The effects of sex composition on cohesiveness and interpersonal learning in short-term personal growth groups.

108 undergraduates were divided into 6 all-male 6-person groups, 6 all-female 6-person groups, and 6 mixed-sex 6-person groups that convened for 5 hrs, during which time Ss completed 5 exercises designed to promote group cohesiveness, personal exploration, and interpersonal learning. Ss completed a group cohesiveness and a projected group learning scale and self-report measures rating Ss' enjoyment of the exercise, value and usefulness of the exercise for them, and their own level of participation in the exercise. Observational ratings were made on the groups for 5 variables, including task orientation, group mood, group interaction, self-disclosure, and exercise length. Findings indicate that members of the all-female and mixed sex-groups rated themselves significantly higher on cohesiveness than did members of the all-male groups. The mixed-sex groups also rated themselves as participating more and their groups as being more valuable and useful than did the all-male groups. The all-male and the mixed-sex groups were rated as significantly more task oriented than the all-female groups; however, the all-female groups were rated as having a significantly brighter mood than the all-male groups. Results suggest that sexually heterogeneous groups possess significant advantages for both sexes over all-male or all-female groups. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of television commercials on women's self-confidence and independent judgment.

Two matched series of TV commercials served as stimuli in a study with 52 female undergraduates. One series consisted of 4 replicas of current network commercials. The other series consisted of the same 4 commercials, identical in every respect except that each of the roles in the scenario was portrayed by a person of the opposite sex. Ss viewed either the traditional or reversed-role series. Those exposed to the nontraditional versions showed more independence of judgment in an Asch-type conformity test and displayed greater self-confidence when delivering a speech, thus supporting the hypothesis that commercials function as social cues to trigger and reinforce sex role stereotypes. Findings suggest that repeated exposure to nonstereotypic commercials might help produce positive and lasting behavioral changes in women. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in intensity of emotional experience: A social role interpretation.

According to gender role theory, women's greater emotional intensity than men's stems from normative expectations for sex differences that arise as a result of men's and women's social roles. In Exp 1, endorsement of normative expectations for sex differences was associated with sex differences in Ss' own emotions: To the extent that they endorsed stereotypical differences between men and women, female Ss reported personally experiencing emotions of greater intensity and male Ss reported experiencing emotions of lesser intensity. The 2nd study manipulated expectations for responsiveness while Ss viewed a series of emotion-inducing slides. When instructions rendered normative expectations comparable for men and women, no sex differences were obtained in emotion self-reports. Furthermore, women evidenced more extreme electromyograph physiological responding than men, suggesting general sex differences in emotion that are not limited to self-report. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intimidades: confianza, gender, and hierarchy in the construction of Latino-Latina therapeutic relationships

The intimate nature of psychotherapy requires psychotherapists be educated to deal with the sexualization of the sharing of intimate feelings and interpersonal closeness. Latino cultures have relatively rigid sex role expectations and norms that privilege men at the expense of women. Experiences of emotional intimacy threaten this Latino cultural discourse of boundaries between men and women and may lead to impasses in therapy and enactments of pathogenic aspects of machismo and marianismo in the therapeutic relationship. Clinical vignettes illustrating the embeddedness of such gender discourses within therapeutic conversations between a Latino therapist and his Latina clients are presented, with discussion of how an intersubjective--relational approach can be used to deconstruct oppressive machista metaphors and cultural narratives and then aid in the coconstruction of reparative narratives within a context of intergender mutuality.     

Dispositional and situational influences on dominance behavior in small groups.

101 college students were observed in small-group discussions to determine the degree to which a previously administered personality measure (the Dominance scale of the California Personality Inventory) would predict overt verbal and nonverbal behaviors. Results indicate that within all-male and all-female groups, scores on the Dominance scale exhibited only modest power to predict the frequency of any single behavior but were highly correlated with the overall pattern of dominance-related behaviors displayed by the Ss. In addition, situational influence was indicated by the negligible personality–behavior correlations obtained for both males and females in the mixed-sex discussion groups. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender and leadership style: A meta-analysis.

Research comparing the leadership styles of women and men is reviewed, and evidence is found for both the presence and absence of differences between the sexes. In contrast to the gender-stereotypic expectation that women lead in an interpersonally oriented style and men in a task-oriented style, female and male leaders did not differ in these two styles in organizational studies. However, these aspects of leadership style were somewhat gender stereotypic in the two other classes of leadership studies investigated, namely (a) laboratory experiments and (b) assessment studies, which were defined as research that assessed the leadership styles of people not selected for occupancy of leadership roles. Consistent with stereotypic expectations about a different aspect of leadership style, the tendency to lead democratically or autocratically, women tended to adopt a more democratic or participative style and a less autocratic or directive style than did men. This sex difference appeared in all three classes of leadership studies, including those conducted in organizations. These and other findings are interpreted in terms of a social role theory of sex differences in social behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender and the effectiveness of leaders: A meta-analysis.

