Perceptions of Assertiveness by High- and Low-Assertive Female College Students

The interpersonal effects of assertive and unassertive behavior on females who scored high and low in self-reported assertion were examined. Subjects from each of the two assertion categories individually interacted with a female confederate trained to act either assertively or unassertively in a structured manner. In analyzing the subjects' impressions of the confederate, no significant differences between high and low assertives on the dimensions of competence, task attraction, social attraction, likability, and desirability were found. Assertive responding appeared less salient to the observer assertee in more naturalistic conditions and its social impact seemed more attenuated when the assertive responding took on a relatively mild form that posed little or no direct social or personal risk to the receiver of the assertive behavior.     

Intimate Relationships of Female International Students

Five female international students studying at a western Canadian university were interviewed about their experiences of being in a difficult intimate heterosexual relationship. An in‐depth interpretive analysis revealed that, according to the participants, these relational struggles influenced their adjustment to the host culture. Implications for counselors and future research are discussed. Se entrevistó a cinco alumnas que cursan estudios en una universidad canadiense sobre sus experiencias personales en una relación íntima heterosexual complicada. Un análisis interpretativo en profundidad reveló que, según las participantes, estas dificultades en sus relaciones influyeron en su ajuste a la cultura anfitriona. También se discuten las implicaciones para consejeros e investigaciones futuras.     

Character Attacks and Their Effects on Perceptions of Male and Female Political Candidates

The study examined the perceptions of political candidates (male and female) who make negative statements about the personality and integrity of their political opponents. Male and female participants (Sex of Participant factor) indicated their impressions of a male or female political candidate (Sex of Candidate factor) who either attacked or did not attack the character of his/her opponent (Attack factor) in a political leadership debate. Participants who read a speech given by a candidate of their own gender tended to rate the candidate as having greater integrity when the candidate attacked his/her opponent than when he/she did not. When judging a candidate of the opposite gender, participants tended to rate the candidate who attacked his/her opponent as having less integrity than a candidate who did not attack his/her opponent. Results are discussed with regard to the impact that aggressive campaign tactics can have on voter perceptions, and how similarity between voters and candidates may affect perceptions of such tactics.     

Children's Gender Orientation and Perceptions of Female,Male, and Gender-Ambiguous Animal Characters

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of preadolescent children's gender orientation on their social perception of animal characters whose gender was clearly female, clearly male, or gender-ambiguous. Nine- to 12-year-old middle-class Israeli children who had completed a Hebrew version of Boldizar's scale for gender orientation in children assigned gender to the animal characters and indicated their degree of liking for them. Children's gender orientation did not influence their perceptions of the gender of animal characters that are clearly female and clearly male, but did impact on their perceptions of the gender of ambiguous animal characters. Second, children's liking for animal characters of different apparent gender interacted with gender orientation such that children with an androgynous gender orientation did not evidence differential liking of animal characters on the basis of their apparent gender. Children's liking of the animal characters was only partly mediated by their perceptions of the gender of these animal characters. Finally, gender orientation interacted with gender in determining degree of liking for the animal characters. The findings are discussed in terms of the impact of gender stereotyping in social perception.     

The Feminizing Effect of Sexual Violence in Third-Party Perceptions of Male and Female Victims

Sex Roles - Various scholars have noted that the label “victim” frequently elicits connotations of stereotypical, passive femininity—especially when the crime entails rape or...     

The Attributes of Academically Successful Mexican-American University Male and Female Students

This study was specifically designed to determine the relative degree that five personal (academic) attributes and five motivational variables are found among a sample of academically successful Mexican-American male and female students in their final semester of university studies for the baccalaureate degree.     

Attitudes Toward Rape Among African American Male and Female College Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate how African American male and female college students differ in their attitudes concerning rape. Two-hundred and ten college students completed a 12-item questionnaire designed to measure their views toward this issue. A 2-group multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed statistically significant differences between African American men and women, with men being more accepting of stereotypes and myths about rape. These differences are discussed in the context of sexism and rape myths. Strategies for changing students' attitudes toward rape are proposed.     

Factors Predicting Dating Violence Perpetration Among Male and Female College Students

This study examined the importance of witnessing parental violence, experiencing childhood violence, problems with alcohol, length of relationship, relationship satisfaction, anger management skills, and partner's use of physical and psychological aggression for male and female perpetrators of dating violence in college. For males, partner's use of physical aggression, low anger management skills, and high relationship satisfaction were the strongest predictors of physical aggression. For females, partner's uses of physical and psychological aggression were the most important predictors of their use of physical aggression. The model in this study was a good predictor of male violence, accounting for 81% of the variance; however, it only accounted for 51% of the variance in female violence.     

Watching Aggressive, Attractive, Female Protagonists Shapes Gender Roles for Women Among Male and Female Undergraduate Viewers

The impact of exposure to media representations of aggressive, attractive, female protagonists on audiences?? gender role expectations for women was explored through a laboratory experiment with 122 undergraduates from a large university on the west coast of the United States. Participants viewed a segment of a major Hollywood motion picture that featured a female protagonist who was either highly attractive or less attractive and either highly aggressive or not aggressive. Viewing clips featuring a female protagonist who was both aggressive and stereotypically attractive led to greater endorsement of stereotypically feminine and stereotypically masculine gender role expectations for women. The effect on endorsement of stereotypically masculine expectations was partially mediated by the perception that the protagonist was a good role model for women. Although women endorsed both feminine and masculine gender role expectations for women more strongly than men, the effects of exposure to aggressive, attractive, female protagonists were similar for both male and female participants. Results are discussed in terms of gender stereotype activation and superwoman expectations for women.     

