The Psychology of Gender

Fourth Edition

Chapter 6
Achievement

Psychology of Gender, Fourth Edition

Vicki S. Helgeson
Current Status of Women’s and
Men’s Achievement
• By early 1990s, more women than men
attend college
• However, women and men pursue
different fields
• Few women than men major in “STEM”
fields
• Women more in life sciences, men more
in physical sciences
TABLE 6.1 Percent of Bachelor’s Degrees Conferred to Males and Females in 2007 and 2008
Explanation: Individual
Differences Factors
 The Achievement Motive

• Refers to a stable personality trait that

reflects the tendency to strive for
success (McClelland et al., 1953)
• Early work: Do women have a lower
need for achievement? Fear success?
• Still concern among some women that
achievement has social costs
 Fear of Achievement

• Historically, explanation centered on

fear of success (FoS; Horner, 1972)
• FoS: High achievement has negative
consequences (e.g., for women, feel
unfeminine, social rejection)
• Evidence controversial
 Early projective tests not valid measures of
FoS
 Self-report measures show higher FoS for
females
 Fear of Achievement (cont’d)

• Why women leave traditionally

masculine fields
 Fear of success or concerns about
flexibility, time demands, lack of intrinsic
interest in fields
 Self-Confidence

• Influenced by nature of the task

FIGURE 6.3 There were no sex differences in math self-confidence among 2nd and 3rd graders (n.s.
= not significant). Among 4th and 5th graders, boys were more confident than girls (* = significant)
Source: Adapted from Muzzatti and Agnoli (2007).
 Self-Confidence (cont’d)

• Sex differences mostly in masculine

tasks
 Women underestimate their performance
and lack self-confidence in masculine
domains
• Lack of self-confidence could contribute
to underrepresentation of women in
math, science
 Self-Confidence (cont’d)

• Women may appear less confident

 Women reluctant to threaten others’ self-
esteem
• To the extent that it exists, sex
difference in direction of women
underconfident, men overconfident
 FIGURE 6.4 Among 2nd graders, girls believed that girls were better than boys in math and boys
believed boys and girls were about the same; by 4th grade, boys believed that boys were better than
girls in math and this belief persisted through 5th grade; 3rd and 4th grade girls thought the two sexes
were roughly the same but by 5th grade girls shared boys’ beliefs that boys were better than girls at
math. Source: Adapted from Muzzatti and Agnoli (2007).
Response to Evaluation Feedback

• Women are more responsive to

evaluative feedback than men and use
it to make inferences about their
abilities
FIGURE 6.5 Effect of feedback on evaluation. Women evaluated their speech as more positive after
receiving positive feedback and more negative after receiving negative feedback. Men’s evaluations of
their speech were relatively unaffected by the nature of the feedback they received. Source: Adapted
from Roberts and Nolen-Hoeksema (1994, Study 2).
 Response to Evaluation
Feedback (cont’d)
• One reason women more responsive:
 View information as accurate and
informative of their abilities
• Men may discount negative evaluative
feedback in order to protect self-
esteem
 FIGURE 6.6 Women’s self-esteem slightly improved after receiving a positive evaluation from their
supervisor, and women’s self-esteem drastically decreased after receiving a negative evaluation. Men’s
self-esteem was unaffected by the feedback they received from their supervisor. Source: Adapted from
Johnson and Helgeson (2002).
 Self-Esteem

• Small sex difference in self-esteem;

men higher
• Age moderates sex differences in self-
esteem
 Largest among adolescents
- Body image contributes
• Agency and communion more closely
related to self-esteem than sex per se
FIGURE 6.7 Sex differences in self-esteem emerge in 8th grade. Source: Adapted from Heaven and
Ciarrochi (2008).
 Stereotype Threat

• Idea that activating a stereotype will

create a concern with confirming the
stereotype and have a negative impact
on performance, e.g., math
• Effects of stereotype threat greater for
those who identify strongly with a
domain
 FIGURE 6.8 Men performed better than women on a visual spatial task when the gender stereotype
was made explicit or implicit, but men and women performed the same on the task when the stereotype
was nullified. Source: Adapted from Campbell and Collaer (2009).
 Stereotype Threat (cont’d)

