Sex role identity and sex-stereotyped tasks in the development of learned helplessness in women.
Eighty undergraduate females participated in a study investigating the relation of sex role identity and sex-stereotyped tasks to the development of learned helplessness in women. Half of the women from four sex role identity groups received bogus feedback and were forced to fail on a concept formation task described to them as either a male- or a female-stereotyped task; the other 40 women succeeded on the task. Failure on the concept formation task produced dysphoric mood in the women, regardless of their sex role identity and regardless of how the concept formation task was described. However, cognitive/motivational symptoms of helplessness were found only among low-masculine women who failed on a male-stereotyped task. These results are compared with previous findings and suggest that feminine-sex-typed women may be particularly susceptible to some helplessness symptoms in contexts defined as male appropriate.
D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006380:Helplessness, Learned / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D011340:Problem Solving; D013240:Stereotyping