Beliefs About Self and About Gender Groups: Interactive Effects on the Spatial Performance of Women

Projection of own characteristics onto an in-group, internalization of in-group characteristics into self-conceptions, and the implications of these two processes for one type of cognitive performance among women (spatial skill) were examined. Focus on gender or self and expected method of performance evaluation (male-female comparison or individual comparison [IC]) were varied before high- and low-self-esteem (SE) women completed a spatial performance test. The manipulations and the SE grouping factor interacted to influence spatial skill scores significantly. The results are interpreted as indicating situationally induced self- and group stereotype influences on manifest spatial skill.