Differences in self-concept between males and females in individualistic culture

Zanimanje za sebstvo, jaz, samopodobo, pojmovanje sebe, identiteto ali še kakšne druge sorodne pojme ima v psihologiji dolgo tradicijo in posedično mnogo raziskovalnih pristopov. Iz nabora konceptov, povezanih s sebstvom, pričujoča magistrska naloga v teoretskem delu opisuje samo sebstvo, kako le-to deluje, kateri so njegovi bistveni deli in kako sociokulturni kontekst vpliva nanj. V nadaljevanju, v empiričnem delu, se v magistrski nalogi osredotočamo na razlike v pojmovanju sebe med spoloma v povezavi z individualistično kulturo. Kot sta Markusova in Kitayama (1991) na podlagi razlik v kulturi opisala dve različni in prevladujoči pojmovanji sebe, namreč odvisno in neodvisno, se ta razlika v pojmovanju sebe kaže tudi med spoloma. Za namen raziskave smo uporabili dva instrumenta, preizkus dvajsetih izjav ali Twenty statements test (TSTKuhn in McPartland, 1954) ter vprašalnik kolektivizma in individualizma (Singelis idr., 1995), ki so jih reševali študenti različnih študijskih smeri Univerze v Mariboru. Rezultati so pokazali prevalenco psihičnih opisov, kar je značilno za individualistične kultureprav tako pa je prišlo je do razlik med spoloma pri dimenziji horizontalni kolektivizem. Pri posameznih kategorijah TST so se pokazale razlike med spoloma. Pri obeh instrumentih so rezultati nadalje pokazali večjo vezanost moških na skupino kot pri ženskah. V kontekstu TST smo ugotovili, da v prvih desetih stavkih udeleženci navedejo najpomembnejše opise o sebi.Interest in self, I, self-construal, self-concept, identity and many related concepts has a long tradition in psychology and, consequently, many different research approaches. From many different concepts of self, this master thesis describes the theory of self, how does it work, what are its components and how it is influenced by culture. The research part of this thesis focuses on gender differences of self-concept in relation to the individualistic culture. Markus and Kitayama (1991) defined two different self-concepts, namely independent and interdependent, which are based on cultural difference. Similar difference can be seen between genders. For research purposes, we used two instruments, the twenty statements test (TST) (Kuhan and McPartland, 1954) and the collectivism/individualism scale (Singelis et el., 1995). The study involved 103 students of the University of Maribor. Results showed prevalence in describing psychological attributes, which is typical for individualistic countries. There was a significant statistical difference between gender and dimension of horizontal collectivism. A gender difference was also shown between TST categories. In both cases men showed greater cohesion with a social group than women. Results also showed that the participants wrote their most important self-descriptions in the first ten statements. TST as a test can be adapted for different research purposes but its main purpose is to obtain information on the working self-concept