This article presents a synthesis of research on the relative effectiveness of women and men who occupy leadership and managerial roles. Aggregated over the organizational and laboratory experimental studies in the sample, male and female leaders were equally effective. However, consistent with the assumption that the congruence of leadership roles with leaders' gender enhances effectiveness, men were more effective than women in roles that were defined in more masculine terms, and women were more effective than men in roles that were defined in less masculine terms. Also, men were more effective than women to the extent that leader and subordinate roles were male-dominated numerically. These and other findings are discussed from the perspective of social-role theory of sex differences in social behavior as well as from alternative perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Androgyny and leadership in mixed-sex groups.

An investigation of individual differences in psychological androgyny showed that they interacted with situational variables to alter the balance of leadership between 107 men and 107 women undergraduates in small-group discussions, as predicted. Each group was composed of either all androgynous or all sex-typed members. The 9 leadership measures represented process (e.g., minutes of speaking time), content (e.g., number of substantive suggestions), and peer impressions (e.g., leadership ratings). Results indicate that when dyads were reminded about their gender role beliefs before the discussion, androgynous men and women shared leadership more and sex-typed partners less than comparable dyads without reminder, in which men dominated regardless of androgyny. Providing social support by increasing group size from dyads to tetrads (2 men, 2 women) also increased leadership sharing between androgynous men and women and increased male dominance in sex-typed groups. Androgynous and sex-typed friends were more active than strangers but did not differ from comparable strangers in leadership-sharing patterns. Peer recognition of leadership followed behavior only roughly. Some behavioral differences were unrecognized; some differences that did not exist were reported. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Men, Women, and Leadership Centralization in Groups Over Time.

The authors propose a model for predicting the emergence of group norms from the demographic composition of groups. They use this model to study gender and leadership centralization in groups over time. Results from 2 longitudinal studies were consistent with their predictions: (a) Women, more than men, preferred equality norms in groups; (b) all-male and majority-male groups had relatively centralized leadership structures; (c) all-female groups had relatively decentralized leadership structures; and (d) balanced and majority-female groups were relatively centralized at the onset of group interaction but decreased in centralization over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The representation of women, the elderly and minorities in Canadian television commercials.

Performed a content analysis on 1,733 TV commercials shown on 3 Canadian TV networks during an 8-wk period in the spring of 1983. Data were coded in terms of voice-overs, central characters, product type, locale, and the appearance of elderly and visible minority characters. Results indicate that men accounted for over 88% of voice-overs. For those commercials having an identifiable central character, 35% were female. Of these, 54% were supported by a male voice-over. Fewer than 2% of all commercials included elderly people as central characters, and elderly males outnumbered elderly females by a ratio of 2 to 1. Visible minorities were shown in fewer than 4% of all commercials. When present, they were usually males playing secondary roles. A comparison of the present findings with previous research suggests that little has changed in the representation of women in the last 10 yrs. Data are discussed in the context of TV's potential role as an influencer of behaviors and attitudes. (French abstract) (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender, self, and others: Perceptions of the campus environment.

Although the influence of gender roles in education has been noted by counseling psychologists, the debate over sex equity in higher education remains controversial. Research on this topic has yielded inconclusive results. In this study of 635 upper level undergraduates with varying academic majors, results indicated that greater sex bias and discrimination were reported by women, whereas greater indifference and lack of recognition were perceived by men. Students' experiences with sexual harassment and perceptions of the degree to which women were represented in the curriculum did not differ by sex. Self-esteem for both sexes and level of feminist identity development for women were associated with perceptions of the educational environment. Suggestions for prevention, intervention, and further research are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Meta-analytic review of sex differences in group performance.

To examine the impact of sex composition of groups on productivity, a meta-analytic review was conducted on the findings of past laboratory research. Two classes of factors were distinguished to account for any performance differences obtained: (a) task contents or settings that favor the interests and abilities of one sex over the other and (b) group-level factors, such as men's and women's interaction, in particular, the tendency for men in groups to offer opinions and suggestions and the tendency for women to act friendly and agree with others. Overall, all-male groups were found to perform better than all-female ones. This appeared due to tasks or settings that favored men's interests and abilities over women's. The effects of group-level factors, such as interaction style, became apparent when tasks were classified in terms of the type of interaction required for completion. Female group members' interaction apparently facilitated performance at tasks requiring positive social activities, including friendliness and agreement with others. Men's interaction style slightly, although not reliably, facilitated performance on tasks requiring task-oriented behavior, such as giving opinions and suggestions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity to sex-typed norms, affect, and the self-concept

The self-concept plays an important role in conformity to sex-typed social norms. Normative beliefs that men are powerful, dominant, and self-assertive and that women are caring, intimate with others, and emotionally expressive represent possible standards for whom people ought to be and whom they ideally would like to be. In the present research, to the extent that sex role norms were personally relevant for participants, norm-congruent experiences (i.e., those involving dominance for men and communion for women) yielded positive feelings and brought their actual self-concepts closer to the standards represented by ought and ideal selves.     

Sex differences in the representation of visuospatial functions in the human brain.

