The influence of success and failure experiences on agency

Agency is—besides communion—a basic dimension of traits. It can be specifically linked to behavioral outcomes, to status, mastery, self‐esteem and to success. The present paper analyzes the situational malleability of agency. Two studies tested whether an individual's agency (but not communion) is situationally influenced by the experience of success versus failure at a task, as well as whether this effect is the same for men and women. Supporting our hypotheses, the induction of success versus failure experiences led to changes in agency that were independent of actual performance, independent of type of task (memorizing vs. face recognition), independent of induction methodology (easy vs. difficult task vs. manipulated performance feedback), and independent of self‐esteem, initial level of agency and of the participants' gender. Communion was not influenced by this kind of experience. Implications for both the basic dimension of agency and for theories on gender and gender stereotypes are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The dynamics of masculine-agentic and feminine-communal traits: findings from a prospective study

A reciprocal impact hypothesis posits an influence of gender-related traits (agency and communion) on role enactment and a reciprocal impact of role enactment on gender-related traits, for both men and women. Specifically, in this study it was predicted that agency influences career success and career success influences agency. In addition, the reciprocal influence of communion and family roles was examined. A prospective study with almost 2000 university graduates, who were tested after graduation and 1.5 years later, clearly supported the reciprocal impact hypothesis for agency and career success. Communion influenced family roles, but there was no reciprocal influence. Implications for theories of career success and of sex and gender are discussed.     

The relation of gender-role orientation to sexual experience among college students

This study examined the relations of gender and three aspects of gender roles — self concept, behavior, and sexual attitudes — to three aspects of sexual behavior — sexual experience, reasons for intercourse, and contraceptive use. Gender was strongly related to all three aspects of sexual behavior. For both men and women, sex role behaviors were related to sexual experience and to reasons for intercourse, but not to contraceptive use, and sex role self-concept was unrelated to any of the aspects of sexual behavior. The results indicate that sexual behavior is influenced both by societal gender role norms and by individual differences in the acceptance of those norms.     

Sexism and beautyism effects in selection as a function of self-monitoring level of decision maker

The authors, in two experiments, investigated the influence of the sex and attractiveness of applicants for male and female sex-typed jobs on selection decisions made by low and high self-monitors. In both experiments, attractiveness and the congruence between applicants' sex and the sex type of the job influenced selection decisions. In addition, high self-monitors were more influenced by attractiveness and sex of the applicant when hiring for sex-typed jobs than low self-monitors, but this difference in hiring pattern was not evident when the job was gender neutral. Results indicate that job applicants may encounter different employment opportunities as a function of their sex, their physical attractiveness, the sex type of the job, and the self-monitoring level of the decision maker. Implications of results are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.     

The Impact of Parental Status and Gender Role Orientation on Caring and Postconventional Reasoning in Young Marrieds

This study was designed to examine the influence of sex and gender role orientation on adoption of the ethic of care and on postconventional reasoning in married men and women, with and without children. Parental status was unrelated to gender role orientation in men but was associated with masculinity in women, such that women with children had lower masculinity scores. Adoption of an ethic of care in men was a function of gender role orientation, such that only androgynous men did not evidence lower caring scores when they had children. Caring scores in women were a function of both parental status and masculinity, such that women with children who were high in masculinity evidenced lower caring scores. Postconventional reasoning as assessed by P scores on three dilemmas from the Defining Issues Test (DIT) were only influenced by sex and age but not by gender role orientation. Postconventional reasoning as assessed by ratings of all postconventional statements (R scores) was influenced by both sex and gender role orientation; in men, masculinity and femininity interacted such that androgynous and undifferentiated men evidenced higher R scores when they had no children, but only androgynous men with children evidenced high R scores. In women, gender role orientation did not impact R scores and neither did parental status. Multiple regressions indicated that for women, the interaction of masculinity and femininity, and caring scores, accounted for a significant amount of the variance in R scores. In men, none of the variables entered the equation. The implications for both Gilligan’s and Bem’s theories are discussed.     

