Perceptions of stranger and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent and hostile sexism in victim blame and rape proclivity.

In Studies 1 and 2, after reading an acquaintance-rape but not a stranger-rape scenario, higher benevolent sexist but not hostile sexist participants blamed the victim significantly more. In Study 2, higher hostile sexist but not benevolent sexist male participants showed significantly greater proclivity to commit acquaintance (but not stranger) rape. Studies 3 and 4 supported the hypothesis that the effects of benevolent sexism and hostile sexism are mediated by different perceptions of the victim, as behaving inappropriately and as really wanting sex with the rapist. These findings show that benevolent sexism and hostile sexism underpin different assumptions about women that generate sexist reactions toward rape victims. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex typing and gender ideology: Two facets of the individual's gender psychology that go together.

Three studies tested the hypothesis that gendered personality dispositions are related to gender attitudes and gender discriminatory behaviors. In Study 1, sex-typed individuals were more likely than androgynous, undifferentiated, and cross-sex-typed individuals to accept gender rules designating culturally appropriate behavior for men and women. In Study 2, sex-typed individuals were particularly likely to pay attention spontaneously to the sex of job applicants and then to devalue the interview performances of women. In Study 3, only sex-typed men tended to endorse sexist language. As expected, sex typing and gender ideology go together. This relation between two facets of the individual's gender psychology indicates that some sex role inventories may tap more than expressivity and instrumentality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"She," "He," Coexistence, and Bastardy.

Before proposing a solution for the sex bias problems inherent in the generic use of the pronoun he, Spencer (see record 1990-58427-001) reviews some efforts to solve the problem. The attempted solutions are evaluated as "not an improvement ... awkward... jarring ... disturbing" (p. 782), In one case, Spencer notes that coauthors of a book "slip up" twice. To avoid the difficulties and the accompanying unpleasant experiences, Spencer suggests the use of co: "The form is derived from an old Indo-European common form for both male and female English pronouns" (p. 783). While arguing for the "goodness of fit" (p. 783) of co. Spencer acknowledges that "there is currently one exception in our language to this meaning of co-coed, in which the form has been bastardized and debased from its source" (p. 783). A clinical psychologist is assuredly not an expert in psycholinguistics, but one could reasonably argue the following: The concept of bastardy with all of its connotative meaning, including debased, derives from patriarchal, patrilineal, male primary societies and history. In short, it is a sexist concept. Ours is a difficult language to use and avoid the expression of bias. Perhaps we ought to be gentler with those who are trying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between instructional language and primary students' learning.

Causal modeling was used to examine how primary students' language ability interacted with pace and redundancy of instructional language during an expository science lesson to explain students' attention and learning. Language ability and pace of the instructional language, mediated by students' attention to the lesson, accounted for significant variance in learning outcomes. Higher language ability related to greater learning. Overall, slow-paced instructional language was positively related to learning, but students attended less to it than to fast-paced talk. Students with special needs attended significantly less and learned less, whereas students not so identified attended slightly less but learned more. Teachers' talk matters, but because instructional language impacts differentially on students, heuristics for modifying it are not straightforward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing.

Gender schema theory proposes that the phenomenon of sex typing derives, in part, from gender-based schematic processing— a generalized readiness to process information on the basis of the sex-linked associations that constitute the gender schema. In particular, the theory proposes that sex typing results from the fact that the self-concept itself is assimilated in the gender schema. Several studies are described, including 2 experiments with 96 male and 96 female undergraduates, that demonstrate that sex-typed individuals do, in fact, have a greater readiness to process information—including information about the self—in terms of the gender schema. It is speculated that such gender-based schematic processing derives, in part, from the society's ubiquitous insistence on the functional importance of the gender dichotomy. The political implications of gender schema theory and its relationship to the concept of androgyny are discussed. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An examination of racial/ethnic and gender bias on curriculum-based measurement of reading.

