Field independence as a function of sex, sex-roles, and the sex-role appropriateness of the task

Two experiments were conducted to explain the sex difference in field independence by reference to socialization factors. It was hypothesized that the sex-role appropriateness of the task as masculine or feminine-typed would influence the performance of masculine and feminine women in a manner congruent with their sex-role orientation. 28 pilot subjects and 100 subjects in Study 2 were equally divided between the sexes. Both studies used the Bem Sex-role Inventory, but different versions of the Embedded Figures Test. The over-all results suggested that feminine women varied their performance according to task appropriateness, although not always in a manner congruent with their sex-role orientation. Androgynous individuals and masculine men did not alter their performance.     

Emergent leadership as a function of sex and task type

Emergent leadership was examined in relation to sex and task type; 120 subjects participated in four-person mixed-sex groups. Three task conditions (masculine, neutral, and feminine gender orientations) were tested with 10 groups in each condition. It was predicted and found that more men than women would emerge as leaders in the masculine and neutral task conditions, while more women would assume the leadership role in the feminine task condition. The effects of the gender orientation of a task are discussed. It is suggested that expertise with a task may explain the task type effect found.This study is based on the senior author's master's thesis, conducted at Wayne State University under the direction of the second author.     

Impression formation as a function of the sex role appropriateness of linguistic behavior

Differences between perceptions of men's and women's language were investigated. Undergraduates (64 male, 64 female) read 14 short stories with male or female speakers using seven categories of male and female language. Subjects then rated stimulus persons on 23 sex role related adjectives. Male language was rated as more masculine, less feminine, more instrumental, and less socially positive than female language. Effects were strongest for the categories of expletives and adjectives, followed by weaker effects for hedges and polite forms. Subjects rated males who spoke women's language as homosexual; they tended to rate females who spoke men's language as uppity. The results are discussed in terms of Robin Lakoff's hypotheses concerning linguistic sex differences and in terms of inrole vs out-of-role behavior.The research reported here is based upon a thesis submitted by the first author to Tulane University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master's degree. The support of Professors Larry Dachowski, William P. Dunlap and Edgar C. O'Neal, members of the thesis committee, is gratefully acknowledged.     

Task self-efficacy and task interest as a function of performance on a gender-neutral task

This study experimentally investigates several hypotheses about the relationships between performance on a gender-neutral task and gender, self-efficacy, performance attributions, and task interest. Ninety-two subjects were randomly assigned to a success or failure condition and attempted to solve a series of easy or difficult anagrams. Results indicated that changes in self-efficacy expectations as a result of task success or failure were in accordance with predictions from self-efficacy theory; 2 × 2 × 4 ANCOVAs, with the pretest as the covariate, were conducted on self-efficacy strength, level, and task interest. Subjects decreased their ratings of self-efficacy and task interest as a result of the failure experience, and the same ratings increased as a result of the success experience. Few gender differences were found, supporting the hypothesis that the sex linkage of the task significantly influences gender differences in self-efficacy. Analyses of global verbal and mathematical ability ratings resulted in the same trends. Finally, women in the success condition were significantly more likely than men in that condition to attribute their performance to luck; women in the failure condition were significantly more likely than men or women in any other group to attribute their failure to their lack of ability. Implications of these results for future research on career self-efficacy were discussed.     

Dual-task performance as a function of adult age and task complexity

A dual-task procedure was used to examine capacity demands of letter-matching in younger and older adults. Older subjects generally were slower on both tasks than were younger adults, but this difference was especially pronounced for the late stages of category matching, suggesting that retrieval and comparison of category information is particularly demanding for older adults.     

WAIS-III task perception and performance as a function of stopwatch display

Examiner's instructions for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition indicate that stopwatch display is optional. Since verbal instructions do not consistently inform examinees whether a subtest is timed, examinees may rely upon the visual cue of the stopwatch. Furthermore, examinees' understanding of the actual subtest demands may affect their performances. In the present study, 58 volunteers were randomly assigned to two groups, one in which the examiner displayed the stopwatch and one in which the stopwatch was concealed. Participants were administered the first five subtests. Predictions were that (1) participants to whom the stopwatch was displayed would more accurately perceive whether the subtests were timed, and (2) participants who accurately understood the demands of subtests would score higher than those who did not. Results supported the first hypothesis for three subtests out of five, one remaining inconclusive due to a ceiling effect. The second hypothesis was not supported. Both the implications and limitations of the present study are discussed.     

Free recall in boys of normal and poor reading levels as a function of task manipulations

Free recall of reading disabled boys, ages 9 to 11 years, was compared with that of boys showing no reading difficulty. During a baseline trial, poor readers recalled less items and tended to show less recall organization than normals. Recall and category clustering in a second trial were highest following a manipulation designed to produce semantic encoding of items and lowest when children were required to focus on items' physical features. In a condition requiring free sort prior to recall, reading disabled boys failed to organize or study as effectively as normals. Rather than lacking the ability to use semantic relations as a strategy for grouping items, the reading disabled had difficulty in spontaneously generating effective study techniques.     

Teachers' selections of boys and girls as prominent pupils

Over 300 teachers and student-teachers were asked to nominate their most noticeable pupils regarding ability, achievement, behavior, and teacher's preoccupation with them, as defined in eight eminently school-relevant categories. Frequencies of male and female names recorded were employed as measures of teachers' perception of saliency of the two sexes. Respondents recalled significantly more boys as prominent in most categories. More boys than girls were perceived as the best students in general and in mathematics in particular, and as possessing high potential. More boys than girls occupied the minds of these teachers after school. Boys appeared to cause the overwhelming majority of discipline problems. On the other hand, more girls were considered very successful in Hebrew and in social skills. Boys received more nominations in each of their five categories of salience then did girls in any of their two categories of salience. No difference was found between sex-related nominations of experienced teachers and student-teachers. Findings indicate that both teachers and future teachers of the elementary grades perceive boys as the majority of salient students. Moreover, the directions of most sex differences found are stereotypical. Such perceptions, unsupported by objective psychometric evidence, may impede sex equity in school practice, and particularly deprive girls of opportunities of full personal development.Part of this study was presented at the Third International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, Dublin, Ireland, 1987. We would like to thank Hudda Halabi and Tamar Michaeli for their help in coding.     

Adult sex role orientation and perceptions of aggressive interactions between girls and boys

We explored how the sex role orientation of adult observers related to their perceptions of boys' and girls' aggression. Sex-typed and androgynous undergraduate subjects viewed videotaped scenes in which one member of a girl-boy pair behaved aggressively toward the other. Unlike androgynous subjects, sex-typed subjects judged boys' aggression to be more intentional than girls' and proposed more severe reprimands for aggressive boys than for aggressive girls. Androgynous subjects recommended more severe reprimands for aggressive girls than sex-typed subjects did. Overall, sex-typed subjects differed from androgynous subjects not in their assessment of the degree of aggressiveness boys and girls expressed, but in their perceptions of the purposefulness of boys' and girls' aggression and how harshly to respond to it. We speculated that sex-typed subjects did not consider girls' aggression to be serious enough to warrant severe reprimands. Thus, during socialization, sex-typed adults perhaps model less aggression in response to girls' aggressive acts than to boys'. In addition, sex-typed adults may convey to girls that their aggression is not an effective means of obtaining adult intervention.     

Social influence and sex effects on task performance and task perceptions

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of observer presence and subject sex on both performance quantity and quality, job satisfaction, and task perceptions. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) results demonstrated statistically significant multivariate effects on the performance measures. Significant main effects of observer presence were found for performance quality but not quantity. A significant observer presence x subject sex interaction was found for performance quantity. The results for task perceptions supported the hypothesis that the situational factors would make salient the significance of the task. Main effects of observer presence were found for task significance only. Also there was a significant observer presence x subject sex interaction on perceptions of task significance. No effects were found on job satisfaction, consistent with past research. The results are discussed relative to social facilitation research in the broader context of social influence.     

Retention performance as a function of the distinctiveness of memory traces and retention task

Summary In the acquisition phase of an incidental learning paradigm, words that are exemplars of categories were judged as to whether or not they belonged to a specified category. This was followed by a forced choice recognition task. The effects of three variables were studied: a) whether the acquisition task called for a positive or a negative response; b) the number of exemplar words per category; and c) whether distractor items in the recognition test came from the same category as the target words or from other categories. The results showed that recognition errors were influenced by all three variables. Unlike the variables a) and c) which showed significant main effects, the effect of number of exemplars per category was significant only for the same category distractor condition. In this condition more exemplars per category led to more recognition errors. The results are explained by assuming that retention performance is determined by two factors. The first factor is the distinctiveness of the memory traces. This is supposed to be a joint product of task-specific encoding and stimulus characteristics. The second factor is the distinctive similarity between the retrieval information and the stored memory traces. Although the results show some sublte effects that are not easy to explain, it is argued that this model offers a good account of the general findings.