Success and Failure, Gender Differences, and the Menstrual Cycle

Eighty-one women and 26 men were led to succeed or fail at a task. No differences in actual performance were found between men and women or among women in different menstrual phases. Although they had participated alone, women felt worse, less competent, and less "up" than men after both success and failure. After success women also felt less satisfied, felt they had made lower scores, expected to perform worse, and rewarded themselves less than men. After success, women who were menstruating at the time of the experiment reported feeling better than women in other menstrual phases on most measures. A possible explanation was that menstruating women may have expected to perform poorly.     

Fear of Success,Need Achievement,and Fear of Failure: A factor analytic study

Several tests of Fear of Success (FOS), Fear of Failure (FOF), and Need Achievement (nAch), plus Taylor's Manifest Anxiety Scale and a social desirability scale were administered to 104 males and 101 females. FOS, FOF, and nAch did not show factor validity. Results for predictive validity were also poor. Anxiety defined the first factor in the factor analysis. All first-factor tests negatively predicted female grade point average and American College Test scores. All the first-factor tests showed sex differences, with females scoring higher. A clarifying role for anxiety in the study of sex differences in achievement is indicated.     

Gender Differences in Persuasive Communication and Attribution of Success and Failure

This study examined the impact of gender on persuasive communication, considering the gender of both speaker and listener, and comparing the self-expectations and evaluations of the speakers before and after their communicative exchanges. Findings revealed that females expressed less confidence than males concerning their ability to communicate their arguments persuasively, even though trained communication raters indicated that both genders performed equally well. Subjects varied in their expressed self-confidence, however, depending upon whether they were addressing their arguments to a male or a female. In addition, males rated their communicative “performances” more positively than did females. In attributing their perceived success to various factors, men were more likely to acknowledge their natural communication ability than were women, while women were more inclined than men to point to their effort as the cause of their success. Finally, male and female subjects differed from each other in the way they argued, with males being more inclined to present criterion-based arguments and women more likely to invent their own. Again, both genders tended to use different types of arguments, depending upon the gender of the listener. Several issues raised by the study, especially the gender differences in argument type and the apparent gender-based audience assumptions, warrant further study.     

Children's Repetition Choices in an Intellectual Achievement Situation following Success and Failure

(Ausubel, David P. Theory and Problems of Adolescent Development. New York: Grune &; Stratton, 1954. Pp. 580.) Reviewed By W. Drayton Lewis.     

成败情境下不同成就目标取向学生业绩表现的差异

以五、六年级小学生为被试,在设置成功与失败的情境下,考察不同成就目标取向学生业绩表现的差异。结果发现:(1)在两种情境下,掌握目标取向的学生有最高的业绩表现,失败情境下的业绩表现高于成功情境;(2)成绩接近目标取向的学生,在失败情境下的业绩表现与成功情境无显著差异,在成功情境下的业绩表现略高于成绩回避目标取向的学生,失败情境下的业绩表现高于成绩回避目标取向的学生。(3)成绩回避目标取向的学生在失败情境下的业绩表现显著低于成功情境。     

Princesses,Princes, and Superheroes: Children's Gender Cognitions and Fictional Characters

The goal of the present study was to identify whether children recognize the gender stereotypes prevalent within the increasingly popular princess, prince, and superhero characters. Interviews with 126 children from the northeast region of the Unites States (3–11 years old) indicated that children recognized the gender-typed personality traits of princesses, princes, and superheroes, with older children holding more gender-typed cognitions about the characters. Children's own-schemas (i.e., beliefs that apply to themselves) and superordinate schemas (i.e., include beliefs about others' preferences and behaviors) for the characters were mostly gender typed and congruent. Older children gender-typed princesses as for girls more than younger children, whereas older children considered superheroes to be for boys and girls more than younger children did. Older children also considered the characters to be for them less, potentially reducing the negative implications of exposure to gender-typed messages associated with the characters. Individual differences exist in children's perceptions of these fictional characters, with children's own androgyny being positively correlated with their perceptions of princesses' androgyny levels. Further, girls were more flexible in their stereotyping of princesses, noting they were “for girls and boys” more. The authors discuss the results' practical and theoretical implications.     

