The Academic Conference as a Chilly Climate for Women: Effects of Gender Representation on Experiences of Sexism,Coping Responses,and Career Intentions

Across many disciplines, women are underrepresented in faculty positions relative to men. The present research focuses on the academic conference as a setting because it is a gateway to an academic career and a context in which women might experience sexism. We surveyed 329 presenters (63% women) from three U.S. national academic conferences, which differed in women-to-men ratios, about their perceptions of the conference climate, their coping tactics (e.g., gender performance, silence, or voice), and their intentions to exit the conference or academia. The greater the representation of women at the conference relative to men, the less likely were women to perceive sexism and to feel they had to behave in a masculine manner in that setting. In contrast, women who perceived the conference as sexist and felt silenced also expressed increased intentions to exit from academic careers. Men’s perceptions of sexism predicted increased intentions to exit from that particular conference, but not from academia. Because conferences signal the norms of a discipline, it is important to explore their climates as they relate to gender. Perhaps especially for new and aspiring female academics, they may signal devalued status and lack of fit and as such play an inadvertent role in the “leaky pipeline.” We discuss strategies that conference organizers could implement to mitigate sexist climates, including broader inclusion of women in speaking and leadership roles and explicit attention to cues that women belong.     

Computer use in psychology instruction

This paper presents the ways in which psychology departments are using microcomputers for instruction, the types of facilities that they are using, and the varieties of hardware that they employ. These data are related to other data reported over the past 10 years. In addition, a summary of the types of software currently available in all areas of psychology is presented, and areas in which there is a need for further software development are identified. The information reviewed in this paper was compiled from the current software listings available through COMPSYCH, as well as the results of a survey distributed to registered users of COMPSYCH who hold academic positions.     

A longitudinal study of school connectedness and academic outcomes across sixth grade

The current longitudinal study examines the extent to which school connectedness (i.e., students' perceptions of school support and the number of adults with whom they have a positive relationship) is associated with academic outcomes across sixth grade for students from high poverty neighborhoods. Data were collected from 330 sixth-grade students attending two middle schools in a large public school district. Specifically, students completed a survey to assess their perceived connection to the school environment, and academic information regarding students' grades, attendance, and discipline referrals was obtained from school records. Results from latent growth curve modeling showed that, on average, students' perceptions of school support declined significantly across the sixth-grade year. However, students who reported less decline, or growth, in school support across sixth grade had higher academic achievement at the end of the year than students who reported more decline in school support. Sixth-grade boys were at a greater risk for negative outcomes (i.e., lower school support, lower GPAs, and more discipline referrals) across the school year than girls. Results point to the importance of perceived connectedness to school in helping economically disadvantaged students experience a safe and successful transition to middle school.     

个体与群体歧视知觉对流动儿童学业倦怠的影响：学业自我妨碍的中介作用和认同整合的调节作用

以363名初中阶段流动儿童为被试,采用问卷法考察学业自我妨碍在流动儿童个体和群体歧视知觉与学业倦怠关系中的中介作用,以及认同整合的调节作用。结果如下：（1）个体和群体歧视知觉正向预测流动儿童学业倦怠;（2）学业自我妨碍在流动儿童个体和群体歧视知觉与学业倦怠关系中起中介作用;（3）认同整合会调节个体歧视知觉、学业自我妨碍对学业倦怠的影响。     

Graduate Socialization in the Responsible Conduct of Research: A National Survey on the Research Ethics Training Experiences of Psychology Doctoral Students

Little is known about the mechanisms by which psychology graduate programs transmit responsible conduct of research (RCR) values. A national sample of 968 current students and recent graduates of mission-diverse doctoral psychology programs completed a Web-based survey on their research ethics challenges, perceptions of RCR mentoring and department climate, whether they were prepared to conduct research responsibly, and whether they believed psychology as a discipline promotes scientific integrity. Research experience, mentor RCR instruction and modeling, and department RCR policies predicted student RCR preparedness. Mentor RCR instruction, department RCR policies, and faculty modeling of RCR behaviors predicted confidence in the RCR integrity of the discipline. Implications for training are discussed.     

Positive fantasies predict low academic achievement in disadvantaged students

Unlike other forms of positive thinking (e.g., expectations), research finds that positive fantasies (experiencing one's thoughts and mental images about the future positively) predict low effort and little success in several domains. However, for vocational education students of low socioeconomic status and minority ethnicity, for whom the present environment is especially difficult, perhaps it would be appropriate to indulge in positive fantasies that depict the future as bright and easily attained. Three studies show that this is not the case. Positive future fantasies measured early in the program predicted more days absent (Studies 2–3) and lower grades at the end of the program (Studies 1–3), even when adjusting for initial academic competence, expectations of successful achievement, and self‐discipline. Expectations of successful achievement predicted fewer days absent and higher grades only when measured midway through the school year, once participants had experience with their own academic standing (Study 3). Results indicate that positive fantasies, which allow people to indulge in images of a bright future, predict poor achievement even in vocational students immersed in a particularly difficult environment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family conflict and academic performance of first-year Asian American undergraduates

This three-study investigation examined risk and protective factors for poor academic performance among Asian American first-year undergraduates. Students were surveyed prior to starting college and their GPA was collected after their first semester in college. Family conflict as a significant risk factor for poor academic performance was examined in all three studies. The results indicate that higher family conflict prior to college was related to lower first-semester college GPA, after controlling for standardized test scores and high school rank (Studies 1-3). Even though psychological distress was related to both family conflict and GPA, it did not mediate the relationship between family conflict and GPA (Studies 2 and 3). In terms of protective factors, the results indicate that life satisfaction buffered the negative effects of family conflict on first-semester college GPA (Study 3). Together, these findings support the need to take into account family variables and psychological well-being in the academic performance of Asian American students as they transition from high school to college.     

Three Cheers for the Token Woman!

Concerns about the under‐representation of female academic philosophers and about the stereotype that philosophy is best done by men have recently led to efforts to make academic philosophy a more inclusive discipline. An example is the Gendered Conference Campaign, encouraging event organisers and volume editors to include women amongst invited speakers and authors. Initiatives such as the GCC raise worries about tokenism. Potential invitees may be concerned about unfairness towards whose who would have been invited in their place in the absence of affirmative action and about the way in which affirmative action can (be perceived to) affect the quality of the conference or volume in question. And women philosophers often worry that, if formal rules or significant social pressures towards gender inclusiveness play a role in selection processes, their achievements will be discounted. I argue there is no good reason for these fears: there is no pure meritocracy in academia, nor is the ideal of pure meritocracy either feasible or desirable. There are several legitimate grounds — independent of professional competence — for including people in positions of visibility and prestige; gender is such a legitimate reason.     

Psychology in Venezuela: Perceptions and Opinions of Research Psychologists

On décrit dans cet article le développement de la psychologie en tant que discipline universitaire au Venezuela. Les résultats d'une étude empirique de 1978 servent de base de comparaison avec des données plus recentes récueillies lors d'une enquête réalisée en 1995. Cette investigation portait sur les opinions de psychologues universitaires à propos de la recherche en psychologie au Venezuela. Les résultats quantitatifs et qualitatifs de cette étude furent analysés et comparés a ceux d'autres recherches dans ce domaine. l'examen de ces données est suivi d'une discussion où l'on essaie de préciser la situation actuelle et à venir de la recherche en psychologie au Venezuela.
In this article the development of psychology as an academic discipline in Venezuela is reviewed. The results of an empirical study in 1978 are described to set the basis for comparison with more recent data. The results of a survey completed in 1995 are reported and discussed. This survey was aimed at obtaining the opinions of academic psychologists about psychological research in Venezuela. The quantitative and qualitative results of this study were assessed and compared to other research in this area. Consideration of these data are followed by discussion to clarify the present status and future prospects for psychological research in Venezuela.     

家校合作对青少年学业成绩的影响：一个有调节的中介模型

本研究基于广州市基础教育质量监测项目,以2380名初中生及其家长为被试,构建一个有调节的中介模型,考察了家校合作对青少年学业成绩的影响机制。研究发现：（1）家校合作对青少年学业成绩具有显著的正向预测作用;（2）在家校合作对青少年学业成绩的影响中,亲子沟通发挥了部分中介作用;（3）独生状况调节了家校合作→亲子沟通→学业成绩的后半段,即相对于非独生子女而言,独生子女亲子沟通对学业成绩的促进作用更为显著。     

家校合作对青少年学业成绩的影响：一个有调节的中介模型

本研究基于广州市基础教育质量监测项目,以2380名初中生及其家长为被试,构建一个有调节的中介模型,考察了家校合作对青少年学业成绩的影响机制。研究发现：（1）家校合作对青少年学业成绩具有显著的正向预测作用;（2）在家校合作对青少年学业成绩的影响中,亲子沟通发挥了部分中介作用;（3）独生状况调节了家校合作→亲子沟通→学业成绩的后半段,即相对于非独生子女而言,独生子女亲子沟通对学业成绩的促进作用更为显著。     

Academic Freedom Under Attack in Turkey: 2019 Presidential Address,International Society of Political Psychology

This paper addresses the ongoing challenges to academic freedom in Turkey, site of the 2011 ISPP meeting and a then-burgeoning cadre of political psychologists working to build the discipline in Turkey. In January 2016, the Academics for Peace signed a petition challenging the government's policies towards the Kurds, following which the government began to purge both signatories and other academics. The purge gained traction after the July 2016 attempted coup, which the government put down. Academics and others were dismissed by decree (KHK) and barred from working in any occupation. This paper, a revised version of the 2019 ISPP Presidential Address, discusses the scope of the attack on academic freedom in Turkey and reports on a survey of both dismissed and nondismissed academics in Turkey to discuss the implications of being unexpectedly torn from a position that is as much a calling as it is a job.     

Applied developmental psychology

Applied developmental psychology is emerging as a new subspecialty in psychology. The perspective provided in this paper is grounded in the premise that it is primarily a research discipline of scholars and researchers who will carry out their activities in a university setting. The students of the described program have found academic or research institute positions. Most of these have been in an academic department of psychology. Some have been in medical schools or research institutes with university affiliations. I believe there is a further market, for example in hospital or school settings, where a research and evaluation program or center is maintained. However, applied developmentalists, as such, should not be expected to be in the business of primary care delivery.This paper is based on the experience of establishing an applied developmental program that is described briefly below. In addition, the content is influenced by a consulting role in establishing a program at another university and from the small conference on Training in Applied Developmental Psychology held at the Mailman Center in 1980.     

Strategic self-marginalization: the case of psychoanalysis

Marginality is an important concept in the history of science, though it is often used in a manner that presumes marginality to be a static designation. We contend that the dynamics of marginality are crucial to the history of psychoanalysis, a discipline that has moved between dominant and marginal positions. We address psychoanalytic marginality via three specific "cases": the marginalization among Freud and his followers when psychoanalysis was an emergent discipline; the marginality trope in Erich Fromm's popular psychoanalytic writing when psychoanalysis was orthodoxy in American academic psychiatry; and the rhetorical marginality of psychoanalysis in Sweden as psychoanalysis entered a decline within psychiatry. Our aim is to show that marginalization and self-marginalization serve interpersonal, social, and professional strategies.     

Self-esteem, academic self-concept, and aggression at school

The present study explores the relation between academic self-concept, self-esteem, and aggression at school. Longitudinal data from a racially diverse sample of middle-school students were analyzed to explore how academic self-concept influenced the likelihood of aggressing at school and whether high self-concept exerted a different pattern of influence when threatened. Data include self-reported academic self-concept, school-reported academic performance, and parent-reported school discipline. Results suggest that, in general, students with low self-concept in achievement domains are more likely to aggress at school than those with high self-concept. However, there is a small sample of youth who, when they receive contradictory information that threatens their reported self-concept, do aggress. Global self-esteem was not found to be predictive of aggression. These results are discussed in the context of recent debates on whether self-esteem is a predictor of aggression and the use of a more proximal vs. general self-measure in examining the self-esteem and aggression relation.     

