Gender Role Attitude Malleability in the Context of Divorce and Remarriage: A Longitudinal Growth Curve Perspective

Suggestions from structural symbolic interactionism are that gender role attitudes are malleable—able to change and be redefined over the course of adult development—at the individual-level, particularly in relation to significant experiences. Using longitudinal growth modeling, this study examined how divorce and remarriage affect gender role attitude growth across a 20-year period (N = 1731). Remaining in a first marriage was related to a slight, but significant decline in traditional attitudes. Divorce was associated with a slight acceleration in the decline in traditional attitudes, while remarriage was associated with a slower rate of decline in traditional attitudes. As such, transitions out of the institution and roles of marriage were related to more egalitarian attitudes, but transitions into remarriage were associated with attitudinal shifts similar to those in first marriage. Evidence is also presented related to the possibility that attitudinal shifts toward more egalitarian may precipitate divorce for some. Implications for theoretical refinement are given.     

Creativity in Its Social Context: The Interplay of Organizational Norms,Situational Threat,and Gender

Past research has frequently made the assumptions that creativity is an individual, rather than social, behavior; that the factors shaping creative behavior influence everyone in the same way; and that these factors always have the same influence regardless of the situation. This research challenges all 3 of these assumptions. In an experiment, participants (n = 187) assumed the role of members of a business organization with either individualist or collectivist norms that was either under competitive threat or not. Results indicated that, when threat was absent, men exhibited more divergent thinking under individualist than collectivist norms. However, the reverse was true for women when threat was absent and for both sexes when their organization was under threat. Thus, a group norm emphasizing individuality can sometimes enhance divergent thinking performance. However, this influence is moderated by other situational factors such as competitive threat, and, possibly for reasons of differing socialization, does not appear to affect men and women equally.     

Gender and Situational Context Moderate the Relationship Between Self-Monitoring and Induction of Self-Disclosure

Male and female undergraduates who differed in degree of self-monitoring interviewed same-sex strangers to test the hypothesis that interviewer self-monitoring propensities foster self-disclosure only in disclosure-conducive contexts (i.e., collaborative contexts for men and social-expressive contexts for women). Results indicated that high self-monitoring (but not low self-monitoring) interviewers of each gender were notably more successful at eliciting personal information in the contexts generally considered amenable to male and female self-disclosure than in disclosure-nonconducive contexts. Moreover, male high self-monitoring interviewers reliably elicited more information than their low self-monitoring counterparts only in the disclosure- conducive (for men) collaborative context. However, high self-monitoring female interviewers did not elicit more information than their dispositional counterparts in disclosure-conducive, social-expressive contexts, although they reliably induced less disclosure than low self-monitors in the disclosure-nonconducive (for women) collaborative context.     

Constructing Gender Incommensurability in Competitive Sport: Sex/Gender Testing and the New Regulations on Female Hyperandrogenism

The segregation of the sexes in sport still seems to be regarded as a matter of course. In contrast to other performance classes, e.g., age and weight, which are constructed on the grounds of directly relevant performance features, in the case of gender it is dealt with the merely statistical factor that women on average perform less well than men. And yet unlike weight or age classes, which can be interchanged if the required performances are provided, the segregation between the sexes in many types of sport seems to be quite impermeable. Contrary to popular beliefs women were not excluded from the beginning of modern sport. Hence, the meaning of gender differences varies in the course of time and in types of sport. Thus, this paper firstly gives a short summary of the different relevance of gender differences in high performance competitions of various types of sport. Then the historical construction of gender as central dimension in modern sport will be illustrated by using the example of soccer. Here in this paper, the elaborate processes of reproducing this incommensurability between women and men in sport is the main focus: At first big sport organisations tried to exclude women whose performances were well above the expectations by establishing so called “Gender verifications” which suspected them of fraud. Although it became certain that there is no clear differentiation between the sexes, gender segregation was not abolished. Instead new regulations have been invented to treat and “normalise” people who are difficult to categorise, e.g., transsexuals and women with Hyperandrogenism, in order to subsume them into the existent gender categories. So finally, gender segregation in sport seems to be just another example for Goffman’s institutional reflexivity: While the separation of the competitions are said to be a natural consequence of the differences between men and women, it actually is just a tool to create those differences.     

Personal and Situational Variables That Describe Coping With Acute Stress in Competitive Sport

Abstract

The authors examined the degree to which competitive basketball players in Australia were consistent in their cognitive appraisals and coping strategies in response to 4 types of stressful situations that they had experienced during previous basketball games as functions of perceived stress intensity. The authors predicted that both approach and avoidance coping strategies would be dependent on the type of stressful event, in accord with the transactional model. The results supported that prediction: Approach strategies were more prevalent than avoidance strategies following 3 of the 4 events. Cognitive appraisals and perceived stress intensity also strongly influenced the participants' use of coping strategies, accounting for 34% of the variance.     

Beyond the Caster Semenya Controversy: The Case of the Use of Genetics for Gender Testing in Sport

Caster Semenya won the eight-hundred-meter title in the Berlin World Athletics Championships in 2009. Few hours after, Caster was at the center of a harsh contestation on gender. The International Association of Athletics Federations started an investigation, which was not respectful of her privacy. Caster’s case highlights the need for an improvement in the awareness of genetic counseling principles amongst professionals, the public and various stakeholders. We critically examine the historical steps of gender verification in the Olympics, the violation of genetic counseling principles in Caster’s case and outline some reflections on the complexity of the genetics of Disorders of sex development (DSD). Variability in both genotypes and phenotypes in DSD may not allow any etiological or functional classification at this point in time that could permit uncontroversial gender verification for fairer sport participation. We strongly suggest revisiting the pertinence of gender verification, and the process whereby this is done.     

Personality and Charismatic Leadership in Context: The Moderating Role of Situational Stress

We adopt an interactionist perspective and extend previous work on personality and charismatic leadership by considering the relationship between them across contexts. Based on Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory, we expected the relationships between approach‐oriented dispositions and charisma to diminish under conditions of high workload‐induced stress. In a large‐scale lab study with 201 groups (Study 1, N = 721 participants), we manipulated conditions of stress and tested the interaction of stress with leaders’ extraversion and openness to experience in predicting their charismatic behaviors. We then tested, in a field study of 71 executives (Study 2, N = 256 participants), the interaction of employees’ reported stress with leaders’ stimulation values in predicting their charismatic behavior. In support of our hypotheses, the relationships between approach‐oriented dispositions and charisma were significantly weaker when stress was high. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this finding, in particular given that it is in stressful conditions under which charismatic leadership is said to be most important.     

The Employment Interview Context: Social and Situational Influences on Interviewer Decisions1

The employment interview context is broad and multifaceted, and it includes a number of social, situational, and affective influences which generate from the interviewee, interviewer, nature of the job in question, and interactions among these factors. The employment interview is proposed to be influenced by nonverbal and self-promotion behaviors of the applicant, interviewer training, and the requirements of the job. These variables then influence the intermediate variables of applicant similarity to the interviewer, perceived competence of the applicant, and interviewer affect toward the applicant. The intermediate variables then influence the perceived job suitability of the applicant. The present study tested and found support for modeling the employment interview context and how it affects interviewer decisions. The contributions and limitations of the present study are discussed, in addition to directions for future research.     

Gender Differences in the Verbal Expression of Love Schema

This study attempts to supplement the investigations concerning the expression of narrative schema of love. The research question refers to the differences in the expression of narrative schema of love between men and women. A sample group of 100 Polish adults (50 men and 50 women) of average educational levels described their reaction to a photograph of a couple hugging each other. The narrative discourses about love, in terms of the syntactic, lexical, and formal elements, were compared. The results show that there were differences between the love schema produced by men and women—the latter using significantly more emotional words in their narrative than men. The narratives written by women were almost twice as long as those written by men.     

The Effect of Social Context on Gender Self-Concept

In this study we re-examine the role of genderwithin the self-concept and challenge the assumptionthat our gender self-concept is static and consistentacross contexts. We used the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) to measure masculinity and femininityacross six contexts. These six contexts were interactingwith same sex friends, interacting with other sexfriends, interacting at home, work, and school, and interacting in a social context where one doesnot know many people. Two hundred twenty-three femalesand 52 males from a large public university in theSoutheast participated in the study. A majority of the participants (76%) were Caucasian with 10%being Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 4% African American.Multivariate analyses of variance provided strongevidence for differences across contexts for both males and females. The results indicated that we aredynamic beings and those characteristics associated withgender are dynamic as well.     

Team Sports Players' Observed Aggresion as a Function of Gender, Competitive Level, and Sport Type

This study aims at examining observed aggression in team sports as a function of gender, competitive level, and sport type. It was hypothesized that (a) male players display more aggressive behaviors than female players, (b) aggressive behaviors increase when competitive level rises, and (c) gender difference in observed aggression is depending on sport type. One hundred and eighty games, equally shared among males and females, soccer and handball, and departmental, regional, and national competitive levels were recorded on videotapes and observed using a grid to differ instrumental from hostile aggressive behaviors. The results revealed that male players always display more aggressive behaviors than female players, whatever the sport, the competitive level or the nature of the observed aggression; instrumental aggressive behaviors increase and hostile aggressive behaviors decrease when competitive level rises; and the gender difference appears larger in handball than in soccer.     

