GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE BASIS AND LEVEL OF ADULT SELF-ESTEEM - A CROSS-CULTURAL-PERSPECTIVE

Six hundred and nine middle class adults from the USA, Hong Kong, and Lithuania were asked to rate the importance of and satisfaction with t wenty different aspects of their self. As predicted the American sampl e reported the highest global self-esteem. Participants from all three countries tended to be more satisfied with self-components they consi dered more important. This trend as predicted was stronger for the hig hly individualist American participants. Within all three countries th ere was strong agreement between the sexes about the salience and sati sfaction of these components for the self. However, between country ef fects were much stronger than gender effects. Components considered to be aspects of the Interdependent self tended to be rated more salient and to be a greater source of satisfaction than aspects of the Indepe ndent self in all three countries. Across countries, the US and Hong K ong response patterns were very similar but the Lithuanians differed m arkedly, perhaps surprisingly rating as relatively more important a nu mber of individualistic aspects of the self. Overall the results quest ion the claims in the literature that gender differences in the nature of self-concept generalize across cultures.