Ch. 6 (Achievement)

Unstable Attribution for failure

- "I did not study" - may lead us to try harder or to try to change the environment

Stable Attribution for failure

- "I do not have the ability" - may lead us to give up

Unstable attribution for success

- "The teacher didn't have her glasses on" - tells us that the performance may not be repeated, so we will need to continue to exert the same level of effort or keep the environmental conditions the same (e.g. hide the teachers glasses)

Stable attribution for success

- "The teacher is an easy grader" - encourages us to continue with the behavior or to keep the environment the same

Horner on the Fear of Success

- asked students to complete story about same sex person (Anne vs. John) at the top of the medical school class -Horner theorized that women associate success with loss of femininity and feel particularly. anxious when competing against men

High School

-boy boys and girls are more career-focused -more choice: 1. girls more likely to choose biology and social classes 2. boys more likely to take physical sciences -sexual harassment: 1. unwanted sexual attention 2. being harrassed can lead to less interest in school, lower grades, and doubts 3. can discourage women from nontraditional careers

Gender Differences in Self-Confidence

-despite the fact that girls do better than boys in school, girls often estimate their abilities as lower than boys and are more worried than boys about their grades -study found that gender differences in math self-confidence arise during fourth and fifth grade -it is possible that women only appear less self-confident than men because they want to appear modest and are concerned about how their superior performance will affect another person's self-esteem -study found that men are overconfident in math and women are underconfident

Parent's Role

-in general, parents believe that: 1. girls are better in English 2. math is harder for girls than boys 3. boys are better in sports -parents also are more likely to: 1. provide autonomy-facilitating HW help only to boys 2. encourage computer use, math, science, and sports more for boys 3. attribute boys' success in math to talent and girls' success to effort *Parents' beliefs do affect their children

Teachers Influence

-pay more attention to boys -interact with boys -call on boys more -ask boys higher level questions -persist more when boys give the wrong answer -avoid criticizing girls -boys receive more positive feedback for correct answers -boys receive more negative behavioral feedback -girls receive more positive behavioral feedback

Stereotype threat

-women are well aware of the stereotype that women have less aptitude in traditionally masculine domains, such as math and science, compared to men -the salience of these kinds of stereotypes has a negative impact on performance (pressure arises due to fears of conforming to the stereotype)

What are some reasons that females have lower self-esteem than males?

1. females have less favorable attitudes than males toward their gender role during childhood and adolescence 2. girl's have greater emphasis on popularity and increased contact with the other sex (fragile self-esteem because one's self-worth is dependent on how one is viewed by others)

Reducing the stereotype threat

1. make an unstable attribution for the stereotype (have girl's read an article that emphasizes the link of math performance to effort as opposed to ability) 2.disassociate one's identity from performance (one study accomplished this by activating the stereotype that men are better than women at math and then having women either record their own name or a fictitious name on a math test- no sex differences in performance when another name was recorded) 3. educate people about the phenomenon 4. self-affirmation: process of affirming oneself on values that are important to the self 6: stereotype lift: idea that priming a stereotype can lead to reactance against the stereotype

What are the reasons for girls performing better than or equal to boys in areas such as math, but rating themselves lower and having more negative attitudes towards math compared to boys?

1. one answer concerns the beliefs that other people hold about girls' and boys' abilities (expectancy/value model of achievement) 2. the influence of parents 3. the influence of teachers

Two Dimensions Faced by Girls

1. smart vs. social 2. silence vs. bragging

Gender Differences in School (K-21)

Boys: -earn 70% of grades lower than a D -have 2/3 of learning disabilities -make up 80% of high school dropouts -are reported to have more trouble sitting still, paying attention, and being quiet Girls: -consistently earn better grades than boys -outnumber boys in extracurricular activities, such as student government and school newspapers

Dweck's Fixed vs. Growth Distinction

Fixed= good at it or not (ability) Growth= effort put in to be good at something

Issue to Consider

Girls do better than boys in school, yet men hold more high paying and prestigious jobs

Gender Differences in Self-Esteem

Men's self-esteem seems to be based on power, differentiating themselves from others, effectiveness, and independent action, whereas women's self-esteem is based on relationships and connections

Collective Interdependence

The collective aspects of the self are those derived from group memberships and affiliations

Achievement Motive

a stable personality characteristic that reflects the tendency to strive for success -the achievement motive was measured by people's responses to scenes from TAT cards -men who scored high in achievement motivation were found to persist longer at tasks and to reach higher levels of achievement -achievement motivation did not predict the same outcomes in women

Self-evaluation maintenance theory

argues that self-esteem gets a boost when a close other does well on a task that is irrelevant to the self but is harmed when a close other does well on a task that is self-relevant -men's self-esteem is affected when a romantic partner performs well on a task, but not women's

Teachers Attributions

believe when girls succeed at math, it is due to intense effort (not ability)-- opposite for boys (think they have an innate ability)

Elementary School

early years focus on behavior compliance and impulse control by 2nd grade, children showed an implicit bias to associate math with being a boy

Careers counselors may exhibit covert gender bias

encourage girls and boys to behave in stereotypical ways

Middle School

girls begin to have decline in confidence in their academic ability (continue to have better grades, but express less interest) gender role intensification in adolescence

Unmitigated Agency

involves being overly absorbed with the self (masculine)

Unmitigated Communion

involves being overly concerned with others and their opinions (feminine)

External Attribution

located in the environment

Internal Attribution

located within the person

Unstable attribution

one that does change across time and situations

Stable Attribution

one that does not change across time or situations

Career counselors may exhibit overt gender bias

sexist statements, such as telling girls they are not good at math

Expectancy/Value Model of Achievement

suggests that men's and women's achievement-related choices are a function of their performance expectancies (will I succeed?) and the value they attach to the area (Is this important?) -performance expectancies and values are influenced by gender-role socialization (people in children's environment influence females and males to value different areas) *can't become experts in everything (have to make choices) *likely to choose tasks that are rewarded by others (likely to fit gender roles) -in career choices: 1. men (on average) value: status and money, STEM jobs 2. women (on average) value: people-orientation and contributions to society

Fear of Success

the association of negative consequences with achievement -one explanation in the 70's for why women did not reach high levels of achievement -for women, the negative consequences were feeling unfeminine and experiencing social rejection -for men: self-absorption -two requirements for fear of success: 1. THE PERSON MUST PERCEIVE ACHIEVEMENT AS POSSIBLE 2. THE PERSON MUST ASSOCIATE ACHIEVEMENT WITH NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES

Attribution

the cause we assign to a behavior -classified along two dimensions 1. internal/external 2. stable/unstable

Independent Self-Construal

the independent sense of self that is separate from others that men maintain

Interdependent Self-Construal

the interdependent sense of self in which others are integrated into the self that women maintain

Relational Interdependence

the relational aspects of the self are those that emphasize close relationships with other people

Self-serving bias

the tendency to take credit for our successes and blame other people or other things for our failures -has to do with the attributions we make for performance

Teachers Influence (Problem)

when teachers believe girls have less math ability than boys, this affects how girls feel about their own math abilities