Gendered influence of downward social comparisons on current and possible selves

Pg 130 – “…We explore gender-specific consequences of downward social comparisons and examine how cultural assumptions about causes of failure and differences in the self-concepts of men and women interact to produce lower levels of academic self-competence in women.”

~ Overview of the study.

Pg 130 – “Social comparisons also serve people’s needs for accurate self-assessment (Festinger, 1954), however, and taking the failure of another person into account may provide diagnostic information about potential dangers and pitfalls facing the self (Trope, 1986).”

~ People compare socially in order to self assess. This is also why people rank their cultures and identities.

Pg 132 – “Generally, individualism as a cultural construct has been associated with a preference for person-focused causal reasoning (Norenzavan, Choi, & Nisbett, 2000; Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2000). That is, causes are assumed to lie in fixed dispositions, traits, and characteristics. Conversely, interdependence or collectivism is associated with greater sensitivity to situational and contextual factors and a tendency to conceive of others in terms of their social contexts and relationships (J. G. Miller, 1984; Morris & Peng, 1994; Shweder & Bourne, 1984).”

~ Difference between individualism and interdependence is like the difference between identity and culture.

Pg 143 – “We proposed that gender-differentiated achievement outcomes may be due in part to the interplay between the dominant individualistic cultural frame and gender-specific self-views and preferred processing styles. In Western countries, the dominant cultural focus on individuals and their traits rather than situations, relationships, and circumstances, as the underlying causes of behavior (J. G. Miller, 1984; Morris & Peng, 1994; Schweder & Bourner, 1984), implies that fixed abilities rather than situations and contextual factors are key to understanding individual success or failure. We proposed that this dominant cultural focus can match, or mismatch, with how the self is organized, matching with men’s independence-focused self-schemas and mismatching with women’s interdependence-focused self-schemas (Cross & Madson, 1997; Markus & Oyserman, 1989).”

~ Western vs. Eastern train of thoughts like men vs. women’s trains of thoughts.

Kemmelmeier, M., Oyserman, D. (2001). Gendered influence of downward social comparisons on current and possible selves. Journal of Social Issues, 57(1). Retrieved on October 17, 2008 from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/culture.self/self-concept_and_possible_selves_publications