Academic Gender Bias and Women's Behavioral Agency Self-Efficacy

The relationship between academic gender bias and female students' agentic self-efficacy expectations was examined. Agentic self-efficacy expectations was defined as an individual's beliefs about her ability to successfully engage in proactive educational and career facilitative behaviors. Participants included 67 full-time junior and senior undergraduate women enrolled in traditional, nontraditional, and gender-neutral majors. Results revealed that perceived academic gender bias was significantly predictive of agentic self-efficacy expectations, above and beyond the contributions of sex role attitudes, gender concentration of major, and race/ethnicity. Implications for women's career development and future research are discussed.     

Gender Bias and Pluralistic Ignorance in Perceptions of Fitness Assessments

Two studies examined the relationship between cadets' views toward women, specifically, attitudes about fitness testing at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). Cadets completed measures of views toward women in society, in the military, at USAFA, and fitness testing. Results revealed that many male cadets held sexist attitudes of women in all categories. Cadets who held egalitarian views of women in society and in the military were more likely to support equitable fitness standards. Furthermore, cadets' personal viewpoints differed from their perception of the entire cadet population viewpoint, creating an environment of pluralistic ignorance. That is, cadets believed the collective was more sexist than themselves, suggesting that a vocal minority who perpetuate sexist attitudes may hinder changes in culture.     

Men's and Women's Perceptions of the Gender Typing of Management Subroles

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which subroles inherent in managerial positions are gender-typed and whether men or women engage in relatively more gender typing of managerial roles. We obtained perceptions of 19 management subroles from 263 business students in the United States Results confirmed predictions that some subroles are viewed as more feminine in nature whereas other subroles are perceived as more masculine. Male respondents saw most subroles as more masculine in nature than did female respondents. Results are discussed in terms of implications for researchers studying management, as well as for managers in the workplace.     

Changes in Attitudes and Self-Confidence in the Women's and Gender Studies Classroom: The Role of Teacher Alliance and Student Cohesion

Previous research provides evidence that women's and gender studies (WGS) classes are successful in helping students to develop more egalitarian gender role attitudes, appreciation and acceptance of diversity, awareness of sexism and other social inequities, and agentic self-confidence in both women and men. The mechanisms by which these changes take place were the focus of this study. WGS students (n = 328) from 23 classes on four college campuses participated. Results indicated that (a) student readiness (positive WGS class expectations and capacity for positive interpersonal relationships) predicted the development of alliances with teachers and cohesion with classmates, (b) alliance and cohesion were associated with changes toward more egalitarian attitudes, (c) cohesion was associated with increases in confidence, and (d) links between student readiness and change were mediated by alliance and cohesion developed within the WGS classroom.     

Students' Perceptions of Expressiveness: Age and Gender Effects on Teacher Evaluations

In this study we investigated the relationship between college students' perceptions of professors' expressiveness and implicit age and gender stereotypes. Three hundred and fifty-two male and female students watched slides of an age- and gender-neutral stick figure and listened to a neutral voice presenting a lecture, and then evaluated it on teacher evaluation forms that indicated 1 of 4 different age and gender conditions (male, female, “old,” and “young”). Main and interaction effects indicated that students rated the “young” male professor higher than they did the “young” female, “old” male, and “old” female professors on speaking enthusiastically and using a meaningful voice tone during the class lecture regardless of the identical manner in which the material was presented. Implications of biased teacher-expressiveness items on student evaluations are discussed.     

Teachers' Responses to Bias in the Classroom: How Response Type and Situational Factors Affect Student Perceptions

College students frequently encounter prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes, but there is no research on effective teacher responses to classroom bias. Three studies examined students' perceptions of teacher responses to bias in the classroom. Study 1 experimentally manipulated the level of bias expressed and the teacher's response. Students perceived responding to bias as more effective than ignoring bias. Study 2 demonstrated that students perceive differences in the intensity of common responses to bias. Study 3 manipulated if bias occurred publicly or privately and if the target of bias was present or not, and students evaluated teacher responses of differing intensity for their effectiveness in achieving specific goals. The results provide evidence for the efficacy of matching responses to specific goals.     

无法忍受不确定性与担忧：对记忆偏差与解释偏差的检验

本研究旨在探索记忆偏差与解释偏差在无法忍受不确定性(IU)与个体担忧之间的中介作用。实验1采用伴随学习任务范式,计算被试对中性词语和不确定词的回忆量。结果发现,IU对记忆偏差的预测不显著,记忆偏差在IU与担忧倾向之间的中介作用不显著。实验2采用情境评估任务范式收集被试在不确定情境下的担忧评分和解释倾向。结果发现,IU可以正向预测被试在不确定情境下的担忧评分,被试对情境的解释倾向在IU与担忧评分的关系中起到中介作用。概言之,高IU个体存在一定的信息加工偏差。     

Gender Bias in the Measurement of Workaholism

Past research suggests gender differences in workaholism might be due to differences in how men and women respond to the item content in workaholism measures. Using item response theory differential item functioning, we show women are less likely to report some workaholism items, leading to contamination. Specifically, women are less likely to report spending more time at work than other activities, and staying at work longer than others. We speculate that societal norms and practical restrictions on women's time results in lower endorsement rates for these items compared to men, and thus underestimates their workaholism. Results contradict past findings that men and women are similar in regard to workaholism and suggest women are in fact higher in workaholism than men. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Gender and Perceptions of Danger

This study examined how gender affects evaluations of potentially dangerous situations, perceptions of risk, and advice given to a potential victim. Responses of 660 university students (68% female; 52% Anglo, 34% Hispanic) to a multipart questionnaire indicated that gender of the respondent, the potential aggressor, and the potential victim can all influence evaluations of danger, willingness to use a gun, beliefs about risk, and advice concerning how to behave in a dangerous situation. As hypothesized, responses reflected stereotypes of greater male aggressiveness, greater female fearfulness, and greater perceived danger for women than for men. Also as predicted, respondents perceived greater danger to others than to themselves and from strangers rather than from intimates.     

Marital Status Bias in Perceptions of Employees

Three studies documented effects of marital status on perceptions of employees or prospective employees. In Experiment 1, participants rated a married female job applicant as less suitable for employment than a single counterpart. In Experiment 2, participants again perceived a female job applicant less favorably when she was married; in contrast, a male applicant was perceived more favorably when married. In Experiment 3, participants predicted that a recently married woman's job performance and dedication would decline, whereas a recently married man's dedication was predicted to rise; this difference made participants more willing to lay off the woman than the man.     

Gender,the Perception of Aggression,and the Overestimation of Gender Bias

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the gender of aggressor, target, and observer influences the perception and evaluation of aggression. One hundred seventy-one university students (predominantly White) read 1 of 8 vignettes that described an aggressive act. The aggressor–target gender combinations and the aggressive act were varied. Data did not support the hypothesis that, because of the impact of gender stereotypes, participants would perceive more aggressiveness in men's aggression than in women's aggression. Participants rated women's aggression as more acceptable than men's aggression, and male participants considered the aggression more acceptable, apparently because they saw the act as less aggressive. In addition, participants estimated how most men/women would perceive and evaluate the aggression. Results suggest that people overestimate how biased others are toward members of their own gender.     

The Association Between Female College Students' Reports of Depression and Their Perceptions of Parental Attitudes Regarding Gender

This study related female college students' ( n = 377) reports of symptomatology to their reports of parental attitudes suggesting limitations inherent in being female. Young women completed a scale measuring their perceptions that their fathers would have been prouder of them if they were male, and a scale measuring their distress over the limitations experienced by their mothers. Respondents who scored high on either scale exhibited much higher prevalence than other respondents of self-reported depression accompanied by anxiety, somatic symptoms including headaches, insomnia, dyspnea, fatigue, disordered eating, and poor body image/preference for thinness (labeled anxious somatic depression ). Compared to men ( n = 191), women exhibited much higher prevalence of anxious somatic depression, but not higher prevalence of depression unaccompanied by the other symptoms.     

Classroom Interactions: Gender of Teacher,Gender of Student,and Classroom Subject

An observational study investigated the effects of gender of teacher, gender of student, and classroom subject (mathematics vs. English literature/language) on teacher–student interactions. A total of 597 high school students (294 males and 303 females) and 36 teachers (28 males and 8 females) were observed in either 18 mathematics classes or 18 literature/language classes. Students and teachers were predominately Caucasian, with the majority of students from a lower- or middle-class background. Observations were coded using the interactions for sex equity in classroom teaching (INTERSECT) observational instrument. It was found that female mathematics teachers, male literature/language teachers, and female literature/language teachers tended to interact somewhat more with male students than with female students. This tendency was not the result of male students having initiated more direct verbal interactions with teachers.     

