Browsing by Subject "Sex differences (Psychology)"
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Gender, values, and the formation of occupational goals(2006) Weisgram, Erica S.; Bigler, Rebecca S.Despite the trend toward greater gender equality in the workforce, gender segregation of occupations is still prevalent. In the year 2000, for example, 80 percent of all jobs classified by the U. S. Census Bureau employed predominately one sex. Gender stereotyping has been hypothesized to play a direct role in occupational segregation via differential treatment by parents, teachers, etc. (Stockard & McGee, 1990). Sex differences in occupational values have also been posited to play an important role (Eccles, 1987). The primary purpose of the present studies was to explore the roles of gender cognitions and values in children’s and adults’ occupational interest using correlational and experimental designs. In Study 1, I investigated individuals’ occupational values, gender stereotypes, and occupational interests using a cross-sectional design. Specifically, children (ages 6 to 18) and adults completed surveys assessing their (a) endorsement of occupational values (b) gender stereotyping of occupations, and (c) interest in masculine and feminine occupations. Results indicated significant sex differences in individuals’ occupational interests with males indicating higher levels of interest in masculine occupations than females and females indicating higher levels of interest in feminine occupations than males. In addition, regression analyses determined that values are important predictors of occupational interest. In Study 2, I examined the causal role of gender stereotyping and values in shaping individuals’ occupational interest via an experimental design. Specifically, replicating and extending Liben, Bigler, and Krogh’s (2001) novel job paradigm, children (ages 5 to 10) and adults were exposed to eight novel jobs. Four jobs depicted female workers and four jobs depicted male workers. Within each gender category, each job was characterized by one of four values: family, altruism, money, or power. Results indicated that children and adults were significantly more interested in jobs depicted with same-sex models than jobs depicted with opposite sex models. Results also indicated that among adults, males were significantly more interested in jobs that afford money and power values than females. The results of these studies are likely to have important implications for theoretical models of vocational development and the design of programs aimed at reducing sex-typing of children’s occupational interests.Item The influence of gender processes on jury deliberations(2002-08) Cargill, Kima Leigh; Gilbert, Lucia AlbinoItem What is beautiful is sex-typed: a developmental examination(2003) Hoss, Rebecca Anne; Langlois, Judith H.Stereotypes about attractiveness and gender seem to implicate each other in various ways. Previous research has found that adults rate highly attractive targets as being more sex-typed than less attractive targets. This phenomenon has been identified as the “beauty-is-sex-typed” stereotype and has been examined only in adults and with a limited number of sex-typed attributes. The studies reported here extend previous research and provide important developmental data by having adults (Experiment 1) and 7-9-year-old children (Experiment 2) rate more and less attractive target faces for the likelihood of having feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral attributes. Attributes used in ratings included items from three different gender stereotype domains (i.e., traits, activities, and occupations) in order to provide a more complete examination of the beauty-issex-typed stereotype than has been assessed previously. Results showed that both adults and children subscribe to the beauty-is-sex-typed stereotype, but for female targets only: All participants rated high attractive females significantly higher than low attractive females on having feminine traits, activities, and occupations. Additionally, children but not adults rated attractive females higher than unattractive females on gender-neutral attributes. In contrast, all participants rated males, regardless of attractiveness, as equally masculine and gender-neutral in attributes. Children’s results did not appear to depend on the cognitive skill of multiple classification even though expressing a beauty-is-sex-typed stereotype conceptually requires noticing both a target’s gender and attractiveness. Secondary results included that all participants showed stronger cross-sex-typed stereotypes for activities and occupations than traits. Taken together, these results have important implications for the development of both attractiveness stereotyping and gender stereotyping. Even in young children, attractiveness stereotypes consist of both sex-relevant (“beauty is good”) and sex-irrelevant (“beauty is sex-typed”) components, and these components include traits, activities, and occupations. Moreover, gender stereotypes of female targets, at least for adults and children in middle childhood, seem to depend on the attractiveness of the targets.