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.     

Tests of a two-stage model of visual matching

Predictions from a model of visual matching were tested in two experiments. The model consists of a wholistic comparison process followed by an element-by-element comparison process. All stimuli are processed by the first stage but only those that permit a decision based on a wholistic comparison produce responses. When discrimination is difficult and a decision cannot be reached by a wholistic comparison, the second stage of processing is initiated. Degree of discriminability and stimulus duration (100 and 1000 msec.) were varied in both experiments. In Exp. 1, the stimulus elements were arranged in a square configuration to facilitate a wholistic comparison. As predicted, the hard-different stimuli took longer to match than the same or easy-different stimuli. The hard-different stimuli presented for 1000 msec. took longer to match than those presented for 100 msec. There was no difference in accuracy between responses to hard-different pairs at the two durations. In Exp. 2, the stimulus elements were arranged in a horizontal row and placed one above the other to facilitate element-by-element comparison. As predicted, these stimuli produced slower and more accurate responses for same and hard-different stimulus pairs only when they were exposed for 1000 msec. Responses to easy-different stimulus pairs were made quickly and accurately.     

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.     

Perceptual reactance and task performance.

57 female subjects participated in a study in which perceptual reactance was assessed by the kinesthetic figural aftereffects test. Subjects identified as augmenters were quicker than reducers on a disjunctive reaction time task and a significant interactive effect was found on a paired-associate task. Augmenters performed better on a similar list while reducers were more effective on a dissimilar list.     

Tune recognition with reduced pitch and interval information

Twenty subjects were tested on their ability to recognize simple tunes from which rhythm information had been removed. Only the first phrase of each tune was presented. The purpose of the experiment was (a) to determine whether stimuli containing only high harmonics can evoke a sense of musical pitch, and (b) to provide a set of data in normal subjects with which the performance of deaf subjects whose auditory nerve is stimulated electrically can be compared. Each subject was tested on five sets of stimuli presented in a counterbalanced order. These stimuli were (I) pulse trains high-pass filtered at 2 kHz, with repetition rates in the range of 100-200 p.p.s.; (2) as in (I) but high-pass filtered at 4 kHz; (3) sinusoids with musical intervals compressed, so that the “octave” was a ratio of I:I·3; (4) sinusoids with the musical intervals expanded, so that the “octave” was a ratio of I:4; (5) sinusoids of a constant frequency in which the normal frequency changes were translated into intensity changes, each semitone being represented by a 3 dB change in level. The results indicate that a pattern of intensity changes does not support tune recognition, and that, although the pitch contour alone allows reasonable performance, subjects do use musical interval information in recognizing tunes. Stimuli containing only high harmonics can provide such interval information, and thus can evoke a sense of musical pitch. Preliminary results from a deaf subject stimulated electrically with an electrode on the surface of the cochlea indicate that such stimulation can also evoke a sense of musical pitch. It is concluded that musical pitch information can be carried in the time-pattern of nerve impulses in the auditory nerve.     

An eye fixation analysis of choice and judgment with multiattribute stimuli

The present paper examined the selection of processing heuristics for choice and judgment across a range of stimuli. Eye fixations were monitored while six subjects made choices or judgments of pairs of gambles, vacations, or gifts. Each stimulus was represented by three attributes that varied in the amount of dimensional interdependency. The two heuristics of interest were dimensional and holistic evaluation. Each manifested a characteristic pattern of eye fixations. Dimensional evaluation required alternating fixations from a single attribute of one stimulus to the same attribute of the other stimulus. Holistic evaluation was characterized by transitions from attribute to attribute within a single stimulus. The results demonstrated that when the stimulus attributes were either interdependent (gambles) or dissimilar (gifts), the processing heuristic was determined by stimulus characteristics. When the stimulus dimensions were neither interdependent nor dissimilar (vacations), the selection of a processing strategy was determined by the prescribed task. This study suggests that any global theory of choice or judgment must be validated over a wide range of stimuli.     

Why and for whom does the pressure to help hurt others? Affective and cognitive mechanisms linking helping pressure to workplace deviance

Scholars are paying increasing attention to the “dark side” of citizenship behavior. One aspect of this dark side that has received relatively scant attention is “helping pressure”—an employee's perception that s/he is being encouraged to, or otherwise feels that s/he should, enact helping behavior at work. Drawing from theory associated with work stress, we examine affective and cognitive mechanisms that potentially explain why helping pressure, counterintuitively, may lead employees to engage in deviant behavior instead. Beyond examining these possible mechanisms, we also answer calls to identify a potential buffer to these effects. Drawing from self-determination theory, we examine how an employee's intrinsic motivation for citizenship may lessen the deleterious consequences of helping pressure at work. In two studies (a within-individual experience-sampling study and a two-wave between-individual study), we find consistent evidence that helping pressure has a positive indirect relationship with deviant behavior through increased negative affect. Further, we find evidence that intrinsic motivation for citizenship weakens the positive relationship of helping pressure with negative affect, buffering the indirect effect on subsequent deviant behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the study of helping pressure at work are discussed.