Describe the nature of gender self-construal as it relates to ...

[Marty]

Describe the nature of gender self-construal as it relates to inter- and intra-group comparisons. Use self-insecurity as the dependent variable of interest.
 
  That is, in an experiment, how did within- and between-group comparisons differ on participant self-ratings on this dependent variable?

Question 2

Jeff has had Juan as his roommate for a semester. Jeff, who has a low opinion of his own athletic skills, has been praised by Juan on a number of occasions for his (Jeff's) play during intramural football games. To begin the spring semester,
 
  Jeff has asked for a new roommate. What's going on here? Describe the basic self-presentational underpinnings, and give a more specific theoretical explanation for Jeff's behavior.

[Chelseyj.hasty]

Answer to Question 1

Answer:
When men and women were asked to compare themselves to members of the other gender group (the intergroup context), they displayed the expected gender difference in rated self-insecurity--women said they were more insecure than did men. But when those same judgments were made in an intragroup group context, i.e., women comparing themselves to other women, men to other men, no differences were found on the dependent variable, self-insecurity.

Answer to Question 2

Answer:
In general, we present ourselves to the world in the way we would like to be seen by others. In the self-verification perspective, we want others to honor and feed back to us our vision of ourselves. Oddly, for many of us, this may mean hearing negative things about ourselves. Jeff has asked for a new roommate because Juan continues to praise him, thus challenging Jeff's self-view, a view, albeit a negative one, that Jeff is apparently comfortable with.

[Marty]

Gracias!

[Sarahjh]

Thanks for the timely response, appreciate it