1. Psychology 320: Psychology of Gender and Sex Differences Lecture 51

2. A thought-provoking CBC documentary on “sext up kids”:
Announcement
A thought-provoking CBC documentary on “sext up kids”: 2

3. Achievement:
1. Are there sex differences in responsiveness to evaluative feedback? (continued)
2. Do males and females make different attributions for success and failure?

4. By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:
1. distinguish between an independent and an interdependent self-construal.
2. discuss the relationship between self-construals and responsiveness to evaluative feedback.
3. distinguish between “optimistic” and “pessimistic” attributional styles.

5. 4. consider the consequences of optimistic and pessimistic attributional styles.
5. discuss sex differences in attributional styles.

6. Are there sex differences in responsiveness to evaluative feedback
Are there sex differences in responsiveness to evaluative feedback? (continued)
Explanation for greater susceptibility of females than males to evaluative feedback: Sex differences in self- construals (Cross & Madson, 1997; Cross & Morris, 2003; Guimond et al., 2006).

7. The Independent Self-Construal
MOTHER
FATHER
X X X
X X X X
X X X X SELF X X X X X
SIBLING X
X X
FRIEND
X X X
X X
CO-WORKER X
FRIEND

8. The Interdependent Self-Construal
FATHER
MOTHER
X X
X X X X
X X SELF X X X X
SIBLING X
FRIEND X X
X X
X X X
CO-WORKER X
FRIEND

9. Independent Versus Interdependent Self-Construals (Markus & Kitayama, 1991)
Independent Self-Construal
Interdependent Self-Construal
Definition of self
Free from social context.
Tied to social context.
Structure of self
Stable, bounded, unitary.
Variable, flexible, fluid.
Primary tasks
Uniqueness, expression of internal attributes, promotion of personal goals.
Fitting in, self-restraint, promotion of others’ goals.
Role of others
Self-evaluation (i.e., social comparison).
Self-definition.
Basis of self-esteem
Ability to express oneself and one’s internal attributes.
Ability to restrain oneself and maintain harmony with others.

10. Theorists maintain that social norms cultivate the independent self-construal among males and the interdependent self-construal among females.

11. Do males and females make different attributions for success and failure?
Attributions for success and failure vary along three dimensions: Internality (internal vs. external cause), stability (stable vs. unstable cause), and globality (global vs. specific cause; Abramson, 1989; Weiner et al., 1971).

12. Examples: I failed the psychology exam because …
Internal, stable, global attribution: “I’m not very smart.”
Internal, stable, specific attribution: “I’m not good at psychology.”
Internal, unstable, specific attribution: “I didn’t study enough for the exam.”
External, stable, global attribution: “The grading system at UBC is not fair.”
External, stable, specific attribution: “The professor doesn’t like me.”
External, unstable, specific attribution: “The exam was too hard.”

13. A substantial body of research has examined sex
A substantial body of research has examined sex differences in attributional styles:

14. Dickhauser and Meyer, 2006
Among 8-9 year old girls and boys with comparable grades in math, found that:
(a) girls were less likely than boys to attribute success to ability.
(b) girls were more likely than boys to attribute failure to lack of ability.

15. (c) this pattern was strongest among the top math students.
(d) teachers were more likely to attribute success to ability among boys and failure to lack of ability among girls.
(e) girls attributions were based on their teacher’s attributions; boys attributions were based on their teacher’s attributions and their objective math performance.

16. Campbell and Henry, 1999
Among college students enrolled in a “management” course, found that:
(a) males were more likely than females to attribute success to ability.
(b) females were more likely than males to attribute success to effort.

17. Achievement:
1. Are there sex differences in responsiveness to evaluative feedback? (continued)
2. Do males and females make different attributions for success and failure?