The Effects of Social Category Salience and Self-Construals upon Self-Stereotyping Strategies

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of gender salience, gender group membership, and independent/interdependent construals of self on self-defining strategies based on the research framework of Lorenzi-Cioldi (1991). Hypotheses were as follows. (1) self-stereotyping strategies tend to be employed under conditions of salient gender categories, while selfenhancement strategies defining self in positive terms will be mainly employed under conditions of salient individual differences. (2-a) Among self-stereotyping strategies, women, as dominated group-members, employ a gender-schema strategy processing male and female bipolarily, and (2-b) men, members of the dominant group, employ a self-schema strategy processing either male or female unipolarily. (3-a) Those with an interdependent construal of self, whose self is fundamentally connected with relevant others, employ a gender-schemata strategy that requires information on other groups, while (3-b) those with an independent construal of self, whose self is an autonomous entity independent of others, employ a selfschema strategy that does not require information on other groups. A test, measuring the response latencies of 79 subjects in self-descriptions on the BSRI (Bern, 1974) attributes was conducted, and showed support for hypotheses 2-a and 3-a, but since it evidenced no use of self-schema, hypotheses 2-b and 3-b were not supported. Since the effect of gender salience was not seen, hypothesis 1 was not supported. Considerations are offered as to experimental procedures and cultural differences.