Attributions of causes of successful task performances as a function of task and sex of the performer were investigated. Introductory psychology students (N=157) were presented with closed-circuit, videotaped episodes in which a male or female stimulus person performed a card-guessing task for 10 trials. Subjects heard the task described to the…

The connection between self-esteem, sex, and attributional style was examined in two studies. Results indicated that for positive events, high self-esteem subjects make more internal attributions than low self-esteem subjects, and for negative events, high self-esteem subjects make fewer internal attributions than low self-esteem subjects. The…

The effects of assigned status were investigated in same-sex competition with male (N=40) and female (N=80) college subjects. Those randomly assigned to high status improved in reaction time performance, while subjects randomly assigned to low status suffered a decrement. Contrary to expectations, in mixed-sex competition (fear of success arousal…

Research on gender differences in group performance suggests that males excel at brainstorming while females excel at human relations and integration. To investigate the relations among gender, interaction style, and task performance, 264 college students (130 female, 134 male) worked in three person same sex groups on a production task which…

Gender-related differential item functioning (DIF) was examined in a context in which 3,946 middle school students received mathematics instruction focusing on problem solving. Reasons why four tasks on the performance assessment favored female students and two favored male students are discussed. (SLD)

Reactions of men and women to failure in sex-appropriate and sex-inappropriate tasks were examined through performance records, self-ratings of learning progress, and attributions of performance to effort and ability. Fear of success studies show that individuals may avoid success where success is sex-inappropriate. It was thought that failure…

The effects of the genders of the assessor and the assessee on performance observation ratings of beginning teachers were studied in public schools in Louisiana. Data was collected in the pilot phase of the Louisiana Teacher Assessment Program for Interns, which included both teacher observation and structured interview. Of the assessees who…

Considerable research has documented the positive effect of teacher expressiveness and warmth on students' evaluations of college teachers, but the effect of teacher expressiveness on student performance is less clear. To investigate the interaction between teacher expressiveness, teacher sex, and student sex, 121 college students viewed a…

Preplanning to insure sex-fair evaluation of student performance in physical education should include: (1) establishment of instructional and performance objectives for each activity; (2) development of performance standards which take into account ability levels and documented biological differences between the sexes; and (3) a well-defined…

Feminist therapists' writings, while focusing on the needs of female clients, do not always consider the limitations of the therapist. Gender differences in beginning psychotherapists' behaviors and client interactions were investigated to determine the effect of sex-role stereotyping on therapeutic interactions and interventions. Verbatim…

The effect of perceptual speed on performance and paper-and-pencil measures of spatial ability is examined. Perceptual speed is defined as speed in comparing figures or symbols, scanning to find figures or symbols, or carrying out other very simple tasks involving visual perception. It was hypothesized that perceptual speed would have more…

Two experiments investigated the role of children's assessments of their performance on their decisions to seek help and their preferences for different types of assistance. Blocked into low and high verbal skill groups, participants in study 1 were 84 middle-class third- and fifth-grade elementary school students. Subjects performed a multi-trial…

Research has found that, in many performance situations, attributions of success and failure may reflect numerous experiences occurring over time. To expand this research, achievement attributions in an extended ego-involving situation, i.e., performance in an academic course, were examined. In addition to the traditional causes of effort,…

The fifth-grade and eighth-grade science items on a state performance assessment were compared for differential item functioning (DIF) due to gender. The grade 5 sample consisted of 8,539 females and 8,029 males and the grade 8 sample consisted of 7,477 females and 7,891 males. A total of 30 fifth grade items and 26 eighth grade items were…

This symposium on organization development (OD) consists of three presentations. "A Study of Gender Management Preferences as Related to Predicted Organizational Management Paradigms for the Twenty-First Century" (Cathy Bolton McCullough) reports a study that found that access to diverse management preferences and the manner in which the…