Gender comparisons in the private, collective, and allocentric selves

Researchers (e.g., M. B. Brewer & W. Gardner, 1996; H. C. Triandis, D. K. S . Chan, D. P. S. Bhawuk, S. Iwao, & J. P. B. Sinha, 1995) have suggested ex pansion of the standard model of individualism-collectivism to include peop le's close personal relationships in addition to their identification with in-groups. There has been considerable discussion of the hypothesis that wo men are more collective, interdependent, relational, and allocentric than m en (e.g., S. E. Cross & L. Madson, 1997; Y. Kashima et al., 1995). In the p resent study, the authors used the Twenty Statements Test (M. H. Kuhn & T. McPartland, 1954) to examine gender differences in the self-concept by asse ssing the accessibility of private, collective, and allocentric self-cognit ions. The U.S. women described themselves with more allocentric and more co llective self-cognitions than did the U.S. men. Discussion focuses on the i mplications of those data for interpretation of other gender differences as well as for traditional models of individualism-collectivism.