Causality Orientations, Failure, and Achievement

ABSTRACT Two studies examined similarities between Deci and Ryan's (1985) causality orientations theory and Dweck and Leggett's (1988) social-cognitive theory of achievement. Study 1 examined the conceptual similarity between the individual difference measures central to the two theories. It was shown that autonomous college students are likely to adopt learning goals and report high confidence in their academic abilities; controlled students are likely to adopt performance goals and to report high levels of confidence in their ability; and impersonal students are likely to possess the classic helpless pattern of performance goals and low confidence in their academic abilities. Study 2 examined whether causality orientations, like Dweck's measures of goals and confidence, moderate the impact of failure feedback on motivation as measured in persistence and performance. The results suggested that autonomous individuals respond to failure in a mastery-oriented fashion, whereas impersonal individuals respond in a helpless manner. The response of controlled individuals to failure parallels that of people described as ego-involved or reactive.     

Attributions for the Success and Failure of Female Managers: A Replication and Extension

This study attempted to extend earlier work on the relationship between attitudes toward women in management and attributions for the success and failure of female managers. One hundred and ten employees of a large state human services agency responded to a survey measuring their attitudes toward women in management and their attributions for either the success or failure of a hypothetical female manager. Results for males were highly supportive of earlier findings, with attitudes toward women in management significantly related to attributions for success but not for failure. Females showed an opposite pattern of results, with attitudes toward women in management significantly related to attributions for failure but not for success. It is suggested that these differences in attitude-attribution relationships may be the result of males expecting failure from female managers while females expect success.     

Young Adults' Attitudes toward Multiple Role Planning: The Influence of Gender, Career Traditionality, and Marriage Plans

This study examined personal and relationship influences on attitudes toward multiple role planning, specifically preparing to combine work and partnership roles. Survey data were collected from 66 young adult heterosexual couples. Results revealed that marriage plans related positively to knowledge and certainty about multiple role planning. Gender and career traditionality interacted with marriage plans in its influence on commitment to and involvement in multiple roles. Moreover, attitudes toward multiple role planning mediated the association between marriage plans and planning activity for work-family balance. Implications for research and application in multiple role planning are addressed.     

Goal Achievement and Goal-Related Cognitions in Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression

This study investigates the extent to which achieving goals during behavioral activation (BA) treatment predicts depressive symptom improvement, and whether goal-related cognitions predict goal achievement or treatment response. Patients (n = 110, mean age 37.6, 54% female) received low-intensity cognitive behavioral therapy for depression, which included setting up to three behavioral goals in each of three BA-focused sessions (i.e., 9 goals per patient). Patients completed items from the Self-Regulation Skills Battery to assess goal-related cognitions and goal achievement for these goals, and depressive symptoms were assessed weekly with the PHQ-9. Multilevel models investigated the relationships between goal-related cognitions, goal achievement and depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms improved curve-linearly during treatment (B = 0.12, p < .001), but were not predicted by contemporaneous or time-lagged goal achievement. While cumulative goal achievement predicted end-of-treatment depressive symptoms (r = -.23; p < .01), this relationship became nonsignificant after controlling for depressive symptoms at baseline. Readiness, planning and action control predicted greater goal achievement, whereas greater goal ownership predicted less goal achievement (all p < .05). Motivation and outcome expectancy were related to subsequent, but not contemporaneous, improvements in depressive symptoms (all p < .05). This study indicates the importance of goal-related cognitions in BA treatments, and future research should investigate potential moderators of the relationships between goal-related cognitions, goal achievement, and improvements in depressive symptoms.     

Televised Models of Female Achievement

Two studies examined the models of female achievement available to television viewers. The studies surveyed television's portrayal of both achievement behavior and its social consequences for the female achiever. Study I compared female models at four levels of achievement. Only those models at the lowest level of achievement were depicted as having successful social relations with males. Study II compared the marital status of male and female job holders. Compared with male job holders, females were depicted as less likely to be married, less likely to be successfully married, and more likely to be unsuccessfully married. Data on married females showed that those who held jobs were depicted as having 10 times as many unsuccessful marriages (proportionately) as housewives. It is suggested that female achievers portrayed on television are depicted in a way that does not encourage female viewers to imitate their behavior and in fact serves to inhibit achievement-oriented behavior in female viewers.     