Examined racial/ethnic and gender bias on curriculum-based measurement (CBM) of reading with African American and Caucasian male and female students across grades 2–5. Simultaneous multiple regression analyses were conducted by grade to examine group differences on CBM as an estimate of reading comprehension. Regression equations were estimated with CBM, gender, race/ethnicity, and the interactions of gender and race/ethnicity with CBM. Results of this study indicated that CBM fails as an unbiased indicator of current reading comprehension. Although no evidence of bias was found at grades 2–3, intercept bias was found for racial/ethnic groups at grades 4–5, and intercept and slope bias were found for gender at grade 5. Implications of these results suggest that the meaning of CBM scores differs across race/ethnicity or gender, or both, at certain grade levels. The results also suggest that at grade 5, CBM performance overestimates the reading comprehension of girls and underestimates that of boys. Mean differences between genders were much greater at lower levels of CBM performance than at higher levels. These findings raise issues concerning the use of CBM as a screening measure and in determining eligibility for and termination of special education and related services. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dental students' attitude to gender roles

This investigation assessed attitudes held by United States women and men dental students toward professional and sex role concepts. The concepts included: female dental student, male dental student, dentist, adult woman, adult man, wife and husband. These attitudes were evaluated and compared in the context of the students' current and future professional roles and their sex roles. Although there were several differences in attitudes between the two subject groups, the results suggest that the women and men dental students viewed their various roles as consistent with one another. It is particularly important to note that the women dental student is viewed by both gender groups as having professional and sex roles which do not conflict.     

Increasing Reading Comprehension and Engagement Through Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction.

Based on an engagement perspective of reading development, we investigated the extent to which an instructional framework of combining motivation support and strategy instruction (Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction--CORI) influenced reading outcomes for third-grade children. In CORI, five motivational practices were integrated with six cognitive strategies for reading comprehension. In the first study, we compared this framework to an instructional framework emphasizing Strategy Instruction (SI), but not including motivation support. In the second study, we compared CORI to SI and to a traditional instruction group (TI), and used additional measures of major constructs. In both studies, class-level analyses showed that students in CORI classrooms were higher than SI and/or TI students on measures of reading comprehension, reading motivation, and reading strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender roles as mediators of sex differences in expressions of pathology.

Tested the extent to which gender role attributes and gender role ideology account for sex differences in internally directed psychological distress and in externally directed deviant behavior in a random sample of 2,013 adolescents. Results indicate that gender roles substantially mediate sex differences in both types of pathology: Masculine instrumental attributes reduce internalized distress, whereas feminine expressive attributes reduce externalized behavior problems. In addition, conventional gender role attitudes were positively related to externalizing problems among male adolescents, but were unrelated to pathology among female adolescents. These associations were largely equivalent across Black and White racial groups and across age groups (13–19 yrs). Two alternative theoretical models linking gender roles and pathology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does concept-oriented reading instruction increase strategy use and conceptual learning from text?

The authors define reading engagement as the mutual support of motivations, strategies, and conceptual knowledge during reading. To increase reading engagement, a collaborative team designed a year-long integration of reading/language arts and science instruction (Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction, CORI). The authors compared students who received this instruction to similar students who received traditionally organized instruction aimed toward the same objectives. A path analysis showed that CORI had a positive effect on strategy use and text comprehension for students at Grades 3 and 5 when accounting for past achievement and prior knowledge. CORI also had a positive, indirect effect on conceptual knowledge mediated by strategy use, and this instruction facilitated conceptual transfer indirectly through several paths simultaneously. The findings are discussed in relation to a growing literature on instructional contexts for motivated strategy use and conceptual learning from text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Report of the task force on sex bias and sex-role stereotyping in psychotherapeutic practice.

Surveyed sex bias among psychotherapists in treating women patients, and found that both male and female therapists showed sexist attitudes. Task force recommendations for altering this situation are presented. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effective Reading Comprehension Instruction: Examining Child x Instruction Interactions.