Body Image Concerns and Contingent Self-Esteem in Male and Female College Students

Body dissatisfaction in females, and to a lesser extent males, is associated with low self-esteem, depression, and eating disorders. This research examined gender as a moderator of the association between contingent self-esteem and body image concerns, including weight and muscularity. Participants included 359 (59.1% female) heavy drinking first-year U.S. undergraduate students who completed a survey assessing health-related risk behaviors. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine relations among gender, contingent self-esteem, and body image. Females reported higher levels of contingent self-esteem and greater concerns about their weight, although males reported a greater drive for muscularity. The relationship between contingent self-esteem and weight concerns was stronger among females, and for males, greater contingent self-esteem was associated with a greater drive for muscularity.     

Female Alchoholism and Affiliation Needs

No abstract available for this article.     

Fear of Success in Black Male and Female Graduate Students: A Pilot Study

In accordance with Horner's (1969) assumption that the intensity of fear of success arousal increases with the subject's success potential, graduate students from a prestigious university were chosen for a pilot investigation of the motive to avoid success in black men and women. Thirty-five subjects (14 female; 21 male) received a verbal TAT and a 54-item sex role questionnaire designed for purposes of this investigation. Fear of success was scored according to the new, experimentally derived scoring system for this motive. Contrary to expectation, the results did not indicate any evidence of success avoidance in either sex. However, fear of success in females was clearly associated with striving to develop career interests compatible with their strong commitment to home and husband, while among similarly motivated males it was suggested that the pragmatic career orientation observed was the product of compensatory motivational dynamics. It was concluded that these subjects were motivated to avoid what are perceived to be role-inappropriate behaviors while conforming to socially accepted values internalized in earlier years.     

Ethics in Academic Writing Help for International Students in Higher Education: Perceptions of Faculty and Students

International students often turn to various sources for help, including writing center tutors, friends, faculty mentors, online sources such as Google translate, and proofreading and editorial services, among others. While receiving help from these sources is both understandable and somewhat expected, what type and level of help is appropriate or ethical is not always clearly defined. The current research study investigates perceptions of faculty and international students at one U.S. university as to what is ethical in academic writing help for international students in 17 different scenarios. Findings suggest that students, far more than faculty, lacked certainty and agreement on whether certain help they may receive is ethical. The two groups’ views also varied on machine translation and the use of for-pay editors. Faculty, in general, had the least agreement on the use of machine translation and the use of a for-pay editing service for sentence- and discourse-level help and expressed that specific contexts and instructor’s expectations should be taken into consideration. Also, perceptions of students from East Asia showed notable differences. We argue that establishing and communicating clear guidelines concerning writing help should be part of any policy of academic integrity and present an “ethicality index” to help begin conversations as each institution, program, or faculty establishes the boundaries of ethical writing help in a specific context.     

Employment Counselors' Perceptions of Client Needs

This study measures the differences in types of client needs perceived by various categories of counselors, the types of needs they attempted to help their clients gratify, and the needs that were viewed as gratified. Eighteen counselors and 697 clients (or their records) were used in the study. A five-category need classification guideline was used by three outside judges to categorize the list of needs compiled by the counselors; agreement among the judges was such that the classification system was deemed appropriate for this study. Differences in need categories were compared using a chi-square formula and Yates' correction for small frequencies. Significant findings and conclusions are noted and suggestions for further studies are given.     

Childhood and Adolescent Victimization and Perpetration of Sexual Coercion by Male and Female University Students

This study examines the extent to which male and female university students use verbal sexual coercion and physically forced sex on a dating partner and tests a theoretical model that specifies that corporal punishment, minor forms of neglect by parents, and sexual abuse increase the probability of sexually coercing and sexually assaulting a partner, and that this relationship is partly mediated by antisocial traits and behavior. A path analysis using multinomial logistic regression was used to test the fit of the model to a convenience sample of 13,877 students in 32 nations. Both male and female students perpetrate sexual coercion, but the rates are higher for males. For both men and women, each of the three forms of prior victimization studied were associated with an increased probability of antisocial behavior, which in turn was associated with an increased probability of verbally coercing and physically forcing sex. Most of the direct paths from victimization to sexual coercion were also statistically significant. Because relatively mild victimization such as corporal punishment and seemingly innocuous forms of neglect are highly prevalent, steps to reduce their prevalence could be an import step in primary prevention of sexual coercion.     

Gender Role Development and Body Image among Male and Female First Year College Students

In the current study we examined associations between gender role development and body image. Male and female first-semester college students (N = 434) who identified as African American, Latino/a American, and European American completed surveys about gendered personality traits (instrumentality/expressivity), gender role attitudes, and aspects of body image (e.g., satisfaction, orientation). Gendered traits were more frequently associated with body image than were gender role attitudes. In particular, individuals who were more instrumental and less inauthentic in their relationships felt more positive about their bodies. Gender role attitudes were also associated with body image, but sometimes in an unexpected direction. These findings highlight the importance of examining multiple components of gender role development and body image in both men and women.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Baltimore, MD. This research was supported by grant R01 HD 41720 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Eva S. Lefkowitz.     

The Role of Interest in Understanding the Career Choices of Female and Male College Students

Mismatch between college students' work goals and perceived goal affordances of physical/mathematical science careers may help explain gender differences in interest and career choice. In Study 1, the desire for interesting work was cited by most students in the sample (89% White, 6% Asian, 5% other). Compared to men, women reported interpersonal work goals more and high pay and status work goals less frequently. In Study 2, students (79% White, 12% Latino, 5% Asian, 4% other, predominantly middle class) perceived physical/mathematical science careers as less likely to afford interpersonal goals and more likely to afford high pay and status goals compared to other careers. Interpersonal goal affordances predicted greater interestingness for all careers, whereas high pay and status goal affordances predicted greater interestingness only for physical/mathematical sciences. Interestingness positively predicted likelihood of career choice.