Perceived sex differences in managerially relevant characteristics

A national sample of 884 male managers completed a survey of managerially relevant perceived sex differences. Females were rated lower on the following scales: (a) aptitudes, skills, and knowledge; (b) motivation and job interest; (c) temperament; and (d) work habits and attitudes. Moreover, lower ratings of women were prevalent among males in a variety of jobs, organizations, and industries.     

Prevalence of weight reducing and weight gaining in adolescent girls and boys

This is a survey of the prevalence of weight reducing and weight gaining in high school children. Our sample of 1,373 high school girls and boys was geographically, racially, and economically diverse. On the day of the survey, 63% of the girls and 16.2% of the boys reported being on weight reducing regimens; 9.1% of the girls and 28.4% of the boys were trying to gain weight. Most female reducers and male gainers were already normal weight. Compared to other racial groups, whites and Hispanics were more likely to be reducing, whereas blacks were more likely to be gaining. Exercise and moderate caloric reduction were most popular for weight reducing, and a small but significant number were regularly using fasting, vomiting, laxatives, and appetite suppressants. The direction of weight modification for girls and boys conformed to stereotyped physical ideals. The rate of weight reducing in female high school adolescents has increased significantly since similar surveys of American youths 20 years ago.     

A comparison of male and female reactions to career advancement opportunities

Male and female managerial, professional, and technical employees participated in a study to test for the existence of sex differences in (1) attitudes toward the risks and sacrifices associated with career advancement and (2) salary increments required to accept a promotion opportunity. Results showed no differences in male and female attitudes toward career advancement. In addition, men and women appeared to hold highly similar ideas about the size of salary increments necessary to induce acceptance of various hypothetical promotion opportunites. Findings are discussed in relation to common stereotypes regarding the career mobility of women.     

The role of esteem and coping in response to a threat communication

Two experiments examined the relations among self-esteem, perceived competency to cope, and actual coping behaviors following a threat communication. Leventhal's “parallel response model” (in Advances in experimental social psychology, L. Berkowitz (Ed.), New York: Academic Press, 1970, Vol. 5) predicts that low-esteem subjects will show deficits in both competency and coping behaviors. Experiment 1 manipulated threat level of a tetanus communication. Low-esteem subjects showed coping deficits on measures of free associations, free recall, fatalism, and coping. Threat groups differed only on fear and danger measures. Experiment 2 manipulated the fear level of an antismoking film and used false feedback to alter perceived competency. Positive feedback increased perceived competency to quit smoking among low-esteem subjects only. Without feedback, low-esteem subjects reduced smoking less than high-esteem subjects; positive feedback reversed the pattern. The discussion argued that, consistent with Leventhal's model, the low-esteem coping deficit has two independent causes: (1) excessive concern with fear, and (2) inadequate perceived competency.     

Stressors, Stress Mediators, and Emotional Weil-Being Among Spouses of Soldiers Deployed to the Persian Gulf During Operation Desert Shield/Storm

The Family Factors Field Study of Operation Desert Shield/Storm (ODS) was designed to collect data on the impact of the Persian Gulf deployment on soldier/family well-being, and the effectiveness of Army and community resources in assisting and supporting families of deployed soldiers. In October 1990, a task force was assembled, and multi-agency research teams visited several Army installations. Informal individual and group interviews were conducted with spouses, unit family support leaders, unit rear detachment personnel, garrison leaders, and local Army program/service providers. The questions were aimed at identifying key stressors which spouses and children experienced in relation to the sudden deployment, as well a stress mediators such as social supports and personal coping skills. Anecdotal information collected during the site visits, combined with findings from previous research on Army families, was used to develop a questionnaire designed to quantify those variables which emerged as relevant to a study of stressors and stress mediators in the context of the ODS deployment.     

How efficacious,caring samaritans cope when their help is rejected unexpectedly

This experiment, with 167 introductory psychology subjects, successfully replicated and extended to a wider array of affective, evaluative, and cognitive reactions, previous research on how would-be helpers cope when their help is rejected. It again supported the thesis that violation of perceived expectancy of acceptance mediates the effects of rejection. Using an individual difference measure of generalized self-perceptions of being a person who is sufficientlyefficacious and caring (acronym, EFCA) to help others, we found support for the predictions that high EFCAs would react more strongly than low EFCAs on “proximal” forms of coping, but relatively less strongly on “confrontational” (future-oriented) forms. Our rationale was that high EFCAs expect more acceptance, are more optimistic, and have greater self-investment in the outcome. Mixed support was obtained for the prediction that situational differences in prior expectancy of acceptance moderate the effects of rejection. Portions of the research were presented by the first author at the 98th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Boston, August 1990.