The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job Applicants and Tenure Candidates: A National Empirical Study

The purpose of this study was to determine someof the factors that influence outside reviewers andsearch committee members when they are reviewingcurricula vitae, particularly with respect to the gender of the name on the vitae. The participants inthis study were 238 male and female academicpsychologists who listed a university address in the1997 Directory of the American PsychologicalAssociation. They were each sent one of four versions of acurriculum vitae (i.e., female job applicant, male jobapplicant, female tenure candidate, and male tenurecandidate), along with a questionnaire and aself-addressed stamped envelope. All the curricula vitaeactually came from a real-life scientist at twodifferent stages in her career, but the names werechanged to traditional male and female names. Althoughan exclusively between-groups design was used to avoidsparking genderconscious responding, the resultsindicate that the participants were clearly able todistinguish between the qualifications of the jobapplicants versus the tenure candidates, as evidenced bysuggesting higher starting salaries, increasedlikelihood of offering the tenure candidates a job,granting them tenure, and greater respect for theirteaching, research, and service records. Both men andwomen were more likely to vote to hire a male jobapplicant than a female job applicant with an identicalrecord. Similarly, both sexes reported that the male job applicant had done adequate teaching,research, and service experience compared to the femalejob applicant with an identical record. In contrast,when men and women examined the highly competitive curriculum vitae of the real-life scientist whohad gotten early tenure, they were equally likely totenure the male and female tenure candidates and therewas no difference in their ratings of their teaching, research, and service experience. There was nosignificant main effect for the quality of theinstitution or professional rank on selectivity inhiring and tenuring decisions. The results of this study indicate a gender bias for both men and womenin preference for male job applicants.     

Political Ideologies and Support for Censorship: Is It a Question of Whose Ox Is Being Gored?

Two studies are described. one of 381 university students and the other a statewide survey of 295 adults, both of which examine the relationship between attitudinal support for censorship and political ideologies. The results of these studies are interpreted as challenging the view of Suedfeld, Steel, and Schmidt (1994) that support for censorship is a function of both the works in question and the political ideologies of the respondents. In both studies we find that support for censorship is somewhat consistent across messages and images of differing political content. and that support for censorship is generally greater among those with conservative political attitudes, regardless of the content of the works in question. A model of political attitudes (Maddox & Lilie. 1986) that conceptualizes American political idcologies as consisting of two relatively independent dimensions, rather than a single left-right dimension. is proposed as a more effective means of conceptualizing this issue.     

Immediate and delayed memory tasks: A computerized behavioral measure of memory, attention, and impulsivity

The Immediate and Delayed Memory Task (IMT/DMT), a variant of the Continuous Performance Test (CPT), is a new software package designed to be a flexible research tool for the study of attention, memory, and impulsivity. This package allows researchers to determine the design to be used during a testing session and to manipulate many of the parameters. It features two components: the IMT and the DMT, both of which present sequential 2- to 7-digit stimuli with variable presentation rates and intertrial intervals. Subjects respond to identically matched stimuli presented consecutively, spanning a brief period of time (IMT), or to stimuli spanning a greater period of time (during which intervening stimuli to be ignored appear; DMT). Task complexity can be adjusted to suit applications for both children and adults. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that these laboratory tasks are sensitive to group differences, produce stable baselines of performance, and are sensitive to drug-induced performance decrements.     

Diagnosis of Fabry Disease via Analysis of Family History

Fabry disease is an X-linked lysosomal storage condition caused by a deficiency of α-galactosidase A. In order to determine the average number of family members who are diagnosed with Fabry disease following the diagnosis of a proband, four lysosomal storage disease centers across the United States reviewed the completed pedigrees of their Fabry disease patients. In addition, data from three Fabry disease families from other centers were submitted by patients directly. The pedigree review found 74 probands (54 males and 20 females) who had 357 diagnosed family members, of which 223 were female (60.5%) and 146 were male (39.5%). Analysis found that, on average, there were five family members diagnosed with Fabry disease for every proband. Now that enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) is available for the treatment of Fabry disease, this finding emphasizes the need for all health care professionals to ensure a detailed pedigree has been constructed for each patient affected by Fabry disease and to encourage testing and evaluation of all at-risk family members.     