学前儿童执行功能与问题行为的关系:情境和性别的特异性

运用追踪设计检验了学前儿童执行功能特定成分和问题行为跨情境和性别的关系。选取101名学前儿童（48名男孩）为研究对象,采用实验任务测量儿童的执行功能,一年后采用母亲和教师报告分别收集儿童在家庭和学校情境的问题行为。结果发现,控制儿童年龄后：（1）在男孩中,抑制控制、认知灵活性和工作记忆负向预测一年后家庭情境的外化问题,认知灵活性负向预测一年后学校情境的外化问题,抑制控制正向预测一年后学校情境的内化问题;（2）在女孩中,执行功能三个成分均不能显著预测家庭情境的问题行为,认知灵活性正向预测一年后学校情境的外化问题。执行功能三个成分与问题行为间存在不同效应模式,且存在跨情境和性别的特异性。     

Situational and Dispositional Goal Adjustment in the Context of Metastatic Cancer

Striving toward goals is associated with higher levels of subjective well‐being; however, many potential roadblocks to goal achievement exist. The current study extends the understanding of goal regulation processes in its examination of the relationships between dispositional and situational goal adjustment to a profound stressor and their associations with psychological adjustment. Women (N = 103; M age = 57.2 years; 82% Caucasian) with metastatic breast cancer completed semistructured interviews and self‐report measures at study entry and 3 months later. Measures of dispositional and situational goal reengagement were significantly correlated, but dispositional and situational goal disengagement were unrelated. Greater dispositional and situational goal disengagement abilities were associated with fewer cancer‐related intrusive thoughts at Time 1. Dispositional and situational reengagement were positively associated with life satisfaction and sense of purpose and negatively associated with depressive symptoms at Time 1. However, greater initial situational goal disengagement predicted an increase in depressive symptoms over time. Both how an individual typically responds to goal blockage, as well as how an individual is currently responding to a specific blocked goal, appear related to psychological adjustment.     

Gender-Specific Conflicts among Urban African-American Youth: The Roles of Situational Context and Issues of Contention

The literatures on violence among young men and young women have highlighted the importance of situational context. However, few studies have compared disputes that do not result in violence with those that do, and even fewer have been positioned to investigate the role situational context may play across gender in accounting for these outcomes. Drawing on recent scholarship on gender and violence, this research explores the situational contexts of youth conflicts among African-American adolescent boys and girls. Using a large sample of narrative accounts of 153 violent and nonviolent conflicts, we examine how youth describe the issues of contention in their conflicts, how these relate to the situational contexts in which conflicts emerge, and similarities and differences in the antecedents, contexts, and extent of male and female violence.     

Malleability of conditioned associations: path dependence

Using conditioned suppression of barpressing to investigate the stability of a conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) association, we gave water-deprived rats either a few pairings of the CS with a strong footshock US or many pairings with a weak footshock US so that barpress suppression in response to the CS was equated. Experiment 1 established training parameters that yielded this equivalence. Specifically, rapid acquisition to a preasymptotic level of responding with strong shock produced suppression comparable to the asymptotic level reached more slowly with weak shock. Experiment 2 showed that although equivalent performance was obtained from extensive conditioning with a weak shock or limited conditioning with strong shock, only extensive conditioning with weak shock resulted in retarded acquisition of an association between that same CS and a footshock level perceived as midway between the two initial training shock intensities as implied by asymptotic performance in Experiment 1. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the observed retardation in animals given many conditioning trials with weak shock was CS specific. Collectively, these findings indicate that the malleability of learned behavior is not simply a function of initial associative strength but is dependent on path during initial acquisition.     

Gender and Identity: The Intersection of Structure,Content, and Context

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (1) to review empirical studies published between 1966-1995 utilizing J. E. Marcia's [(1966) “Development and Validation of Ego Identity Status,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 3, pp. 551–558] identity status paradigm for the purpose of observing any patterns of gender difference on issues related to identity structure, content, and context; (2) to present results of a single empirical study that examined the question of possible gender differences in how relationships are used in the identity formation process. Results of the review indicated few gender differences in identity structure, content, developmental process, and context; only the domains of sexuality and family roles may hold greater salience for women than men. Results from the single empirical investigation found identity status, rather than gender, to be associated with how relationships were used in the identity formation process. A discussion of possible future research directions on gender and identity status is presented.     

Gender Moderates the Relationship Between Empathy and Aggressiveness in Sport: The Mediating Role of Anger

This research investigated whether gender moderates, and anger mediates, the relationship between empathy (i.e., perspective taking and empathic concern) and aggressiveness in sport. In Study 1, perspective taking and empathic concern were negatively associated with aggressiveness, and this effect was stronger in women compared to men. In Study 2, perspective taking was a negative predictor of aggressiveness and antisocial behavior in sport, and anger mediated these relationships in women but not in men. Our findings suggest that empathy and emotion-based strategies targeted at reducing aggressiveness in sport need to be tailored for male and female athletes.     

Job Evaluation and Gender: The Case of University Faculty

This study examined the effects of students' and professors' sex on student evaluations of professors' teaching effectiveness. Ratings of over four hundred faculty made by over nine thousand students were analyzed. After controlling for a large number of variables, the main results showed that (a) male faculty were given significantly higher evaluations on global teacher effectiveness and academic competence than female faculty; (b) when controlling for extraneous variables, female faculty were not found to be rated as more sensitive to student needs than male faculty; and (c) when making overall, global judgments of faculty performance, students seem to place more weight on academic competence for male faculty than for female faculty.