Abigail J. Stewart

Traits and Motives: Toward an Integration of Two Traditions in Personality Research

After reviewing classic and current conceptions of trait (as measured by questionnaires) and motive (as measured by the Thematic Apperception Test [TAT] or other imaginative verbal behavior), the authors suggest that these 2 concepts reflect 2 fundamentally different elements of personality--conceptually distinct and empirically unrelated. The authors propose that traits and motives interact in the prediction of behavior: Traits channel the behavioral expression of motives throughout the life course. The authors illustrate this interactive hypothesis in 2 longitudinal studies, focusing on the broad trait of extraversion and the 2 social motives of affiliation and power. In interaction with extraversion, both motives show predicted and replicated relations to independently measured life outcomes in the domains of relationships and careers. Extraversion facilitates unconflicted motive expression, whereas introversion deflects social motives away from their characteristic goals and creates difficulties in goal attainment.

The Climate for Women in Academic Science: The Good, the Bad, and the Changeable

Deficits theory posits that women scientists have not yet achieved parity with men scientists because of structural aspects of the scientific environment that provide them with fewer opportunities and more obstacles than men. The current study of 208 faculty women scientists tested this theory by examining the effect of personal negative experiences and perceptions of the workplace climate on job satisfaction, felt influence, and productivity. Hierarchical multiple regression results indicated that women scientists experiencing more sexual harassment and gender discrimination reported poorer job outcomes. Additionally, perceptions of a generally positive, nonsexist climate, as well as effective leadership, were related to positive job outcomes after controlling for harassment and discrimination. We discuss implications for the retention and career success of women in academic science.

Characterizing concerns about post-cessation weight gain: results from a national survey of women smokers

Differences among adult women smokers with differing levels of concern about post-cessation weight gain were investigated in a national random-digit-dialing survey. To avoid defining weight concerns in terms of possible etiologies or contributory factors, respondents were stratified using a single item querying concern about post-cessation weight gain; 39% described themselves as very concerned (VC), 28% as somewhat concerned (SC), and 33% as not concerned (NC). Significant between-groups differences were detected for measures of weight and body image, eating patterns and weight control practices, and nicotine dependence, but not for depression. Differences, primarily between VC and NC, were also detected for several weight-related smoking variables, including importance of weight as a factor in initiation, smoking as a weight control strategy, increased appetite and weight gain as withdrawal symptoms, willingness to gain weight upon quitting, self-efficacy about relapse in the face of weight gain, and readiness to quit smoking. Most differences persisted even after adjusting for body mass index and nicotine dependence. Although the importance of thinness was rated higher by weight-concerned women, the difference did not reach significance. Rather, what differentiated groups was the importance of overall body image, suggesting a larger pattern of preoccupation with body image that may not be captured by queries about weight concerns alone. We conclude that weight-concerned women smokers will be especially unlikely to seek treatment or attempt self-quitting; and that redirecting attention to other aspects of body image is likely to be more helpful than attempting to divert attention away from body image.

Meanings of Political Participation among Black and White Women: Political Identity and Social Responsibility

This study examined the correlates of midlife political participation among 64 Black and 107 White women of the college classes of 1967-1973. Compared with White women, Black women scored higher on political participation, generativity, power discontent, and politicization. Factor analysis of personality and political attitude variables yielded three factors labeled Political Identity, Power Discontent, and Social Responsibility. Adult political participation was regressed on level of student activism and index scores of political identity, power discontent, and social responsibility. For both racial groups, social responsibility was associated with midlife political participation. For White women, political identity was also related; for Black women, student activism bore a significant relationship. The findings suggest that Black and White womens historical and political contexts imbued their political activities with different meanings.

Generativity and social motives in young adults

Different forms of generativity described in the writings of E. H. Erikson (1950/1963) and J. Kotre (1984) were related to agentic and communal motives in a sample of young adults (M=28 years old). For women, the power motive related to parenting, whereas the achievement motive was associated with forms of generative expression outside of the household. The opposite pattern of achievement and power motive relationships was found for men, although in a weaker form. The affiliation-intimacy motive, on the other hand, related both to womens parenting and societal concerns. Differences in expectations and opportunities for young men and women may account for these gender differences. The results for women support D. P. McAdamss (1988) suggestion that agency and communion are important for understanding generativity

Antecedents and contexts of generativity motivation at midlife

A semiprojective measure of generativity motivation--the desire to contribute to the welfare of society--was developed and applied to a longitudinal sample of educated women. In support of previous theory that generativity represents a fusion of agency and communion, generativity at midlife was related to a combination of adolescent scores on achievement, affiliation, and power motivation. The measure was also related to independent indexes of generative wishes and Q-sort generativity. The importance of contextualizing generativity motivation is demonstrated: Generative women with careers found gratification through work, whereas generative women not working in careers experienced gratification through parenting. Generativity was also related to political consciousness. Finally, as young adults, generative women expressed gratitude toward mentors. The authors discuss theoretical implications for E. H. Eriksons (1950) concept of psychosocial generativity.

