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Psychology 320: Gender Psychology

Lecture 50

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Invitational Office Hour Invitations, by Student Number for Wednesday, March 2nd

11:30-12:30, 3:30-4:30 Kenny 2517

10852077

37493103

39003090

41075086

44740074

63846083

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1. Do males and females make different attributions for success and failure?

Achievement:

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2. discuss sex differences in attributional styles.

1. distinguish between “optimistic” and “pessimistic” attributional styles.

By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

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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).

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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.”

External, stable, global attribution: “The grading system at UBC is not fair.”

External, unstable, specific attribution: “The exam was too hard.”

Internal, unstable, specific attribution: “I didn’t study enough for the exam.”

External, stable, specific attribution: “The professor doesn’t like me.”

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

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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 (i.e., an internal, stable, global attribution).

(b) girls were more likely than boys to attribute failure to lack of ability (i.e., an internal, stable, global attribution).

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(c) this pattern of sex differences was strongest among the top math students in the sample.

(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 on their objective math performance.

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Campbell and Henry, 1999

Among college students enrolled in a “management” course, found that:

(b) females were more likely than males to attribute their success to effort (i.e., an internal, unstable, specific attribution).

(a) males were more likely than females to attribute their success to ability (i.e., an internal, stable,

global attribution).

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Rosenthal, 1995

Among managers at a financial services firm, civil engineering company, and local health authority, found that:

(b) females were more likely than males to attribute their success to effort (i.e., an internal, unstable, specific attribution).

(a) males were more likely than females to attribute their success to ability (i.e., an internal, stable,

global attribution).

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(c) females were more likely than males to attribute the success of their subordinates to

ability; males were more likely than females to attribute the success of their subordinates to effort.

(d) females (but not males) believed ability had significantly more to do with the success of their subordinates than it had to do with their own success.

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Mezulis et al., 2004

Conducted a meta-analysis of 266 papers published between 1994-2001. The papers reported 523 effect sizes, obtained from research involving 41,438 participants. Examined the influence of sex and age on the attributions. Found that:

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(a) among young children and early adolescents, there was no sex difference in attributional style.

(b) among older adolescents and adults, males were more likely than females to display an optimistic attributional style.

(c) changes in attributional style across the lifespan reflected variations in females’ attributional

tendencies rather than males’ attributional tendencies.

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1. Do males and females make different attributions for success and failure?

Achievement: