When Women’s Gains Equal Men’s Losses: Predicting a Zero-Sum Perspective of Gender Status

Believing that reduced discrimination against women directly corresponds to increased discrimination against men, referred to as a zero-sum perspective (ZSP), may inhibit further attempts toward gender equality. Based on a sample of 313 men and women, we developed and tested both a general measure and a domain-specific measure of the ZSP of gender status then examined sociodemographics (age, education, political orientation, religious beliefs, and past experience with discrimination) and social dominance orientation as predictors of the ZSP of shifts in gender status. Hostile and modern sexism were examined as potential mediators of this relationship. Structural equation models were computed to examine predictive paths separately for men and women. Although some similarities were found, results showed important differences in predictive paths for women and men, and supported the expected mediating role of sexism in the relationships between sociodemographic predictors and the ZSP. Findings have implications for targeting intervention efforts to enhance a win-win or non-zero-sum perspective that may facilitate efforts toward reducing gender discrimination.     

Sex and developmental differences by complexity of functions of occupational aspirations of school children across ten years

The present longitudinal study examined the complexity of workers' functions for 65 children's occupational aspirations during a 10-yr. span beginning when the children were 7 yr. old and in Grade 2. Every two years through the senior year in high school, the children were interviewed, for a total of six interviews. Sex and developmental differences in occupational aspirations were examined with respect to the focus on Data, People, or Things. Girls (n=31) selected occupational aspirations requiring greater complexity in People functions throughout the study. From G;rades 2 to 8 boys chose occupations with greater complexity of Things and girls chose occupations with greater complexity of Data. Developmentally, all children chose increasingly more complex Data occupations from Grades 2 to 12. Occupational aspirations in high school showed a decrease in the complexity of workers' functions involving People and Things. These observations would be expected from social cognitive theory and the 1981 career development theory of Gottfredson.     

Nonattentional effects of nonpredictive central cues

Recent evidence suggests that nonpredictive gaze, hand, arrow, and peripheral cues elicit shifts of reflexive attention. In the present article, we address whether these cues also influence the decision criterion in a go/no-go task. Nonpredictive central gaze and hand cues pointed toward or away from the location of an imminent target. Responses to the targets were faster, and false alarm errors were more frequent, when cues pointed toward the target than when they were directed away from it. Although a similar pattern was observed with nonpredictive arrow cues, it was not seen with nonpredictive peripheral cues. These results suggest that nonpredictive central cues not only affect attention, but also bias decision processes.