ELIMINATING DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS BY STRENGTHENING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE1

Behavior modification procedures have typically been used to eliminate discipline problems in the classroom through reinforcement of nondisruptive behavior. This report demonstrates an alternative approach whereby discipline problems are eliminated by reinforcing relevant academic skills. Five fifth-grade boys, identified by their teacher as discipline problems, were observed. The teacher conducted 15-min performance sessions in her reading class during which written academic performance and disruptive behavior were recorded. These measures indicated that the boys' average level of disruption was 34%, while their reading performance was below 50%. When systematic token reinforcement was applied to reading performance only, the rate of disruption fell drastically, and reading performance increased. When the reinforcement procedure was withdrawn, disruption again rose, and reading performance declined. The reinstatement of reinforcement doubled reading performance and eliminated disruption.     

The Professionalization of Faculty at Religious Colleges and Universities

As faculty become defined more by the professional norms of their discipline, the potential for conflict with the faith-based norms of religious colleges and universities should increase. Survey responses from over 1,900 faculty at six religious colleges and universities show that most faculty members support including religious criteria in hiring, contrary to professional, disciplinary norms, but most faculty reject religious constraints on academic freedom, conforming to professional norms. These seemingly conflicting positions are reconciled by a high level of commitment to the integration of faith and learning.     

By your attributions you shall be known: Consequences of attributional accounts for professional and gender identities

We demonstrate the power of a situated identity perspective for understanding the different attributional patterns of women and men in an academic setting and their differential experiences in the workplace. Two explanations for the gender difference found in attributions of success are considered. This difference may be due either to different identities being attributed to men and women employing the same explanations for success and failure, or to the inconsistency between actions that confirm a professional (academic) identity and women's gender identity. The results of this survey of senior social science faculty men support the latter explanation but not the former. An editorial acceptance was seen as more professional but less feminine than a rejection. In the eyes of senior colleagues, the modest account of success, typical of women academics, enhances femininity but detracts from professionalism. The self-serving account typical of men makes the offerer appear less feminine but more professional. Thus in their situated identity claims, successful academic women, but not men, must choose between their professional and gender identities. Despite the movement of women into university social science positions, the role of academic has a masculine face.Order of authors was determined by a coin toss.     

“I WANTED ONE THING AND GOD WANTED ANOTHER . . . ”: The Dilemma of the Prophetic Example and the Qur'anic Injunction on Wife‐Beating

Chapter 4, verse 34 of the Qur'an permits husbands to physically discipline recalcitrant wives. Modern Muslims who find this husbandly privilege discomfiting often rely on Muhammad's prophetic practice to mitigate the meaning of this verse. In light of Muhammad's example of never hitting his own wives, as found in one prophetic report, they reinterpret the verse as restricting and/or voiding a husband's right to physically discipline his wife. This essay provides a critical and expository survey of prophetic reports related to the husbandly privilege to physically discipline wives. The essay argues that the modernists are correct in positing that Muhammad's prophetic practice was to morally censure husbands who hit their wives. However, taken as a whole, it is impossible to ignore that Muhammad's example also unilaterally upheld physical discipline as a husband's marital right.     

TEACHING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN COURSES IN ANOTHER DISCIPLINE

A survey of course titles in African American Studies departments and programs was conducted to examine the course offerings on the psychology of women, the psychology of African American women, and other areas of psychology as well as courses on gender from other disciplines. A total of 82 programs or departments of African American Studies and 182 courses were listed. The course discipline was stated in the majority of courses, with psychology having the most courses. Only a small percentage of the psychology courses listed gender in addition to race in the title. Of those courses listed in psychology, the majority were in social, developmental, or clinical psychology. The disciplines of English, sociology, history, and political science had listings of courses with both gender and race titles. This small survey indicates that the psychology of women has not had much influence on the curriculum of African American Studies. Possible reasons for this are discussed, as are solutions to this problem.