INTERDEPENDENT AND INDEPENDENT SELF - CONSTRUAL: ABOUT GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SELF SCHEMA

The article concerns gender differences in self schema. In general, women are thought to construct and maintain self-knowledge in relation to the cognitive representation of the social environment (Interdependent self-construal), whereas men are thought to construct and maintain self-knowledge independent from it (Independent self-construal). Undertaken studies aimed at investigating if there were any gender differences in the level of connection between self schema and schemas related to other people (We or Others). Four studies were conducted. Gathered data was coming from Social Perception Questionnaire (Study 1 and Study 2) or Estimation of Distance Test (Study 3 and Study 4). Both allows for indirect, non-declarative measuring of the Self-Construal and its connections with cognitive representations of social environment, thus that the influence of gender stereotype was mineralized. Auto-replication of gathered data shows that results are not incidental, which strengthens formulate conclusion. Results show significantly higher level of connection between self-knowledge and cognitive representation of the social environment among women than men, but observed interdependence of women's self schema relates mainly to the closest people (We). Obtained data seem to indicate that Interdependent Self Construal is more typical for women and Independent Self Construal more characteristic for men.