Psychological Reports, 2000,86, 1213-1217. © Psychological Reports 2000 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SELF·IMAGE DESCRIBED BY MALHOTRA'S SELF.CONCEPT SCALE I RONALD E. GOLDSMITH AND LEISA R. FLYNN Florida State University Summary.-A survey was made of 69 men and 51 women undergraduate students who described their self-image using the 15 adjective pairs of Malhotra's (1981) Self- concept Scale. Tests of mean differences showed that the men described themselves as more rugged, dominating, unorganized, rational, formal, and colorless; and the wom- en described themselves as more delicate, submissive, organized, emotional, informal, nod colorful. These results are consistent with several descriptions of male/female dif- ferences in the literature, thereby demonstrnting that Malhotra's scale may be a simple and convenient way to measure these specific aspects of self-image. The present paper contributes to the study of self-image -by presenting findings of a survey that used the Malhotra (1981) Self-concept Scale. This scale is not widely known outside the field of marketing research. Malhotra (1981) developed it to be a valid and reliable method to measure images of people and products. The scale consists of 15 bipolar adjectives (see Table 1) each separated by seven response points, e.g., rugged • ............. del- icate. He used multiple samples, multiple target stimuli, and several analytic procedures to enhance the scale's validity. Although the scale has been used to profile the self-image of different types of consumers (e.g., Goldsmith, 1998), as far as can be ascertained, it has not been used to assess differences between men and women's self-images. Showing that the scale yields male! female differences in self-image predicted by previous research in terms of sex (biological) and gender (culturally ascribed) differences in personality supports the validity of the scale and demonstrates that it can be used with confidence by researchers seeking a short, valid measure of self-image, Self-concept (or self-image) is the set of perceptions people have of what they are like. This is important because self-perceptions are believed to motivate behavior, giving control and direction to human performance (Mal· hotra, 1988). For instance, self-image is of interest to marketers because many consumers select products and brands that fit or match their images of themselves (Solomon, 1996, Ch, 7; Schiffman & Kanuk, 1997, p. 136). The complex structure of self-image has many dimensions, including an actual self,'an ideal self, and a social self (Sirgy, 1982). Our focus is on the real or actual self-image, what one feels real self is like. IPlens addre s c.orresponden c to. Dr. Ronald E. Goldsmith. Marketing Department. College of Business, Honda State University, Tallahassee. FL 32306·1110 or e-mail (rgoldsm@gllrnet. acns.fsu.cdu),