Cultural Dimensions, Gender, and the Nature of Self-concept: A Fourteen-country Study
Title:
Cultural Dimensions, Gender, and the Nature of Self-concept: A Fourteen-country Study
Author:
Wondimu, David Watkins Adebowale Akande James Fleming Maznah Ismail Kent Lefner Murari Regmi Sue Watson Jiayuan Yu John Adair Christopher Cheng Andres Gerong Dennis McInerney Elias Mpofu Sunita Singh-Sengupta Habtamu
Appeared in:
International journal of psychology
Paging:
Volume 33 (1998) nr. 1 pages 17-31
Year:
1998-02-01
Contents:
Ratings of the importance of and satisfaction with 20 areas of the self were obtained from 3604 first or second year social science undergraduates from 14 countries (15 cultures). Factor analysis at the culture by gender level supported four factors for both sets of ratings. The resulting factor scores were analyzed for mean differences according to the cultural dimension of Individualism-Collectivism by Gender and by correlations with other cultural dimenions and economic indicators. It was found that participants from the 10 collectivist cultures placed greater salience for their self-concepts on "family values" than did those from the individualist cultures. However, this cultural difference was not found for "social relationships". The expected gender differences, with females valuing "family values" and "social relationships" more highly, were found only for the individualist countries. The findings indicate that there may be a strong cultural level interaction effect between gender and Individualism-Collectivism on the nature of self-conceptions, and that the "family" and "social" aspects of self-concept in collectivist countries need to be considered separately. Cette etude rapporte les scores d'importance et de satisfaction attribues a 20 aspects du soi par 3604 etudiants pregradues de premiere ou deuxieme annee en sciences sociales, provenant de 14 pays differents (15 cultures). L'analyse factorielle sur le niveau culutre sexe indique la presence de quatre facteurs pour les deux ensembles de scores. Ces scores factoriels sont analyses quant aux differences de moyennes selon la dimension culturelle Individualisme-Collectivisme Sexe et par les correlations avec d'autres dimensions culturelles et indicateurs economiques. Les resultats montrent que les participants et participantes des 10 cultures collectivistes mettent davantage l'accent sur les valeurs familiales dans leur concept de soi que ceux et celles des cultures individualistes. Cependant, cette difference culturelle ne se manifeste pas pour la variable "relations sociales". Les differences attendues en fonction du sexe, a savoir une plus grande valeur accordee aux "valeurs familiales" et aux "relations sociales" par les femmes que les hommes, n'apparaissent que dans les cultures individualistes. Ces resultats indiquent qu'il y aurait un fort effet culturel de l'interaction entre le sexe et l'Individualisme-Collectivisme sur la nature des conceptions du soi et que les aspects "familiaux" et "sociaux" du concept de soi doivent etre concus separement dans les cultures collectivistes.
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