommer cite comes from

the helping literature. Recall that the meta-

analysis on helping showed that men were

more helpful than women (Eagly & Crowley,

1986), but an important moderator was the

relationship to the recipient. Men help people

they do not know, which is akin to helping so-

ciety at large, whereas women help people they

do know and with whom they have a relation-

ship, such as family and friends.

How are these different self-definitions

related to self-esteem? It is not the case that

a relational self-construal is related to low

self-esteem (Cross, Bacon, & Morris, 2000).

Instead, evidence indicates that agentic self-

definitions are related to men’s self-esteem,

and communal self-definitions are related to

women’s self-esteem. Men’s self-esteem seems

to be based on power, differentiating them-

selves from others, effectiveness, and inde-

pendent action, whereas women’s self-esteem

is based on relationships and connections

(Miller, 1991).

To this point, I have been emphasiz-

ing differences. But there are also similarities

in the sources of self-esteem for women and

men. For example, feeling accepted by others

is associated with feeling good about the self,

and feeling rejected by others is associated

with feeling bad about the self for both women

and men (Leary et al., 1995). However, the as-

sociations are stronger for women than men.

It is quite likely that cultural and ethnic

factors influence the sources of self-esteem

one reason that sex differences in personal-

ity and values are stronger in more egalitarian

Western countries than less egalitarian Eastern

countries is that Western countries promote

between-group comparisons. Eastern coun-

tries have such a large status difference between

men and women that it makes no sense for

them to compare themselves to one another.

See if there are sex differences in self-construal

at your school with Do Gender 6.3.

One problem with suggesting that

women have a more interdependent sense of

self compared to men has to do with the way

interdependence is conceptualized. There

are two kinds of interdependence:relational

interdependenceandcollective interde-

pendence(Baumeister & Sommer, 1997).

The relational aspects of the self are those

that emphasize close relationships with other

people. The collective aspects of the self are

those derived from group memberships and

affiliations. What appears to be men’s desire

DO GENDER 6.3

Self-Conceptions

Have a group of students respond to the

question “Who am I?” Then, review each

of the attributes and categorize them as

emphasizing separation from others, con-

nection to others, or neither. Make sure

you are blind to the respondent’s sex when

you categorize the attributes.

Is it true that females define them-

selves more in terms of connection to oth-

ers, and males define themselves more in

terms of their separation from others?

Administer a measure of gender-

related traits and see if agency, commu-

nion, unmitigated agency, or unmitigated

communion are related to these catego-

ries. What would you predict?

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