Comparing responses to novel objects in wild baboons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Papio ursinus</Emphasis>) and geladas (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Theropithecus gelada</Emphasis>)

Behavioral flexibility is considered by some to be one of the hallmarks of advanced cognitive ability. One measure of behavioral flexibility is how subjects respond to novel objects. Despite growing interest in comparative cognition, no comparative research on neophilia in wild primates has been conducted. Here, we compare responses to novel objects in wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) and geladas (Theropithecus gelada). Baboons and geladas are closely related taxa, yet they differ in their ecology and degree of social tolerance: (1) baboons are habitat and dietary generalists, whereas geladas have one of the most specialized primate diets (90% grass); (2) baboons exhibit an aversion toward extra-group individuals, whereas geladas typically exhibit an attraction toward them. Using subjects of all age and sex classes, we examined responses to three different objects: a plastic doll, a rubber ball, and a metal can. Overall, baboon subjects exhibited stronger responses to the objects (greater neophilia and exploration) than gelada subjects, yet we found no evidence that the geladas were afraid of the objects. Furthermore, baboons interacted with the objects in the same way they might interact with a potential food item. Responses were unrelated to sex, but immatures showed more object exploration than adults. Results corroborate novel object research conducted in captive populations and suggest that baboons and geladas have differences in behavioral flexibility (at least in this cognitive domain) that have been shaped by ecological (rather than social) differences between the two species. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Detecting structure in glass patterns: an interocular transfer study

Glass patterns are visual stimuli used here to study how local orientation signals are spatially integrated into global pattern perception. We measured a form aftereffect from adaptation to both static and dynamic Glass patterns and calculated the amount of interocular transfer to determine the binocularity of the detectors responsible for the perception of global structure. Both static and dynamic adaptation produced significant form aftereffects and showed a very high degree of interocular transfer, suggesting that Glass-pattern perception involves cortical processing beyond primary visual cortex. Surprisingly, dynamic adaptation produced significantly greater interocular transfer than static adaptation. Our results suggest a functional interaction between local orientation processing and global motion processing that contributes to form perception.     

Examining the process by which marital adjustment affects maternal warmth: the role of coparenting support as a mediator.

This study assessed the longitudinal process by which marital adjustment affects change in maternal warmth over time. Change in coparenting support was examined as the potential mechanism by which the marriage affects parenting. Self-report data were gathered from 148 married mothers of first-born 4th graders at 3 time points, over the transition to early adolescence. Path analyses supported the proposed hypothesis, indicating that marital adjustment leads to increased coparenting support, which then leads to increased maternal warmth. Two alternative models of the time-ordered direction of effects among the study variables were ruled out. This study has important implications for the development of parenting interventions targeting the promotion of maternal warmth.     

Prevalence of dating violence and victimization: regional and gender differences

This report examines (1) the prevalence of dating violence victimization from a national sample of rural adolescents and (2) patterns by gender and region. Analyses are based on 20,274 adolescents who reported violence victimization using the Community Drug and Alcohol Survey. The relationship of dating violence with gender and region was assessed with HLM5 using Bernoulli's logistic regression. Approximately 16% of adolescents reported being a victim of dating violence. Females reported higher incidence of victimization than males. Dating violence is more prevalent in the South. While it is important to address the underlying values in society that may contribute to dating violence, it is equally productive to include regional and cultural values.     

Personality judgment and personality pathology: self-other agreement in adolescents with conduct disorder

We examine two issues linking personality pathology and judgment of traits within the Five-Factor Model of personality. We hypothesize that pathology moderates self-other agreement--"target" participants with pathology should be less judgable than participants without pathology. In addition, we hypothesize that pathology could partially produce agreement across a variety of traits, particularly those traits fundamental to the pathology. In an adolescent sample including a group with Conduct Disorder (CD) and a Control group, we examine agreement between adolescents' self-reports and their mothers' informant reports. Using trait-centered and person-centered perspectives, we find support for both hypotheses. Results have implications for understanding the processes affecting personality judgment, for increasing integration of traditional personality research and personality pathology, and for personality assessment.     

Developmental differences in the use of visual information during a continuous bimanual coordination task

The authors examined the influence of different amounts of visual information when children 4 (CH4), 6 (CH6), and 8 (CH8) years of age, and adults (n = 12 in each group) performed a steady-state bimanual circle-drawing coordination task at self-selected speeds. All participants maintained in-phase coordination, but different strategies for maintaining the pattern emerged. A predictable relationship between variability and age was not observed, in that the CH8 group was not necessarily more consistent than the CH6 and CH4 groups. The authors conclude that children are transitioning from dependence on kinesthetic feedback to reliance on visual feedback around age 8, as suggested by L. Hay, C. Bard, M. Fleury, and N. Teasdale (1991; L. Hay, M. Fleury, C. Bard, & N. Teasdale, 1994; L. Hay & C. Redon, 1997), and that future studies are needed to further explore visual and kinesthetic feedback as potential control parameters during coordination tasks in developing children.