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Three studies addressed the gender difference in the tendency to reflect upon self-descriptive traits and the consequences of engaging in such trait-reflection. In Study 1, women reported engaging in trait-reflection more than men did. In the pilot Study 2, low and high self-clarity women and men were randomly assigned either to reflect on self-descriptive traits or to a distraction condition. The expected clarity × condition × time interaction was significant for women, in the analyses that excluded individuals with extreme self-esteem scores. Reflecting on their own traits led low-clarity women to increase in clarity and high-clarity women to decrease in clarity. Men showed no change in self-clarity across condition. In Study 3, lowand high-clarity individuals were initially matched on self-esteem. Results of Study 2 were replicated. Findings are discussed in terms of gender differences in self-focused attention and the nature of self-clarity.
KEY WORDS: self-reflection; self-clarity; gender differences.
In the present research, we were concerned with gender differences in the extent to which people reflect upon their own personality characteristics, which is a particular form of self-reflection, and the impact of such reflection on self-representation. There are different types of self-reflection, and these vary in their functional or adaptive potential (Conway, Giannopoulos, Csank, & Mendelson, 1993; Trapnell & Campbell, 1999). Much of previous research has focused on stable individual differences. Earlier researchers drew a distinction between private and public self-consciousness (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975). Private self-consciousness refers to a propensity to attend to one's own thoughts and feelings, whereas public self-consciousness refers to being aware of oneself as a social object. Examples of items that assess private self-consciousness are "I'm constantly examining my motives" and "I'm alert to changes in my mood." One example of a public self-consciousness item is "I'm usually aware of my appearance."
Research suggests that women may be higher than men in private self-consciousness (Alanazi, 2001; Franzoi & Davis, 1985; Lafrenaye, 1997; Scheier & Carver, 1985; Teixeira & Gomes, 1995) or in public self-consciousness (Gould, 1987; Lafrenaye, 1997; Teixeira & Gomes, 1995). Only one study indicates that men may be higher in self-consciousness (Bendania & Abed, 1997). One should note, however, that gender differences did not emerge in initial research on private and public self-consciousness (Fenigstein et al., 1975;...