The Costs of Accepting Gender Differences: The Role of Stereotype Endorsement in Women's Experience in the Math Domain

Two studies were designed to examine the costs of stereotype endorsement for women's self-perceptions, career intentions, and susceptibility to stereotype threat in the math domain. Study 1, a survey of women majoring in math-related fields, revealed that women who believe that status differences between the sexes are legitimate were more likely to endorse gender stereotypes about women's math abilities, which in turn predicted more negative self-perceptions of math competence and less interest in continuing study in one's field. In Study 2, women who tended to endorse gender stereotypes were found to be more susceptible to the negative effects of stereotype threat on their math test performance. The implications of these results for research on stereotype endorsement and women's math achievement are discussed.     

Gender Bias in the Personality Disorders Criteria: An Investigation of Five Bias Indicators

This study examined possible gender bias in personality disorder criteria by considering a number of potential empirical indicators of bias: prevalence differences in a nonclinical sample; the implications of gender differences as perceived by nonprofessionals; the internal consistency of criteria as a function of gender; and the gender-normativeness of criteria. One hundred one participants familiar with the DSM-IV completed questionnaires assessing the presence of each criterion, and the perceived implications of the criteria for men and women. Results showed that the global mean self-rating for the criteria did not differ as a function of gender although there were some differences for individual criteria. Criteria that were more prevalent in one gender appeared to be viewed as a greater problem for that gender. The criteria also appeared to be measuring abnormal rather than gender-normative behaviors. Twelve criteria demonstrated differential convergence with other indicators of disorder as a function of gender, with most converging better for men than for women.     

Perceptions of Fair Pay and the Gender Wage Gap

The present research examined the extent to which the wage gap between men and women is perceived as "fair". Based on research on distributive justice behavior, it was hypothesized that recommendations of fair pay would depend on the employee's gender and on occupational gender-linkage and that female respondents would recommend a lower fair pay than male respondents. Results indicated that perceptions of fair pay were influenced by the employee's gender, but only in the moderate-status occupations where lower pay was perceived as fair for female employees compared to gender-unspecified employees. Similar fair pay recommendations were made for occupations irrespective of their gender-linkage. As predicted, female respondents recommended a lower fair pay than male respondents. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed in terms of subtle, rather than blatant forms of gender wage discrimination that are attributable to the concentration of females in moderate-status occupations and to the weaker connection between work and pay among females than among males.     

Sexual Double Standards: Bias in Perceptions of Cyber-Infidelity

The current study compared the predictions of two socio-cultural theories, shifting standards and intergroup bias, to predict sexual double standards that occur in reactions to computer-mediated infidelity. Shifting standards theory (Biernat In The shifting standards model: Implications of stereotype accuracy for social judgment, APA, Washington DC, 1995) suggests that individuals will judge female targets more harshly than male targets, based on culturally ingrained stereotypes regarding sexual behavior. On the contrary, intergroup bias theory (Brewer In Psychol Bull 86:307–324, 1979) predicts that individuals will judge outgroup targets, or members of the opposite sex, more harshly than ingroup targets, or members of the same sex. Participants were shown a hard copy of presumable evidence that extradyadic computer-mediated behavior had occurred, engaged in by one of two members of a couple. The two groups differed only by the sex of the target, the female “Colleen” or the male “Bill”. Then participants reported their attitudes toward the target’s behavior, resulting distress, and likelihood to terminate the relationship. Results showed support for the intergroup bias theory, suggesting that individuals altered their attitudes toward the behavior based on whether the target was an ingroup or outgroup member.     

Readdressing Gender Bias in the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory-Short Form

The short form of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) was evaluated for gender bias. The authors replicated a study by L. Francis and D. James (1998) and administered the SEI to 361 middle and high school students (146 boys, 215 girls). They found that gender bias existed in 6 of the 25 items on the SEI, with 5 of those items favoring boys. Because recent literature indicates that male and female adolescents experience problems in different areas of their lives, the authors suggest that researchers consider such differences when selecting items for a standardized measure.     

Black and White College Women's Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

In this study, we examined how racial factorsinfluence college women's perceptions of sexualharassment. Specifically, we examined whether Black (N= 46) and White (N = 89) women perceive unsolicitedsexual behavior between a Black woman and Black mandifferentfrom such behavior between a Black woman and aWhite man. The data suggest that sexual harassmentbetween Black women and men are trivialized compared to sexual behavior between Black women andWhite men. The findings are interpreted with regard tothe necessity of studying sexual harassment for women ofcolor.