The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

202 Chapter 6

her. So wise at the age of 13, she continued

on by telling us, “I have to tell myself that.

That’s how I make myself feel better.” This

girl was demonstrating what is known in so-

cial psychology as theself-serving bias.The

self-serving bias is the tendency to take credit

for our successes and blame other people or

other things for our failures. In general, self-

serving biases are adaptive, in part because

self-esteem is protected in the face of failure.

Dimensions of Causality. The self-serving

bias has to do with the attributions that we

make for performance. Anattributionis the

cause we assign to a behavior. Attributions

can be classified along the two dimensions

shown in Figure 6.9 (Weiner et al., 1971).

The first dimension represents the locus of

the cause, internal or external. Aninternal

attributionis located within the person, and

anexternal attributionis located in the en-

vironment. Astable attributionis one that

does not change across time or situations. An

unstable attributionis one that does change

for women and men. Although Western cul-

tures emphasize individualism, achievement,

and success, there are people whose oppor-

tunities to achieve are limited—by poverty

or by discrimination. African Americans, in

particular, may derive self-esteem from other

domains. Because the family is central to the

identity of African Americans, partly as a buf-

fer against racism, African Americans may

derive more of their self-esteem from rela-

tionships. In a study of college students, Black

students scored higher on a measure of col-

lectivism than did White students (Oyserman,

Gant, & Ager, 1995).

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ Men’s sense of self is based more on independence,

whereas women’s sense of self is based more on

interdependence.

■ Interdependenceis a broad term, including a relational

and a collective component. Women are more likely

to emphasize the relational aspect, whereas men are

more likely to emphasize the collective aspect.

■ These different self-construals have been differentially

linked to self-esteem in men and women.

■ Sex differences in self-construal may be influenced by

ethnic and cultural factors. Western cultures emphasize

individualism, which is reflected in the independent

self-construal.

Attributions for Performance

Recently, one of my daughter’s friends was

visiting and explained that she had tried out

for a soccer team and did not make it. Was

she upset? Did she think that she wasn’t good

enough for the team? No, she responded

by saying that the team had made a mis-

take and would suffer for not having chosen

FIGURE 6.9 Two dimensions on which attri-

butions (causes) can be classified: locus (internal

vs. external) and stability (stable vs. unstable).

Ability DifficultyTask

Internal

Dimensions of Attribution

Stable

Unstable

External

Effort Luck

M06_HELG0185_04_SE_C06.indd 202 6/21/11 8:10 AM