• Effects can be nullified by discounting

the stereotype, attributing stereotype
to effort, or educating people about
stereotype threat
• Can interfere with performance by
reducing cognitive capacity and/or
increasing anxiety
 Conceptions of the Self

• Behavioral sex differences may reflect

different ways men and women define
themselves
• Independent self-construal: sense
of self separate from others; feel
unique
Conceptions of the Self (cont’d)

• Interdependent self-construal:
sense of self in which others are
integrated into the self; feel connected
 Relational interdependence: women
 Collective interdependence: men
• Ethnic, cultural factors influence sex
differences in self-construal
• Also gender similarities in sources of
self-esteem
 Attributions for Performance

• Self-serving bias: tendency to take

credit for our successes and blame
other people or things for our failures
 Sex by age interaction
 Attributions for Performance

• Dimensions of Causality
 Attribution: cause we assign to a
behavior
- Internal attribution
- External attribution
- Stable attribution
- Unstable attribution
• Sex differences: Expectancy model of
attributions
FIGURE 6.9 Two dimensions on which attributions (causes) can be classified: locus (internal vs.
external) and stability (stable vs. unstable).
FIGURE 6.10 Expectancy model of attributions: actors. This model shows that when performance fits
our expectations (success following high expectations for performance, failure following low
expectations for performance), we attribute the cause to stable factors. When performance does not fit
our expectations (success following low expectations for performance, failure following high
expectations for performance), we attribute the cause to unstable factors. Source: K. Deaux (1984).
From individual differences to social categories: Analysis of a decade’s research on gender. American
Psychologist, 39, 105–116.
Implications of Attributions for
Achievement
• Sex differences in how success/failure
explained
 Men’s success: stable, internal
 Women’s success: unstable, internal
 Men’s failure: external or internal, unstable
 Women’s failure: internal, stable
Implications of Attributions for
Achievement (cont’d)
• Implications: men’s success will be
repeated as will women’s failure
• Implications for future efforts in an
area
 FIGURE 6.11 Boys are more likely than girls to attribute math success to ability, and girls are more
likely than boys to attribute math failure to lack of ability. Source: Adapted from Dickhauser and Meyer
(2006).
Explanation: Social Factors
 Expectancy/Value Model of
Achievement
• Model suggests that achievement-
related choices are a function of
performance expectancies and values
• People pursue areas of achievement in
which they expect to succeed
• Sex differences in expectancies for
success even when abilities equal
 Expectancy/Value Model of
Achievement (cont’d)
• In career choices, males value status
and money, STEM jobs; females value
people-orientation and contributions to
society
 The Influence of Parents

• Parents influence children’s

expectancies/values
• Parents often hold stereotyped views of
boys’ and girls’ abilitiesself-fulfilling
stereotypes
• Sex-differentiated beliefs about math,
reading hold even when grades similar
The Influence of Parents (cont’d)

• Parents’ stereotypes lead to different

attributions for girls’ and boys’ school
success/failure
• Parents’ beliefs about children’s abilities
can influence children’s own self-
perceptions and actual performance
FIGURE 6.12 A model describing how parents’ beliefs can influence children’s performance.
 The Influence of Teachers

• Teachers hold different beliefs about

boys’ and girls’ abilities, which influence
children’s beliefs about own abilities
• More attention to boys than girls
FIGURE 6.13 Cartoon illustrates how teachers pay more attention to boys than girls, referring to the
lack of attention to girls as a “girl’s education.” Source: DOONESBURY ©1992 G. B. Trudeau. Reprinted
with permission of UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE. All rights reserved.
The Influence of Teachers (cont’d)

• Nature of feedback differs

 Boys get more negative behavioral
feedback
- Discount negative feedback about
classwork
 Girls get more positive behavioral feedback
- Dilute positive feedback about classwork
• Teacher expectations affect student
performance