What's fine for the gander isn't always good for the goose: Sex differences in self-confidence as a function of ability area and comparison with others

Previous investigators have suggested that women display lower self-confidence than men across almost all achievement situations. The empirical validity of this suggestion is assessed in an experiment testing the following hypotheses: (1) Sex differences in self-confidence depend upon the particular ability area. (2) Women's self-confidence is more influenced than men's by characteristics of the particular individual with whom they compare themselves. Undergraduates completed verbal, interpersonal perceptiveness, spatial-mechanical, and creativity subtests. After each subtest, subjects estimated both their own score and that of the average undergraduate, the average male undergraduate, or the average female undergraduate. Self-confidence was operationally defined in terms of how favorably subjects compared their work to that of their peers. As predicted, women's self-confidence was lower than men's in only the spatial-mechanical and creativity subtests; and for women, but not for men, self-confidence depended upon which peer was specified. It is concluded that situation variables do determine sex differences in self-confidence and that women's self-confidence may be unduly affected by situation-specific comparison cues.The preparation of this article was supported in part by a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in Women's Studies awarded to the author by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Some portions of the study reported in this article were presented at the Western Psychological Association 1976 Convention (Lenney, Note 1) and were briefly abstracted in another article (Lenney, 1977). The author wishes to express her deep appreciation to Walter Mischel and to Sandra Bem for their invaluable consultations on the writing of this article.     

Two logit models for external analysis of preferences

A logit vector model and a logit ideal point model are presented for external analysis of paired comparison preference judgments aggregated over a homogeneous group. The logit vector model is hierarchically nested within the logit ideal point model so that statistical tests are available to distinguish between these two models. Generalized least squares estimation procedures are developed to account for heteroscedastic sampling error variances and specification error variances. Two numerical illustrations deal with judgments concerning employee compensation plans and preferences for salt and sugar in the brine of canned green beans.     

Sex-role acquisition,parental behavior,and sexual orientation: Some tentative hypotheses

It was hypothesized that sexual orientation is not an aspect of sex-role socialization, but is acquired during a sensitive period from birth to 3 years through physical contact with adults. This is tentatively supported by evidence suggesting that (a) sexual orientation is highly resistant to change after adolescence; (b) infants respond to sexual stimulation and discriminate between the sexes; (c) gender identity is fixed between birth and 3 years of age; (d) during their infancy, homosexuals were psychosocially and presumably physically responded to as children of the opposite sex; (e) parents touch boys and girls differently. Stronger support for the hypothesis must be gained from longitudinal observation of parent-infant physical and social interaction and the infant's eventual sexual orientation.     

The Effect of Clear Evaluation Criteria on Sex Bias in Judgments of Performance

Previous research indicates that the work of women is often devalued rela- tive to that of men. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that such sex bias appears when judges follow ambiguous guidelines or criteria in making evalua- tions, but not when they tollow clear evaluation guidelines. In each experiment, male and female undergraduates evaluated a performance that was attributed to either a man or woman (an intellectual test performance in Experiment I; an artistic craft object in Experiment 11). Subjects followed either clear, explicit evaluation criteria or vague, ambiguous criteria. As predicted, female subjects Lyaluated the "female's" performance less favorably than the "male's" only when. criteria were vague. In contast, male subjects showed little evidence of sex bias, regardless of the criteria they followed. Discussion centers upon: (1) possible cognitive processes underlying the observed effects of clear criteria; and (2) potential practical applications designed to alleviate sex bias in naturalistic settings.     

A factor-analytic study of measures of Machiavellianism

Three Machiavellian (Mach) scales together with measures of authoritarian personality, the EPQ and the 16PF test were subjected to a rotated factor analysis in order to identify and locate in personality space a Mach factor or factors. One Mach factor was identified independent of the main personality factors.     

Do Students with Different Characteristics Take Part in Psychology Experiments at Different Times of the Semester?

ABSTRACT In this study we examined 15 personality and demographic differences between psychology students who took part in experiments at different times of the semester and different times of the day. In general, few significant relations were found and those that did emerge were small in magnitude. Females and freshmen signed up for experiments earlier in the semester. Females took part in their first experiment earlier in the semester, as did students who were Protestant and who came from smaller home towns. Students low in self-consciousness also tended to begin participating earlier. Extraverts participated earlier in the day than introverts. Results generally were consistent with previous findings of differences between research volunteers and non-volunteers. However, it was concluded that because of their small magnitude and inconsistency from site to site, with a few precautions experimenters probably need not be concerned that timing effects threaten the external validity of psychological research outcomes.     

THE IMPACT OF ROLE STRESSORS AND PERSONAL RESOURCES ON THE STRESS EXPERIENCE OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN

This study explored the contributions of role stressors and personal resources in predicting strain symptoms experienced by 117 professional women employed full-time in academia. Results of multiple regression analyses revealed that, while role stressors alone accounted for only a moderate amount of the variance in reported strain symptoms, 51 % of the variance was explained when both stressors and personal resources were combined. Womend, who experienced higher levels of personal control and social support as well as a greater number of roles occupied reported lower levels of strain symptoms. These results support the use of a transactional model of stress in future multiple role research.     

Memory determinants of response latency to produce speech

In three experiments, subjects were asked to memorize related phrase pairs and then to produce one of these phrases from a cue. In Experiment 1, it was found that both memorization times and response latencies increased with the number of words that differed between the phrases. In Experiment 2 and 3, it was shown that the presence of a strong modifying or semantic relationship between words in one phrase influenced both memorization time and response latency when those same words were contrasted between the two phrases. The implications of the results for models of storage, retrieval, and planning of speech are considered.     

Visual comparison processes: Identity and similarity decisions

In the first experiment, in which two successively presented free-form visual patterns varied in their similarity to each other, subjects had to decide, in one condition, if the patterns were “identical” and in two other conditions if the patterns were “similar.” Qualitative individual differences in the effect of similarity on the time required to make a decision were found in the “identity” condition, and these differences interacted with the “similarity” conditions. The individual differences and the experimental effects are interpreted in terms of a two-process model of the visual comparison process—a holistic matching process that is sometimes accompanied by an analytic difference detection process. In the second experiment, the same subjects repeatedly categorized subsets of the free-form visual patterns on the basis of similarity. There appeared to be no individual differences in the subjects’ perceptions of similarity, but subjects’ perceptions did differ from the assumptions made by the experimenters when they established the response criteria for the first experiment.