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Psychology 320: Gender Psychology

Lecture 46

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Announcement

On Monday, March 8th, Sheryl Adams (MLIS, Psychology and Sociology Liaison Librarian at Koerner Library) and Ramona Montagnes (MA, Director of the Writing Centre) will conduct a class on literature searches and writing styles for our term paper.

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Achievement:

1. Are there sex differences in achievement motivation and fear of success?

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Are there sex differences in achievement motivation and fear of success?

• Although females obtain better grades in school than males and earn more university degrees than males, females are less likely to occupy prestigious and high-paying occupational positions than males.

• In addition to factors that we have already considered (e.g., discrimination), some theorists have suggested that this discrepancy results from a weaker

achievement motivation and a greater fear of success among females than males. Is this true?

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1. Achievement Motivation

• Achievement motivation has typically been measured using a projective test referred to as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Morgan & Murray, 1935).

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TAT Images

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Instructions for the TAT:

“I am going to show you some pictures, one at a time, and your task will be to make up a story for each card. In your story, be sure to tell what has led up to the event shown in the picture, describe what is happening at the moment, what the characters are feeling and thinking, and give the outcome. Tell a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. Do you understand? I will write your stories

verbatim as you tell them. Here’s the first card.”

-- Murray, 1943

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• Early research on the achievement motivation largely involved males participants (Atkinson, 1958;

Featehr, 1961; McClelland, 1961). This research demonstrated that, among males:

achievement motive scores were related to task performance (e.g., test scores, grades).

achievement motive scores were related to persistence in the face of failure.

achievement motive scores increased when “achievement-involving” task instructions were used.

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under “neutral” conditions, females obtained higher achievement motive scores than males.

achievement motive scores related to outcome measures similarly among females and males (e.g.,

task performance, persistence in the face of failure).

females did not show increases in achievement motive scores when “achievement-involving” task instructions were used.

• The scant research that was conducted with females (e.g., McClelland et al., 1953) demonstrated that:

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• On the basis of the latter finding, many theorists concluded that females have a weaker need for achievement than males.

• This conclusion, however, was later questioned by feminist researchers who noted the following flaws in early research on the achievement motivation:

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(a) The domains of achievement that were studied (e.g., business) were more relevant to males than females.

(b) The characteristics that were used to define the achievement motivation (e.g., assertiveness,

independence, competitiveness) conflicted with the characteristics of the female gender role.

• Research that has addressed these flaws (e.g., Langan-Fox & Grant, 2006; Pang, 2005; Salili, 1996)

has demonstrated similarity in the achievement motivations of females and males.

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2. Fear of Success

• Early researchers argued that females are more likely than males to fear success:

Horner (1972) maintained that females are more likely than males to associate success with negative outcomes (e.g., social rejection) because success (i.e., achievement) is inconsistent with the female gender role.

To test her theory, Horner asked female and male participants to complete a projective storytelling exercise:

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“Anne (John) is at the top of her (his) class in medical school ….”

Participants responses were coded for the presence or absence of negative outcomes: negative consequences, anticipation of negative consequences, moving away from success toward a more traditional occupation, negative affect, conflict with success, inappropriate or nonadaptive responses.

Found that 65% of females but only 10% of males identified negative outcomes associated with success.

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• In addition to these findings, Horner (1972) found that females who obtained relatively high scores on fear of success:

indicated that they would prefer to tell a male that they received a “C” rather than an “A” on an exam.

performed worse on a task when working with males than when working with females.

were more likely to change from a non-traditional college major to a traditional college major over the course of their study.

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• Although Horner’s theory was widely publicized by the popular press, researchers soon identified several problems with her work:

Horner’s research methods appeared to tap awareness of the negative outcomes associated with success for women rather than a fear of success:

Male participants who created a story about Anne included many negative outcomes for her success; female participants who created a story about John included few negative outcomes for his success (Monahan et al., 1974; Pfost & Fiore, 1990; Sancho & Hewitt, 1990).

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Horner’s research methods appeared to tap discomfort with gender-role incongruent behaviour rather than a fear of success:

Male participants who created a story about John who “is at the top of his class in nursing school” included many negative outcomes for his success (Cherry & Deauz, 1978)

Sex differences in fear of success did not emerge when participants were asked to create a story about Anne or John who had succeeded, but for whom no other situation information was provided (Gravenkemper & Paludi, 1983).

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• On the basis of the latter findings, researchers concluded that females are no more likely than males

to fear success. Rather, both females and males are more likely to fear the negative consequences

associated with achievement in gender-incongruent roles than in gender-congruent roles.

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Achievement:

1. Are there sex differences in achievement motivation and fear of success?