This study examined the effect of 3rd-grade language arts instruction on growth in children's reading comprehension skills and the degree to which the impact of instruction depended on the language and reading skills children brought to the classroom. Classrooms were observed in the fall, winter, and spring, and language arts activities were coded using multiple dimensions of instruction. Overall, the effect of instruction depended on children's fall reading comprehension scores. Children with average to low fall reading comprehension scores achieved greater growth in classrooms with more time spent on teacher-managed reading comprehension instructional activities but demonstrated less growth in classrooms with more time spent on child-managed reading comprehension activities. Research and classroom instruction implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-national variation in the size of sex differences in values: Effects of gender equality.

How does gender equality relate to men’s and women’s value priorities? It is hypothesized that, for both sexes, the importance of benevolence, universalism, stimulation, hedonism, and self-direction values increases with greater gender equality, whereas the importance of power, achievement, security, and tradition values decreases. Of particular relevance to the present study, increased gender equality should also permit both sexes to pursue more freely the values they inherently care about more. Drawing on evolutionary and role theories, the authors postulate that women inherently value benevolence and universalism more than men do, whereas men inherently value power, achievement, and stimulation more than women do. Thus, as gender equality increases, sex differences in these values should increase, whereas sex differences in other values should not be affected by increases in gender equality. Studies of 25 representative national samples and of students from 68 countries confirmed the hypotheses except for tradition values. Implications for cross-cultural research on sex differences in values and traits are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers”: Correction.

Reports an error in "Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers" by Christine Logel, Gregory M. Walton, Steven J. Spencer, Emma C. Iserman, William von Hippel and Amy E. Bell (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2009[Jun], Vol 96[6], 1089-1103). The affiliation for William von Hippel is incorrect. The affiliation should have been University of Queensland. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2009-07435-001.) Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person’s many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women’s performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women’s underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women’s performance in school and at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 97(4) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2009-16971-002). The affiliation for William von Hippel is incorrect. The affiliation should have been University of Queensland.] Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person’s many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women’s performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women’s underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women’s performance in school and at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student directed learning from biographical information systems.

Compared the effect of a student-directed instructional approach to a system-directed approach by studying how 64 high school seniors learned about Freud through an information system. The effect of student conceptual level (CL) was also investigated by use of an extreme group design. The student-directed approach was superior for knowledge acquisition, but no differences due to instructional approach were found for comprehension and synthesis. High CL Ss were superior to low CL Ss at all levels, thus emphasizing the need to consider both the characteristics of the learner and the level of behavioral objective in evaluating instructional approaches. (French summary) (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of counselor sex, race, and language style on black students in initial interviews.

Hypothesized that greater counselor-subject compatibility in race, sex, and language would result in greater client satisfaction and depth of exploration. Ss were 37 black students in a special program for the disadvantaged at a leading eastern state university and 3 black male, 2 black female, 6 white male, and 3 white female counselors. Data were analyzed using the multivariate analysis of covariance with counselor sex and race the independent variables and client depth of self-exploration and satisfaction the dependent variables. Covariates were counselor's level of facilitative conditions and comprehension of nonstandard English. Results indicate that Ss preferred black counselors to a significantly greater degree than white counselors and that they explored themselves in greater depth with female counselors (p     

Sexism in graduate admissions: The letter of recommendation.

Two experienced raters examined the letters of recommendation of 38 female and 85 male students admitted to graduate study for sexist comments. Examples of sexist statements made in regard to female candidates are presented. The effect of such statements on admissions and retention is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex and gender in the college classroom: A quantitative analysis of faculty–student interactions and perceptions.

Students and instructors from 24 classrooms across 8 departments at a major university were observed in this study to (a) assess for sex differences in faculty–student interactions and in students' perceptions of their college classroom environment, (b) compare student perceptions of their college classroom interaction patterns with observed faculty–student interactions, and (c) assess a variety of demographic characteristics together to determine their singular and/or interactive effects on faculty–student interaction patterns and student perceptions. Male and female students did not differ in their classroom participation or perceptions, and instructors did not interact differently with the male and female students. Student perceptions strongly correlated with their own behaviors and with instructor behaviors. Classroom interactions and student perceptions varied on the basis of different demographic characteristics including instructor sex, class size, instructor monitoring of gender–race equity in the classroom, gender relevance of the course, and the sex ratio of the class. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)