An exploration of women's expectations of effective male and female leadership

University women (N=188) of varying ages (19–53) and work experience described their behavioral expectations of an effective male and female leader for levels of Consideration, Initiating Structure, Role Assumption, and Production Emphasis. In line with a sex role congruency view, it was hypothesized that an effective female leader would be expected to exhibit higher levels of Consideration behaviors, while an effective male leader would be expected to exhibit more Initiating Structure, Role Assumption, and Production Emphasis behaviors. The results provided only partial support for the sex role congruency hypothesis since an effective female leader was expected to exhibit higher levels of Consideration as well as higher levels of Initiating Structure. No sex differences were detected for Role Assumption or Production Emphasis behaviors. Further, while many similarities were noted among the women in their views of effective leadership, there were also systematic age-related differences among the women in their expectations, particularly with regard to their views of effective female leadership.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Orlando, Florida, March, 1986.     

Modeling college women's perceptions of elite leadership positions with Social Cognitive Career Theory

The utility of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) for predicting college women's interests and goals for positions of elite leadership was examined with 156 undergraduate women at a public university. They completed measures of elite leadership self-efficacy expectations, outcome expectations, interests, and goals. Results supported SCCT as a theoretical framework for understanding internal factors that may contribute to women's elite leadership interests and goals. Self-efficacy and outcome expectations for elite leadership positions related positively to interests and goals for such positions, and self-efficacy and outcome expectations each contributed unique variance to the prediction of elite leadership interests. Outcome expectations partially mediated the relation between elite leadership self-efficacy and interests, interests partially mediated the relation between elite leadership outcome expectations and goals, and the combination of elite leadership interests and outcome expectations completely mediated the relation between self-efficacy for elite leadership positions and elite leadership goals.     

Clearing the air: identity safety moderates the effects of stereotype threat on women's leadership aspirations

Exposing participants to gender-stereotypic TV commercials designed to elicit the female stereotype, the present research explored whether vulnerability to stereotype threat could persuade women to avoid leadership roles in favor of nonthreatening subordinate roles. Study 1 confirmed that exposure to the stereotypic commercials undermined women's aspirations on a subsequent leadership task. Study 2 established that varying the identity safety of the leadership task moderated whether activation of the female stereotype mediated the effect of the commercials on women's aspirations. Creating an identity-safe environment eliminated vulnerability to stereotype threat despite exposure to threatening situational cues that primed stigmatized social identities and their corresponding stereotypes.     

Effects of ketamine on tunnel maze and water maze performance in the rat

The NMDA receptor, which has been implicated in memory formation, is noncompetitively blocked by ketamine. The present study examines the effect of ketamine (0, 3, 6, 12, and 25 mg/kg body wt; ip) on tunnel maze and water maze performance in Wistar rats. In the hexagonal tunnel maze (HTM) high doses of ketamine (12 and 25 mg/kg) decreased locomotor activity. Moreover, ketamine induced perimeter walking (6, 12, and 25 mg/kg) and attenuated exploratory efficiency (25 mg/kg). When the HTM was converted into a modified six-arm radial maze, ketamine impaired short-term but not long-term memory. In the Morris water maze, rats injected with ketamine (12 and 25 mg/kg) acquired a spatial navigation task more slowly than controls. When the escape platform was removed, the drug-treated rats did not preferentially search for it in the area where the platform had been during the acquisition phase. However, when the escape platform was visible, no differences in the performance of ketamine-treated and control rats could be found. In summary, ketamine seems to attenuate some but not all forms of learning in the tunnel maze and it impairs the acquisition of a spatial navigation task.     

A cognitive maze

A cognitive maze was developed to study perceptual and conceptual processes in the discovery of relationships through inductive inference and flexible shifting of mental sets adaptive to changed problems. For example, the experimenter-tester presents a list of digits in consecutive pairs; subject-testee is asked to select one digit from each pair and tester answers "right" or "wrong" according to whether the choice agrees or disagrees with the hidden principle fixed for that particular problem. After reaching criterion, the principle is stated explicitly, and a new problem involving a different principle (odd or even number, high or low value, simple or double alternation) is presented. In two pilot studies, numbers of trials and errors to criterion correlated strongly with scores on WAIS Arithmetic, Digit Span, and Block Design for a randomly selected heterogeneous group of 10 testees and with course grades for 25 college students. This maze can be administered and scored by computer. Applications are many.     

Perceptual learning in maze discriminations

In Experiment 1, rats were trained on a discrimination between rubber- and sandpaper-covered arms of a maze after one group had been pre-exposed to these intra-maze cues. Pre-exposure facilitated subsequent discrimination learning, unless the discrimination was made easier by adding further discriminative stimuli, when it now significantly retarded learning. In Experiment 2, rats were trained on an extra-maze spatial discrimination, again after one group, but not another, had been pre-exposed to the extra-maze landmarks. Here too, pre-exposure facilitated subsequent discrimination learning, unless the discrimination was made substantially easier by arranging that the two arms between which rats had to choose were always separated by 135°. The results of both experiments can be explained by supposing that perceptual learning depends on the presence of features common to S+ and S-.     

Cholinergic-dopaminergic interactions in radial-arm maze performance

Although acetylcholine and dopamine are believed to play complementary roles in motor function, a comparable neurochemical interaction has not been established for cognitive function. The muscarinic receptor blocker scopolamine and the dopaminergic antagonist haloperidol have been found to impair choice accuracy of rats in the radial-arm maze. In the present study, low doses of these two drugs were administered intraperitoneally either alone or in combination to rats trained on a working memory task (food reward) in an eight-arm radial maze. Scopolamine, 0.125 mg/kg, produced a significant decrease in choice accuracy (i.e., arm entries until an error). Haloperidol, 0.0625 mg/kg, did not cause a significant decrease in accuracy, but there was a trend in that direction. The combination of haloperidol with scopolamine attenuated significantly the amnestic effect of scopolamine. These results suggest that, like motor behavior, cognitive function may be influenced by the balance between acetylcholine and dopamine.     

Vicious-circle behavior in the Y maze

Laboratory rats were given escape training in both arms of a Y maze followed by extinction in one of four conditions: regular (no shock), punished (both arms containing a shock mid-segment), choice, or forced (one arm containing a shock mid-segment, one arm shock free). Subjects in the punished and forced conditions required more extinction trials than those in the regular extinction condition. The choice condition was intermediate and not significantly different from the others. Choice subjects avoided the shock by choosing the safe alley early and consistently during extinction, but some continued to run for many trials without further punishment. It was suggested that the number of punished trials early in extinction is related to persistence of running, and the results were discussed in relation to the Mowrer-Brown and the discrimination hypotheses.     

Analyse comparative du leadership transformationnel et du leadership narcissique

Following a comprehensive review of the literature, this analysis proposes a comparison between the characteristics of transformational leadership and narcissistic leadership. Such a comparison is important as these two types of leadership, although displaying obvious similarities, considerably differ in their intrinsic value. Indeed, whereas the transformational leader exercises an altruistically motivated power, the narcissistic leader opts for an egotistically motivated power.     

Markets in women's reproductive labor

Much of the evolution of social policy in the twentieth century has occurred around conflicts over the scope of markets. To what extent, under what conditions, and for what reasons should we limit the use of markets? Recently, American society has begun to experiment with markets in women's reproductive labor. Many people believe that markets in women's reproductive labor, as exemplified by contract pregnancy, are more problematic than other currently accepted labor markets. I will call this the asymmetry thesis because its proponents believe that there ought to be an asymmetry between our treatment of reproductive labor and our treatment of other forms of labor. Advocates of the asymmetry thesis hold that treating reproductive labor as a commodity, as something subject to the supply-and-demand principles that govern economic markets, is worse than treating other types of human labor as commodities. Is the asymmetry thesis true? And, if so, what are the reasons for thinking that it is true? My aims in this article are to criticize several popular ways of defending the asymmetry thesis and to offer an alternative defense....I focus my discussion on those arguments against contract pregnancy that depend on the asymmetry thesis. I believe that the asymmetry thesis both captures strong intuitions that exist in our society and provides a plausible argument against contract pregnancy.     

Personality traits in leadership tasks

A common factor analysis was performed on the four personality dimensions measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and questionnaire measures of preferences for the four leadership tasks, Production, Administration, Enterprising, and Integration, described by Adizes. The sample was 1040 Norwegian adults. Three factors showed distinct common variances among the task preferences and the personality traits in a way that supported the construct validity of the traits. The implication of logical consistency among constructs based on self-report data is discussed, and it is argued that such concepts are valid and necessary at both personal and organisational levels although they may not predict performance as exactly as one might want for example in personnel selection.