Agency versus Communion as Predictors of Self-esteem: Searching for the Role of Culture and Self-construal

• Authors: Bogdan Wojciszke , Olga Bialobrzeska
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Two hypotheses concerning the relative importance of agentic versus communal traits as predictors of selfesteem were tested. The perspective hypothesis assumed that self-esteem is dominated by agency over communion because self-perceptions are formed from the agent (versus recipient) perspective. The culture hypothesis assumed that self-esteem is dominated by communal concerns in collectivistic cultures and by agentic concerns in individualistic cultures (echoed by individual differences in self-construal). Study 1 involving three samples from collectivistic countries and three from individualistic ones found that self-esteem was better predicted from self-ratings of agentic than communal traits, with the exception of collectivistic women for whom the two predictors were equal. Study 2 primed the interdependent or independent self and found self-ratings of agency to be better predictors of self-esteem than self-ratings of communion, with the exception of interdependence priming,where the two predictors were equal in strength.

Keywords

EN

Agency; Communion; Culture; Self-construal; Self-esteem

• Publisher: Committee for Psychological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 469-479

Dates

published

2014-12-01

online

2014-12-16

Contributors

author

Bogdan Wojciszke

• University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sopot Campus, Polna 16/20, 81-745 Sopot, Poland;

author

Olga Bialobrzeska

• University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Psychology, Warsaw

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/ppb-2014-0057