Differences in Self-concept - Assignment Example

Answer both A and B.

1. Explain the findings of Rhee et al. (107-114), who administered the Twenty Statements Test and found that differences in self-concept vary depending on the culture.

    Culture plays an important part in shaping one's identity and self-concept. People who were brought up in individualistic cultures (such as western cultures) may have different norms or values than those who were brought up in a collectivistic culture (such as eastern cultures). The Twenty Statements Test examines how different cultures result in a person having a different self-concept.

 Rhee administered the TST to individuals from Korea and the US in order to research the cultural difference in self-concept and to see if there is a difference between the dimensions of autonomous-social and abstract-specific.

The hypothesis in the study was that Western European participants would give self-descriptions that were more autonomous and abstract than Korean ones. 105 Korean students were involved in the study alongside 151 Asian Americans and 97 Euro- Americans. The participants were asked to give 20 answers to the question "who are you?" The TST coding system had eight categories and 33 subcategories. The results illustrated the distinction between the abstract-specific dimension and the autonomous-social dimension. Korean self-descriptions were specific while Euro-Americans were more abstract and autonomous as they used more emotional traits and pure states. The results also indicated a linear decrease in both abstract and autonomous self-descriptions from Euro- Americans to Asian Americans to Koreans. This finding suggests the accuracy and validity of both dimensions in characterizing differences between individualistic and collectivistic cultures.    The abstract-specific dimension and the autonomous-social dimension are two distinct dimensions of self-description when it comes to individualism and collectivism being cultural values. The TST is a reliable measure to assess the strength of spontaneous social identities.

1. Can a person have both traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine traits? Agree or disagree with Sandra L. Bem's argument (252-258) and describe the research that led to its development.

    Sandra L.Bem argues that men and women aren’t limited to simply being “masculine” or feminine”. Instead, she argued that the two sexes can have qualities, some that are “andro” and others that are “gym”. Hence she came up with the androgyny concept where a person can actually be measured for how masculine or feminine or androgynous he or she is.

Femininity has been associated with an expressive orientation while masculinity with an instrumental one and this gender-related association was used in Bem’s research in order to measure masculinity and femininity on a scientific scale.

40 Stanford undergraduates served as judges in this research to rate 400 personality characteristics and label them as either “for a man” or “for a woman”. According to the characteristics that were judged, 20 were chosen to be used in each of the femininity and masculinity scales. For example, traits such as “aggressive”, assertive”, and “competitive” were used as criteria in the masculine items while “affectionate”, cheerful” and “compassionate were used in the feminine items. Then, the mean desirability scores were made for neutral, feminine, or masculine items and the results showed that the mean desirability of the feminine and masculine items was higher for the “appropriate” sex than that of the “inappropriate” sex.

   Then the male and female judges rated their own sex and this best represented the desirability of the various items. Tables illustrated the results and the statistic enabled researchers to actually calculate the "androgyny score". High positive scores were indicative of femininity while high negative scores of masculinity and so the greater the absolute value of androgyny was, the more indicative it was of the person being sex-typed or sex-reversed.

   The BSRI indicates how one describes his characteristics on a 7-point scale. According to how each person responds, there is a score computed for femininity, masculinity, and androgyny. The androgyny score is one's t ratio for the difference between one's masculine and feminine self-endorsement.

    Bem’s research validates the concept of psychological androgyny and shows that the BSKI is a reliable and scientific way to measure it. Her unique perspective of one’s sex characteristics has influenced and transformed the whole concept of gender-role behavior. After reading about her research I can see the validity behind her research and agree that a person can actually have both traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine traits.