GENDER AND TASK IN THE DETERMINATION OF SPATIAL COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE

A variety of sex differences in spatial cognitive performance have been documented. However, factors other than those specifically related to gender and cognition per se, such as the perceived spatial character of given tasks, may contribute to such differences. In the present experiments, spatial memory and mental image rotation tasks were presented to female and male adults. The task formats or instructions were varied to emphasize or deemphasize the spatial character of the tasks. Highly "spatial" instructions or format significantly depressed performance on spatial tasks for women but not for men. "Nonspatial" instructions or format, within which the spatial character of the task was not explicit, resulted in no significant differences between the performances of women and men on either type of task. These findings indicate that instructional or format effects relating to the purported "spatial" character of a given task may significantly influence the relative performance of women and men.     

Gender bias and individualism: Responses to case vignettes among psychologists, professors, and students

This study examined the extent to which psychologists, when compared to university professors and evening school students, employ individualist values differentially in their responses to vignettes describing males and females. The participants responded to 6 vignettes by choosing initial hypotheses that reflected either utilitarian (tradition-ally masculine) or expressive (traditionally feminine) themes. Two vignettes involved a sex of client manipulation, but neither resulted in a sex of client effect. An analysis of the responses to the remaining 4 vignettes indicated a marked preference for the masculine form of individualism for males, but were evenly divided for females in all three groups. These results suggest that psychologists were just as likely to engage in bias as others.     

Dimensions of the Male Gender Role: A Confirmatory Analysis in Men and Women

As researchers become more interested instudying the influences of the male gender role onpeople's physical and psychological well-being, measuresof several male role domains have been created,including psychological agency, traditional attitudestowards men, and masculine gender role stress (MGRS).These measures of the male gender role, however,typically have been constructed and validated using only samples of men. This restriction introducesquestions about the reliability and validity of theseinstruments in samples of women, leading to problemswhen generalizing findings to this group. The present study addressed these issues by examining thefactor structure, factor correlations, and latent meansof these three male role measures for a sample of mostlyCaucasian men and women, using multiple group confirmatory factor analytic techniques.Results showed only the dimensionality of the agenticpersonality traits differed significantly for men andwomen. The interrelationships among and latent means of agency, attitudes, and MGRS differed by sex.These findings demonstrate the utility of the currentconceptualization of sex and gender; in other words,that gender is not totally determined by sexand that men and women internalize many of the samegender cues, but differentially endorse them to varyingdegrees.     

Gender bias and individualism: Responses to case vignettes among psychologists, professors, and students

This study examined the extent to which psychologists, when compared to university professors and evening school students, employ individualist values differentially in their responses to vignettes describing males and females. The participants responded to 6 vignettes by choosing initial hypotheses that reflected either utilitarian (tradition-ally masculine) or expressive (traditionally feminine) themes. Two vignettes involved a sex of client manipulation, but neither resulted in a sex of client effect. An analysis of the responses to the remaining 4 vignettes indicated a marked preference for the masculine form of individualism for males, but were evenly divided for females in all three groups. These results suggest that psychologists were just as likely to engage in bias as others.     

Gender differences in stress reactions: Women filling the gaps

Abstract

Competing hypotheses explaining gender differences in depression were compared in a one-year longitudinal study of parents of ill children in Israel. Women were found to have more depressed mood than men when their children were ill or well, but both men and women responded with increased depression when their child was ill. Women were more likely than men to be with an ill child at the hospital, even if employed, suggesting role overload. Women did not report fewer personal or social resources than men, indicating that poverty of resources could not explain sex differences on depression. Nor did women use their resources less effectively than did men. Women were less depressed the greater their intimacy with their spouse and friends, but at all levels of intimacy were more depressed than men. Men, in contrast, isolated themselves from social support at the time of their child's illness and it was argued that men might be avoiding stress contagion. The importance of examining differential responding of men and women to stressors that have common meaning for both sexes was discussed.     

