Gender, performance level, and competence standards in task groups.
Male and female undergraduates (N=240) participated in opposite-sex dyads and worked on a computerized visual task presented as "masculine." Participants in the eight experimental conditions received either higher or lower scores than their partner; this phase was omitted in the two control conditions. In turn, half of the experimental groups received universal competence-standards from the experimenter, while the other half set standards by themselves. In the second phase, the two persons worked on the task as a team. The central hypothesis is that subject-generated standards will favor the men, and that this will result in the women being perceived as having less competence even if achieving the same performance-level as men; this inequality is predicted to no longer be maintained in the groups with experimenter-set standards. Measures include rejection of influence, perceived ability in self and partner, and level of acceptance of both the stated sex-linkage of the task and the experimenter-set standard. Results and their interpretation are presented and discussed in detail.
Foschi
Martha
M
Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, 6303 N.W. Marine Drive, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z1. mfoschi@shaw.ca
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008838:Microcomputers; D011287:Prejudice; D011361:Professional Competence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012015:Reference Standards; D012737:Sex Factors; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult