Explaining sex differences in managerial career satisfier preferences: the role of gender self-schema

Using survey data from 400 managers, the authors examined whether gender self-schema would explain sex differences in preferences for status-based and socioemotional career satisfiers. Female gender self-schema, represented by femininity and family role salience, completely mediated the relationship between managers' sex and preferences for socioemotional career satisfiers. However, male gender self-schema, represented by masculinity and career role salience, did not mediate the relationship between managers' sex and preferences for status-based career satisfiers. As expected, male managers regarded status-based career satisfiers as more important and socioemotional career satisfiers as less important than female managers did. The proposed conceptualization of male and female gender self-schemas, which was supported by the data, enhances understanding of adult self-schema and work-related attitudes and behavior.     

Explaining sex differences in infants' preferences for groups

Social organization of a species influences myriad facets of individuals’ behavior. Much research indicates that human social organization consists of males in large groups and females in smaller groups or interacting with individuals. This study analyzed the initial factors that produce greater preferences for groups by human male versus female infants. To this end, using a looking preference paradigm, fifty-nine 6–8-month-old infants viewed individual versus group images of actual children. On the basis of several controls, results demonstrated that male more than female infants are attracted to the complex level of stimulation provided by groups. Discussion centers on further identifying male versus female patterns of group interaction from a perceptual and cognitive standpoint.     

A reexamination of sex differences in job preferences

Previous research has found conflicting answers to the question of whether males and females share similar preferences for various job characteristics. It is difficult to determine if the different findings are due to the different populations sampled, the various methodologies employed, or to a real change in the phenomenon itself. This study essentially replicates earlier work by having 130 male and 84 female college students rate the importance of 10 job characteristics for both themselves and members of the opposite sex. Both sexes rated motivators as important, but females also placed importance on the hygienes. Males tended to underestimate the importance of the motivators for females, while females overestimated the importance of hygienes for males. The subject's sex could be predicted by both the importance for self and importance for opposite sex ratings, contrary to the earlier study. The difference in results and interpretation was shown to be due to the type of analyses used. Additionally, it was found that females' job preferences were related to their mothers' educational achievement.     

Dominance styles mediate sex differences in Dark Triad traits

We sought to determine what styles of social dominance are associated with Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and whether sex differences in Dark Triad traits are mediated by dominance styles measured by the Dominance and Prestige Scale, and the Rank Styles with Peers Questionnaire. Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism are strongly associated with dominance-striving, but only narcissism is consistently correlated with prestige-striving. Dark Triad traits are negatively correlated with coalition-building, but positively correlated with dominant leadership and ruthless self-advancement. Sex differences in Dark Triad traits were mediated by various dominance styles, but mainly by dominance-striving and ruthless self-advancement. These results suggest that particular styles of social dominance are utilized by both men and women with Dark Triad traits.     

Age and sex differences on the hand test

Investigated age and sex differences on the Hand Test across the life span, while statistically partialing-out the effects of educational level and verbal ability. Subjects were 150 individuals (75 males, 75 females) ranging in age from 20 to 86 years, assigned to one of three age groups on the basis of their chronological age. Participants were administered the Hand Test and the WAIS vocabulary subtest; in addition, years of formal education completed for each subject was obtained. Results indicated that even after statistically adjusting for the effects of education and verbal ability, a number of significant Age. Sex, Age and Sex, as well as Age x Sex interactions were obtained on the Hand Test. It was suggested that, as previous criticisms of projective research with the aged are met, a residue of important personality trends persists.     

Spatial anxiety and self-confidence mediate sex/gender differences in mental rotation

A recent meta-synthesis study with a sample of >12 million participants revealed that the male advantage in mental rotation (MR) is the largest cognitive sex/gender difference found in psychological literature. MR requires test takers to mentally rotate three-dimensional cubic figures under time restrictions. Previous studies have investigated how biological and social factors contribute to cognitive sex/gender differences in tasks of this type. Spatial anxiety and self-confidence in MR tasks have received less attention. The present study investigated the contribution of these psychological factors to sex/gender differences in MR performance. Participants (n = 269) completed two MR tasks that differed in task difficulty. Participants also indicated their self-confidence (for each item) and spatial anxiety. The results revealed that pronounced sex/gender differences in spatial anxiety and self-confidence mediate sex/gender in MR performance, especially when task demands are high. The current findings suggest that task-irrelevant factors that are not spatial cognitive in nature contribute largely to the well-known medium to large sex/gender differences in MR. Future studies should further explore mechanisms underlying cognitive sex/gender differences within a biopsychosocial approach.

Although men''s and women''s cognitive profiles largely overlap, sex/gender¹ differences in certain cognitive abilities are consistently reported, albeit with different effect sizes (e.g., Hyde 2005; Torres et al. 2006; Toivainen et al. 2018; Hirnstein et al. 2019). While women tend to outperform men in some verbal tasks, such as speech production (d = 0.33) (Hyde 2005), men tend to achieve higher performance in some spatial abilities (Voyer et al. 1995; Reilly and Neumann 2013). Spatial abilities are needed to perceive, localize, visualize, manipulate, and understand relationships between objects in space (Uttal et al. 2013; Newcombe and Shipley 2015).When compared with other tests of spatial perception (d = 0.44) and spatial visualization (d = 0.19), mental rotation (MR; d = 0.56–0.73) produces the most reliable sex/gender difference (Voyer et al. 1995). In fact, a metasynthesis based on >12 million participants revealed that the male advantage in MR is the largest cognitive sex/gender difference found in the psychological literature (Zell et al. 2015). MR refers to a process in which participants visualize and mentally rotate objects (Voyer et al. 1995). MR is an intrinsic dynamic spatial task in line with a classification by Uttal et al. (2013). In particular, the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) is a well-established psychometric paper–pencil test in which participants are required to mentally rotate three-dimensional (3D) cube figures designed by Shepard and Metzler (1971) and asked to identify which two out of four stimulus figures match a target figure under a time limit (Peters 1995).Meta-analyses on sex/gender differences in MR have shown medium to large effect sizes in favor of men (Linn and Petersen 1985; Voyer et al. 1995; Voyer 2011; Reilly and Neumann 2013), which have remained relatively stable across the years (Masters and Sanders 1993). Although the male advantage in MR has been shown to be larger in adults compared with children (Voyer et al. 1995), it did not significantly decrease as the year of birth increased. This suggests that the magnitude of sex/gender differences in MR is less affected by the social environment in which participants were raised (Voyer et al. 1995).Additionally, there are specific task characteristics that affect the size of the sex/gender difference in MR performance (Linn and Petersen 1985; Collins and Kimura 1997; Peters 2005; Voyer 2011). For example, it has been argued that the use of 3D objects might increase sex/gender differences. However, MR tasks involving 2D objects have also shown a male advantage when task difficulty is high (Collins and Kimura 1997). Furthermore, a study by Jansen-Osmann and Heil (2007) did not find sex/gender differences in the speed of mental rotation of 3D cube figures, disconfirming the importance of dimensionality in sex/gender differences. Apart from dimensionality, the size of the rotation angle, the number of rotation axes, and the complexity of the stimuli also contribute to the male advantage (Caissie et al. 2009). Other task factors that might enhance the sex/gender difference in MR are stimulus shape (Amorim et al. 2006; Jansen-Osmann and Heil 2007), stimulus color (Rahe et al. 2022), and response format (e.g., whether the number of correct answers per item is constant) (Hirnstein et al. 2009).Psychometric MR tasks are usually administered with time constraints. Peters (2005) argued that including a time constraint of any duration makes the task more ecologically valid, as perceptual speed is relevant to spatial abilities in a real-life environment. Time-constrained MR tasks produce larger sex/gender differences than MR tasks administered with no time limits (Peters 2005; Voyer 2011). As sex/gender differences are not eliminated when administered with no time constraints, this suggests that other task-related factors affect the sex/gender difference too (Voyer 2011). However, it is clear that time constraint is one critical factor in MR tasks that will usually amplify the size of the sex/gender difference. Notably, chronometric MR tests, which measure reaction time when identifying whether an object is a rotated or mirrored version of another without a time limit, do not tend to show sex/gender differences (Rahe et al. 2019).It should be noted that task-related factors can only partially explain sex/gender differences in mental rotation, which are still not fully understood (Halpern and LaMay 2000). A slightly different perspective on how to answer this research question has been offered by studies investigating biological, social, and psychological factors that may affect sex/gender differences in mental rotation performance. Although there is no doubt that biological factors such as sex hormones (Hausmann et al. 2000; Miller and Halpern 2014) and individual differences in structural and functional brain organization (e.g., Hausmann 2017; Hirnstein et al. 2019), social factors such as gender stereotypes (e.g., Halpern et al. 2007; Hausmann 2014), and the interaction between biological and social factors (e.g., Josephs et al. 2003; Wraga et al. 2007; Hausmann et al. 2009) contribute to sex/gender differences in spatial abilities, psychological factors are frequently neglected. This is surprising, as psychological factors have been shown to be particularly good candidates for elucidating interindividual and sex/gender differences in spatial abilities in general and MR in particular.The current study aimed to replicate the well-known sex/gender difference in MR performance and to investigate to what extent individual differences in psychological factors spatial anxiety and self-confidence contribute to and mediate the effect of sex/gender on MR performance when task demands are high and low. To achieve this, the present study included the more demanding Revised Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotations Tests (version MRT-A) (Peters 1995), which involve 2D drawings of 3D cube figures (Shepard and Metzler 1971), and the less demanding Mirror Pictures task—a 2D mental rotation test and subtest of the WILDE-Intelligenz-Test (Jäger and Althoff 1983). Self-confidence was measured on item level of each test. Trait spatial anxiety was measured with a questionnaire after cognitive testing.Self-confidence (i.e., the certainty that the participant''s responses are correct) is known to be generally higher in men than in women, especially in evaluation settings (Lenney 1977). Men''s higher self-confidence in their visuospatial performance even occurred when sex/gender differences in spatial performance were not observed (Ariel et al. 2018). However, self-confidence was positively correlated with MR performance (Cooke-Simpson and Voyer 2007). Given that men showed higher self-confidence in MR tasks compared with women, this might partly explain why men on average outperformed women in this study. The sex/gender difference in MR self-confidence was replicated by Estes and Felker (2012), who also found that self-confidence significantly mediated the sex/gender difference in MR performance; that is, more self-confident men revealed higher MR scores than women (Estes and Felker 2012). Furthermore, the positive relationship between self-confidence and MR performance was stronger in men than in women. These studies usually neglected psychological traits that might affect both individuals’ self-confidence and MR performance.Spatial anxiety is a domain-specific anxiety defined by negative thoughts and feelings when performing spatial tasks (Lawton 1994; Ramirez et al. 2012). A construct similar but not identical to spatial anxiety is self-efficacy, which has been defined as the belief in one''s own ability to perform a task (Bandura 1994). Spatial self-efficacy was positively correlated with MR performance in both men and women (Towle et al. 2005). Sex/gender differences in spatial anxiety emerged in children aged 6–12 yr (Lauer et al. 2018) and continued in adulthood (Lawton 1994). Women and girls showed significantly higher spatial anxiety than men and boys (Lawton 1994; Lauer et al. 2018; Alvarez-Vargas et al. 2020). Different aspects of spatial anxiety include navigation anxiety and spatial mental manipulation anxiety (Lyons et al. 2018). Navigation anxiety is defined by negative thoughts when attempting tasks involving directions and wayfinding. Mental manipulation anxiety is an anxiety surrounding spatial visualization, mental rotation, and imagined movement of abstract 3D objects, and hence reflects the demands of MR tasks. Women showed significantly higher navigation and mental manipulation anxiety than men (Lyons et al. 2018). Some evidence of a negative correlation between spatial anxiety and MR performance has been previously shown, with a recent study finding that spatial anxiety and not trait anxiety partially mediated the effect of sex/gender on MR performance; that is, women, higher in spatial anxiety than men, obtained lower performances (Alvarez-Vargas et al. 2020). When looking at within-scale factors identified with exploratory factor analysis, MR and navigation anxiety significantly mediated the effect of sex/gender on MR performance. However, the effect of sex/gender remained significant despite the effects of MR/navigation anxiety. Additionally, a moderate negative correlation between spatial anxiety and MR performance was found in children aged 6–12 yr, suggesting that the detrimental effect of spatial anxiety on MR performance might develop relatively early on (Lauer et al. 2018). Overall, these findings suggest that spatial anxiety is a key factor mediating sex/gender differences in MR. However, the precise mechanism through which spatial anxiety affects MR performance remains unclear.We hypothesized that men outperform women, especially in the more demanding MRT (hypothesis 1). We also predicted that, on average, women show higher spatial anxiety and lower self-confidence compared with men (hypothesis 2). Critically, it was hypothesized that the sex/gender difference in MR performance are mediated by the sex/gender differences in spatial anxiety and self-confidence, especially when task demands are high (hypothesis 3). Finally, in a series of exploratory analyses, we examined the sex/gender difference in self-confidence at the item level as well as in MR performance at each level of self-confidence (and spatial anxiety).     

Individual differences in moral development: The relation of sex, gender, and personality to morality

Individual differences in moral development are examined, with a particular emphasis on sex and gender differences. This examination includes an extensive review of the empirical and theoretical literature in psychology on morality. Based on this review, it is concluded that sex differences occur with less frequency and with a less systematic favoring of males than is predicted by several theories of moral development. In addition, a study is presented which considers the relation of sex, gender, and personality to morality. Two age cohort samples, college sophomores (n = 169) and adults (n = 151), were assessed with the moral judgment scale of the cognitive-developmental model (Kohlberg, 1984) and a newly developed moral character template of the personological model (Lifton, in press). Participants also completed the CPI and MMPI personality inventories. Results of the study indicate (1) the absence of sex differences for either model, (2) the presence of gender differences favoring masculine persons for the cognitive-developmental but not personological model, and (3) that individual differences in moral development parallel individual differences in personality development. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to Gilligan's (1982) claim that men and women differ in their moral orientations. Finally, it is argued that an individual difference approach, particularly one that emphasizes personality, would prove useful for future research on moral development.     

Perceived proposer personality characteristics and gender differences in acceptance of casual sex offers

In a highly influential paper, Clark and Hatfield (1989) demonstrated that, whereas men were quite likely to accept a casual sexual offer from a confederate research assistant, women never did so. The current research provides a more in-depth explanation of gender differences in acceptance of casual sex offers via 4 (quasi-) experiments. First, using a person-perception paradigm, I assessed people's impressions of women and men who proposed a casual sexual encounter in the same manner that confederates in Clark and Hatfield did. Women and men agreed that female proposers were more intelligent, successful, and sexually skilled than men who made the same proposals. Second, I demonstrated that the large gender differences from the original Clark and Hatfield study could be eliminated by asking participants to imagine proposals from (attractive and unattractive) famous individuals, friends, and same-gender individuals. Next, I assessed factors associated with likelihood of agreeing to the casual sex proposal. The extent to which women and men believed that the proposer would be sexually skilled predicted how likely they would be to engage in casual sex with this individual. Finally, I examined these factors in the context of actual encounters from the participants' previous experiences, and the results were replicated in this context. Overall findings suggest that the large gender differences Clark and Hatfield observed in acceptance of the casual sex offer may have more to do with perceived personality characteristics of the female versus male proposers than with gender differences among Clark and Hatfield's participants and that sexual pleasure figures largely in women's and men's decision making about casual sex.     

Psychological type and sex differences among church leaders in the United Kingdom

A sample of 135 female and 164 male church leaders of mixed denominations completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The female church leaders demonstrated clear preferences for extraversion over introversion, for sensing over intuition, for feeling over thinking, and for judging over perceiving. The male church leaders demonstrated clear preferences for introversion over extraversion, for sensing over intuition, for thinking over feeling, and for judging over perceiving. The predominant type among the women was ESFJ (22%) and the predominant type among the men was ISTJ (30%). Extravert and feeling types were significantly overrepresented among female church leaders, compared with male church leaders.     

Indian mate preferences: Continuity,sex differences,and cultural change across a quarter of a century

Expressed mate preferences provide unique windows into evolved mating psychology. The current study used two research instruments—one ranking and one rating procedure—to examine mate preferences in India. We compared modern Indians (n = 536) with a more modest Indian sample studied a quarter of a century earlier (n = 105) to test the hypothesis that sex-specific mate preferences—as hypothesized by parental investment theory—would persist during this time period. Mate preferences for mutual attraction and love remained important and invariant over time, despite India’s history of arranged marriages. Sex differences in mate preferences for cues to fertility (youth, physical attractiveness) and resources (good financial prospects, social status) remained relatively invariant over time. Several changes in mate preferences emerged, including a greater preference for mates who are “creative and artistic,” “ambitious and industrious,” and “a good cook and housekeeper” for both sexes. Despite cultural changes in India over the past 25 years, evolved mate preferences have persisted during this time period. Discussion highlights limitations of this research.     

Gender and ethnic differences in body image and opposite sex figure preferences of rural adolescents

This study examined whether rural adolescents would report gender and ethnic differences in body image similar to those that have been observed in urban samples. Data were analyzed for 384 rural adolescents (57% African American, 43% Caucasian, mean age 13 years) to determine gender and ethnic differences in body dissatisfaction, body size discrepancy, and current and ideal figure ratings. Females wanted to be smaller and reported more body dissatisfaction than did males. Caucasian females reported the most body dissatisfaction. African Americans reported larger current and ideal figure ratings than did Caucasians. African Americans preferred larger opposite sex figures than did Caucasians. Both African American and Caucasian males selected a larger female figure as ideal than was selected by females. Results demonstrated that gender and ethnic differences exist in body image for rural adolescents. This frequently overlooked population may benefit from further study. Implications of findings and limitations of the study are also discussed.     

Moderating effects of age and context on the relationship between gender,sex role differences,and coping

We examined age, gender, sex role, and context differences in type of coping among adolescents through older adults. They were given measures of coping and sex role orientation for both relationship and achievement contexts. Emotion-focused coping decreased with age, with high-femininity individuals reporting higher levels of coping. Older low-feminine adults reported greater use of emotion-focused coping than all other subjects except adolescents. Problem-focused coping showed an upward trend with age for low-feminine subjects. High-feminine subjects followed a similar trend until adulthood and then showed a decrease. Achievement and relationship contexts moderated the relationship between age, gender, sex role orientation, and problem-focused coping. Results are discussed in terms of sex roles and adult development.     

Age‐related variations and sex differences in gender cleavage during middle childhood

Gender cleavage, the segregation of the sexes, is a powerful phenomenon affecting socialization during childhood, but its developmental trajectory is far from clear. Sociometric responses by 299 boys and girls in Grades 3 to 6 from a group preference record were used to investigate age‐related variations and sex differences in gender cleavage. Moreno's (1953) developmental model of gender cleavage was examined in the light of sociocultural changes, as well as advances in the theory and measurement of gender cleavage. Sex differences were found in same‐gender preference, with older elementary girls showing greater same‐gender preference than boys of the same age. However, this finding, plus the absence of gender differences in cross‐gender evaluations, did not support more recent developmental accounts of gender cleavage. Linear trend analyses contradicted Moreno's basic precept of increasing same‐gender preference between Grades 3 and 6. While same‐gender acceptance and rejection were relatively similar regardless of grade level, cross‐gender acceptance was greater in higher than in lower grades and the reverse was true for rejection. Furthermore, weaker gender cleavage effects in rejection data than in acceptance data suggested that strong same‐gender liking does not infer equally robust cross‐gender dislike. Gender cleavage appears to be relative rather than absolute. A more complex model is proposed incorporating sex differences as well as rejection evaluations     

Implications of sex and gender differences for self: Perceived advantages and disadvantages of being the other gender

Undergraduate students (34 females and 28 males/44 Caucasian, 16 African-American, 2 Asian) were asked to list the advantages and the disadvantages that they imagined they would experience if they were the other gender. A separate group of undergraduate raters then classified each of the statements into one of four categories designed to reflect social (social roles or social appearance) or physical differences (sexual or non-sexual physical differences) between the sexes. The number of responses each participant generated within each category served as the dependent variable. By far the largest number of responses pertained to the social roles category, and there were no participant gender differences for that category. Participant gender differences were observed in the social appearance and sexual physical difference categories, indicating males and females agreement that males have more advantages. Overall, females listed more advantages to a change in gender, while males indicated more disadvantages. Results are interpreted as providing insights into the personal and practical implications of differences between males and females.The authors would like to acknowledge Tiffany Capers and Millard McCluney for their assistance in collecting the data.     

Psychological factors and adolescent illicit drug use: ethnicity and sex differences

Of four psychological factors examined in a representative sample of New York State secondary school students, only two, depressive mood and normlessness, show a positive relationship with the use of illicit drugs, especially drugs other than marihuana. The association of depressive mood and normlessness with illegal multiple drug use varies by ethnicity and sex, being consistently stronger among girls and among whites. In addition, depressive mood is negatively related to multiple drug use for black and Puerto Rican boys. These findings suggest that psychological factors play a different role in adolescent drug involvement within various social and cultural groups.     

A survey of gender and learning styles

This study was conducted to investigate differences in learning styles between men and women. The study is based on the learning style work by Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule and David Kolb. A survey that included the Kolb Learning Style Inventory, 12 Educational Dialectical questions, and a subjective question was administered to 72 subjects of various ethnic groups. The results showed that men and women were found to have different learning styles, and in general, men seemed to find congruence between traditional education and their learning style while women did not.We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Blake Keffer, Dr. Jeff Philbin, Dr. Sam Hicken, and Leslie Vaughn.     

The power in your hand: gender differences in bodily feedback from making a fist

Men and women differ in the meaning they attribute to physical coercion and bodily force. Men associate bodily force with gaining power, whereas women associate bodily force with expressing loss of power. It is hypothesized that because of these associations, performing bodily forceful behavior feeds back on appraisals of one's power and that bodily feedback effects will mirror the gender differences in associations. Supporting these hypotheses, it was found that unobtrusively inducing behavior related to bodily force (making a fist) activated the concept of power in a Stroop task for both genders but that it increased hope for power and positive judgments of an assertively acting target for men, whereas it decreased hope for power and led to negative judgments of an assertively acting target for women.