Gender and lexical access in Bulgarian

Two procedures were used to explore the effects of semantic and grammatical gender on the recognition and processing of Bulgarian nouns, in relation to other factors that are known to affect lexical access. This study in a three-gender language was modeled on previous work in Italian, a two-gender language (Bates, Devescovi, Pizzamiglio, D'Amico, & Hernandez, 1995). Words were presented auditorily in randomized lists in two tasks: (1) repeat the word as quickly as possible and (2) determine the grammatical gender of the noun as soon as possible and indicate the decision by pressing a button. Reaction times in both tasks were influenced by phonological factors, word frequency, and irregularity of gender marking, but semantic and grammatical gender affected only gender monitoring. The significant contribution of semantic gender to processing in Bulgarian contrasts with previous findings for Italian. Also, we obtained an interaction between sex of the subject and noun gender, reflecting a bias toward one's own grammatical gender "counterpart" (especially for females). Reanalysis of the prior study in Italian showed a similar interaction but confirmed no effects of the semantic gender of the noun, suggesting that these two natural gender effects can dissociate. Possible reasons for cross-linguistic differences are discussed, with implications for comparative studies of gender and lexical access.     

Gender-atypical personality or sexual behavior: What is disgusting about male homosexuality?

Research consistently finds that homosexuality elicits strong feelings of disgust, but the reasons remain unclear. In the current research, we investigate responses to gay men who violate social norms governing the expression of gender and sexuality. Two hundred forty-three college undergraduates read a vignette about a gay male college student whose personality traits (masculine, feminine, or neutral) and sexual behavior (active vs. passive) varied and reported their affective responses to and cognitive appraisals of the target. The gay target who displayed a feminine personality elicited more disgust and was perceived as lower in gender role conformity than a gay man who displayed a masculine personality. Similarly, the gay target who assumed a passive sex role elicited more disgust and was perceived as lower in gender role conformity than a gay man who assumed an active sex role. The sexual behavior/disgust relationship was mediated by perceived gender role conformity.     

Online Commenting About a Victim of Female-on-Male Rape: The Case of Shia LaBeouf’s Sexual Victimization

The present study explored social responses toward male victims of female-perpetrated rape by analyzing 505 comments posted on www.theGuardian.com in response to the report that Shia LaBeouf, an American actor and director, was raped by a woman. Using inductive thematic analysis, three themes were generated: Victim’s Character, Victim’s Behavior and Victim’s Story. In addition, each comment was rated regarding its general attitude toward the victim: negative, positive, or mixed. We found that 55% of the comments expressed negative, blaming attitudes toward the victim, 35% were positive and supportive, and 10% were mixed. The findings show that negative comments depict rape as a sexual act against the victim’s will, whereas positive comments portray rape as sexual acts without the victim’s consent. Additionally, negative comments addressed expectation regarding “real men” and “real rape,” whereas positive comments emphasized gender equality in rape comprehension and victim treatment. Our discussion addresses the findings within the context of traditional gender roles and perceptions of “real” rape and presents implications for education and training. Furthermore, we suggest that the existence of positive and mixed responses may indicate a possible change in boundaries of social responses not just regarding male rape victims, but for all rape victims.     

The development of sex typing: Themes from recent research

A conceptual framework for organizing the constructs and content areas included in research on sex typing is presented in this review of recent research on the development of sex typing. Two major themes are discussed. First, sex-typed play activities and interests emerge clearly in the first few years of life. Both play activities and peer preferences are sex typed earlier and more definitely than are personality traits and social behaviors such as aggression or dependency. It is suggested that researchers have underemphasized the importance of interests, activities, and peer associations while overemphasizing personality attributes as the core of sex typing. The second theme is that cognitions and concepts about sex typing are important in the acquisition of gender typing, but they are not sufficient by themselves for understanding the process by which sex-typed behavior is acquired. Children's sex-role concepts are sometimes related to their behavioral preferences, but other factors are also important influences on behavior.     

Gender differences in ego defenses in adolescence: sex roles as one way to understand the differences.

Gender differences in ego defenses were hypothesized in adolescence, with greater internalization by girls and greater externalization by boys. Through the inclusion of sex role constructs (masculinity and feminity, agency and communion, and passivity-dependency), relational models as well as psychoanalytic theory were investigated as bases for sex differences. The Berm Sex Role Inventory and the Defense Mechanism Inventory were administered to 66 high school students (31 boys and 25 girls), ages 14-19. As expected, boys scored higher on projection and aggression-outward defenses and girls scored higher on turning against the self, but girls failed to exceed boys on reversal. Multiple regression supported sex roles as moderating variables in gender differences in defenses. Alternative reconceptualizations of sex roles supported aspects of both psychoanalytic and relational models as explanation of gender differences in defenses.