Self-description and Self-construal of Male and Female College Students of Different Locations

Self concept representations of an individual are an important topic of research in the area of culture and self. In the present study an attempt has been made to find out the effect of gender and rural-urban location on one’s self-description, and independent and interdependent self construal. Data were collected from 75 college students (47 male and 28 female) selected from rural and urban locations near Kolkata, India. Self-descriptions from the subjects were taken in response to the question “who am I?”Three representations of self: relational, collective and individual were assessed from the responses. Independent and interdependent self-construal was measured with the help of Self-construal scale of Singelis (1994). Overall results indicate that the students scored highest in individual self-description. Male students scored higher in relational and collective self-descriptions than females, whereas females scored higher in individual self though the differences are not significant. Females also scored higher in independent and interdependent self-construal than males. But with respect to location urban males as well as females scored higher in individual self description, which shows that urbanization gives impact on one’s individuation and independent constellation of thoughts. Moderate interaction effect of gender and location on relational self-description, and gender and high/low grouping of independent self-construal on individual self description were observed. Overall findings of the study indicate that during late adolescence an individual give more importance to one’s own individual self-description, and independent self-construal, which may be due to the effect if urbanization .Limitations of the study are discussed.