Self-compassion,Achievement Goals,and Coping with Academic Failure

Stress-buffering effects of high self-complexity can be explained by two different theoretical models. According to the affective spillover model (Linville, ), a large number of independent self-aspects prevents a generalization of affect after negative but also after positive events. According to the self-regulatory processes model, a large number of self-aspects promotes efficient self-regulation, which is restricted to negative events. Effects of negative and positive events on subsequent changes in depression were investigated in a prospective design. Having a large number of self-aspects was found to attenuate adverse effects of negative events on depression, irrespective of the distinctness of the self-aspects. No buffering effects were observed regarding the relation between positive events and depression. The self-regulatory processes model also predicts that for people with a large number of self-aspects, an increasing number of positive experiences should be generated in response to high levels of stress. This prediction was tested and confirmed in a second part of the study.     

Traditionality and the Discriminating Effect of Expectations of Occupational Success and Occupational Values for Women within Math-Oriented Fields

Success expectations and vocational values have been identified as important features of women's career pursuits. Also, examination of differences among women pursuing traditionally and nontraditionally open fields has proven illuminating. Nonetheless, the women compared in such studies often pursued fields requiring vastly different competencies, interests, and training. This study investigated possible differences between women majoring in math-oriented fields in a traditionally closed area, engineering, and those in a traditionally open area, math education, with respect to success expectations in such fields and to the importance of various vocational outcomes. Success expectations for traditional and nontraditional occupations distinguished between the two groups, as did values for a number of vocational outcomes. In understanding women's career choices, the findings support the role of success expectations, the little studied role of outcome desirability, and the value of examining within-group occupational orientations within fields differing in traditionality but requiring similar skills, training, and interests.     

成败情境下不同目标取向学生焦虑的特点

以五、六年级小学生共 2 1 3人为被试 ,采用 3× 2的研究设计 ,考察了在成功和失败情境下三种成就目标取向 (掌握目标取向、成绩接近目标取向和成绩回避目标取向 )的学生焦虑度的差异。结果发现 :(1 )在两种情境下 ,掌握目标取向的学生的焦虑度显著低于其他两组学生 ,而成绩接近目标取向的学生焦虑度与成绩回避目标学生的焦虑度无显著差异 ;(2 )三组学生在失败情境下的焦虑度显著高于成功情境下的焦虑度     

成就动机和性别对风险倾向的预测作用

研究通过对等同绝对值(CE)的比较将冒险倾向转换为可以量化比较的变量,旨在探讨成就动机和性别在经济获益和损失的各种概率情景下对冒险倾向的预测作用。结果发现,高低成就动机组并没有表现出冒险倾向的显著差异。进一步的相关分析发现,成就动机中的回避失败维度与获益情景下的冒险倾向相关显著,而追求成功维度与各个情景下的相关都不显著。以回避失败维度聚类得到的高低回避失败组,体现出来的冒险倾向趋势显示高回避失败组的被试在获益低概率、获益中等概率、获益高概率、损失低概率、损失中等概率和损失高概率6种情景下都更加回避冒险,而且两组等同绝对值中位数的差异在获益中等概率和获益高概率两种情况下达到显著。另外,冒险倾向的性别差异只在损失中等概率和损失高概率两种情景中达到显著,这两种情况下都是女性更冒险,这与传统的女性更保守的刻板印象不同。     

The Relationship of Gender, Gender-Related Traits, and Achievement Orientation to Achievement Attributions: A Study of Subject-Selected Accomplishments

ABSTRACT Female and male college students (N= 251 and 84, respectively) described important accomplishments in their lives and reported attributions for the causes of their success Regression analyses indicated that, as predicted, students' gender explained a small portion of the variance in attributions, and the goals and performance standards of the students' achievement experiences (achievement orientations) accounted for more variance in attributions than did the other predictors Further analyses showed that the domains of students' accomplishments affected their attributions to effort luck, and ability, and that students' achievement goals and performance evaluation standards predicted their attributions to task difficulty, effort, and ability Researchers are urged to explore attributions made concerning self-selected achievements, and to focus on variables other than sex in their search for the determinants of achievement attributions     

Group Cohesion,Achievement Motivation,and Motivational Outcomes among Female College Students

Embedded in the theory of group cohesion and the expectancy-value model of achievement choice, the purpose of this study was to examine the predictive strengths of group cohesion on students’ motivation (expectancy-related beliefs and subjective task values) and motivational outcomes (exercise choice and class attendance) in college physical activity classes. Participants were 121 females enrolled in aerobics classes who completed questionnaires assessing group cohesion, motivational constructs, and exercise choice. Group cohesion constructs were significantly associated with motivation and motivational outcomes. These findings provide insight into how to design environments to promote motivation in physical activity classes.