Investigated sex differences in the representation of visuospatial functions in the human brain in 20 Ss with right hemisphere stroke and 40 stroke-free control Ss with the Complex Figure Test, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R) Block Design, and Judgment of Line Orientation. Also, 3 models of sex differences in the representation of visuospatial functions in the human brain were evaluated. The stroke and control groups were composed of equal proportions of men and women. Results suggest that women may be disproportionately impaired in visuospatial functioning relative to men following right hemisphere stroke. It is proposed that visuospatial functions were bilaterally represented in the brains of men, allowing them to rely upon left hemisphere visuospatial systems following right hemisphere stroke, and that these functions were represented in the right hemisphere of women, resulting in their disproportionate impairment despite comparable lesions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of social power to visual displays of dominance between men and women.

Two studies, with undergraduate subjects, investigated how sex and situation-specific power factors relate to visual behavior in mixed-sex interactions. The power variable in Study 1 was expert power, based on differential knowledge. Mixed-sex dyads were formed such that members had complementary areas of expertise. In Study 2, reward power was manipulated. Consistent with expectation states theory, both men and women high in expertise or reward power displayed high visual dominance, defined as the ratio of looking while speaking to looking while listening. Both men and women low in expertise or reward power looked more while listening than while speaking, producing a relatively low visual dominance ratio. In conditions in which men and women did not possess differential expertise or reward power, visual behavior was related to sex. Men displayed visual behavior similar to their patterns in the high expertise and high reward power conditions, whereas women exhibited visual behavior similar to their patterns in the low expertise and low reward power conditions. The results demonstrate how social expectations are reflected in nonverbal power displays. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The male role, alcohol use, and alcohol problems: A structural modeling examination in adult women and men.

Most research on sex differences in alcohol involvement suggests that drinking is a component of the male gender role, but the impact of specific male role factors on alcohol involvement has not yet been studied. The authors used structural modeling to examine the relationships among 3 male role variables (agency, traditional male role attitudes, and masculine gender role stress), alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related problems in a sample of women and men. To determine whether sex moderates this relationship, models were computed separately for men and women. For men, traditional attitudes led to more alcohol consumption, whereas agentic traits protected them from experiencing alcohol-related problems, and experiencing masculine gender role stress was a risk factor for these problems. Male role variables were unrelated to women's alcohol consumption, but women who believed more in the traditional role of men suffered from more alcohol-related problems. Discussion centers on the contribution of components of the male role on alcohol outcomes as well as the different implications for men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Safer sex knowledge, behavior, and attitudes of inner-city women.

Sexual behavior, knowledge of HIV transmission and prevention, perceived risk of AIDS, and safer sex behavior were studied in a sample of 289 single, pregnant, inner-city women. African-American and European-American women were equally represented. Women had poor AIDS knowledge. Sexual behavior placed women at risk for HIV infection due to the lack of condom or spermicide use. Women did not perceive themselves at risk for the AIDS virus, although they did recognize that heterosexuals were at risk. Their lack of risk perception was partly based on their having a single sexual partner. They did not regard their partner's current or past behavior as placing them at risk. Recommendations for intervention and cultural differences are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental behaviour is unrelated to experimentally manipulated great tit brood sex ratio

Parental investment may be biased with respect to parental sex or offspring sex or there may be an interaction between parental and offspring sex. We investigated whether any of these types of bias occurred in great tits, Parus major. By sexing chicks using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers and subsequently moving chicks between broods, we were able to manipulate broods early in the nestling period to give all-male, mixed-sex and all-female broods. Provisioning behaviour (total feeding rate, proportion of feeding visits by the male, prey size, visit duration and proportion of visits in which a faecal sac was removed) was measured for broods aged 8-9 and 11-12 days. Nest defence behaviour was measured for 15-day-old broods. Parental weight, the occurrence of second broods and overwinter survival of the parents were also analysed. There were some differences in parental care between the parents: males made the majority of feeding visits and were more vigorous in nest defence. However, there was no evidence that parental care varied in relation to brood sex ratio or that there was an interaction in parental care between parental sex and brood sex ratio. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour     

Coronary arteriographic findings in black patients and risk markers for coronary artery disease

Coronary arteriographic results are reported in 1535 black patients: 751 men (mean age 57 +/- 11) and 784 women (mean age 59 +/- 11). Among the black men 19%, 15%, 21%, and 4% had single-, double-, and triple-vessel and left main disease, respectively. Among the black women there were 12%, 10%, 15%, and 3% with similar involvement. Logistic regression models showed that most of the recognized risk factors were positively correlated with significant (at least one artery with > or = 50% stenosis) coronary disease, but a history of hypertension was not a significant independent predictor in either sex. ECG evidence of previous infarction increased the odds of detecting significant coronary disease by the greatest amount when controlling for other significant risk markers in women. In men both previous infarction and atypical pain (negative) were equally important. This study confirms but does not explain previous reports that have revealed less than expected angiographic evidence of significant coronary artery disease in black compared with white persons.