Gender differences in time spent on parenting and domestic responsibilities by high-achieving young physician-researchers

The traditional family unit, headed by a breadwinning husband and stay-at-home wife, now characterizes a minority of American households (1). Women have entered the workforce in large numbers over the past few decades, and family structures are considerably more varied than in the past. In families headed by a married couple, responsibility for parenting and domestic activities has been more evenly divided (2). Nevertheless, women in the general population still spend more time on parenting and housework than men (3). Scholars have noted that this may reflect rational economic calculations in the face of a market that still pays men more than women (4), or it may be driven by deeper sociocultural barriers to changes in traditional gender roles (5). In elite professions, such as medicine, where earning potential and professional demands are high and members have self-selected for career commitment by pursuing lengthy training, one may expect to observe less, if any, gender difference in time spent on domestic responsibilities. A recent study of surgeons suggested that although burnout rates were similar among men and women, women were more likely to experience workhome conflicts (6). However, little research to date has considered how highly career-driven contemporary male and female physician-researchers allocate time to professional and domestic responsibilities. Examining gender differences in the nonprofessional responsibilities of physicians is particularly important because of growing evidence that female academic physicians are still not achieving career success at the same rate as their male colleagues (710). Understanding gender differences in nonprofessional responsibilities may help to explain this gap. We investigated these issues in a survey study. To minimize variability in commitment to career and nature of work, we focused on physician-researchers who had received career development awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We selected both K08 and K23 awards, which are highly selective grants made to early-career researchers who hold clinical doctorate degrees to support their career development. We focused on persons who recently received these awards to capture the experiences of Generation X because most recent K award recipients would have been raised when it was common for mothers to work outside the home. Their attitudes have been documented to be relatively egalitarian, both in general (11, 12) and specifically within the medical profession (1316). In so doing, we investigated whether gender differences exist in time allocation within a population in which differences may not be expected and, if present, would lend insights about the causes of gender differences in domestic labor more generally and relevant information for policy development specifically within the medical profession. Methods Data Collection We identified 1719 recipients of new K08 and K23 awards from 2006 to 2009 using the NIH RePORTER (Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results) database. After approval from the institutional review board, we conducted Internet searches and telephone calls that identified valid U.S. mailing addresses for 1708 persons, to whom we mailed a questionnaire and

Women or feminists? Assessing women's group consciousness

50 incentive. Nonrespondents received follow-up mailings (17). We merged survey responses to data previously collected from RePORTER. Measures We designed the questionnaires after review of the relevant literature; consideration of other instruments used to determine time allocation, responsibilities, and the outcomes of academic careers (18, 19); and cognitive pretesting (20). The final questionnaire included 173 items that assessed demographics, education, time allocation, mentoring experiences, family responsibilities, career satisfaction, and work environment (Appendix Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4). Appendix Table 1. Multivariable Linear Regression Model to Explain Time Spent on Research Appendix Table 2. Multivariable Logistic Regression Model to Explain Time Spent on Teaching Greater Than the Median for Married or Partnered Respondents With Children Appendix Table 3. Frequency and Percentage of Respondents Reporting Teaching Time Greater Than 1 Hour per Week Appendix Table 4. Multivariable Linear Regression Model to Explain Time Spent on Clinical Duties for Married or Partnered Respondents With Children Time Allocation To evaluate time spent on domestic labor, we asked how many hours were spent on parenting and domestic tasks on a typical workday (including the evening) and on a typical weekend (including both days). Definitions were provided: Parenting includes meeting physical needs (such as feeding or bathing), as well as meeting psychosocial needs (such as talking or playing with children, driving them to activities and attending their recitals or sporting events). Domestic Tasks include cooking, cleaning, laundry, home maintenance, yard work, shopping for necessities, errands, finances and other such activities. A continuous variable reflecting weekly total time spent on parenting or domestic tasks was created. We also asked respondents to describe the percentage of all time spent on parenting or domestic tasks by the respondent, their spouse or domestic partner, employed help, relatives, and others. To evaluate time spent on paid labor, we asked respondents to think about their most frequent weekly working pattern and to estimate the total number of hours worked. We then asked how many of those hours were spent on patient care (including time spent rounding with trainees when a primary purpose is patient care), research, and teaching (defined as formal didactic teaching unrelated to patient care or research). Family Responsibilities We inquired whether respondents had children and, if so, asked for their childrens ages. We asked, Do your children require adult supervision or care? and gathered information on who provided that care during work hours (school, day care, family member, nanny or babysitter, spouse or domestic partner, or other). Satisfaction with child care arrangements was ascertained using a 5-point response scale. We also asked: When your children are ill, when school or institutional care is closed (such as during holidays or vacations), or when other disruptions in your usual child care arrangements occur, who usually stays with your children? Respondents selected 1 option: I usually do, My spouse or partner usually does, My spouse or partner and I usually alternate, A friend or neighbor usually does, I usually bring my children to work, A family member usually does, or Other. Additional items, using 5-point response scales, inquired, When you have after hours work (e.g., manuscript writing or grant writing, dinner meetings) to attend to, how easy is it for you to get such work done? (for which responses were dichotomized as difficult vs. so-so or easy) and, How often does child rearing and/or family responsibility currently interfere with your ability to get work-related things done? (for which responses were dichotomized as always, frequently, or sometimes vs. infrequently or never). Individual Characteristics We determined the respondents age (continuous), gender, specialty (grouped by nature into 5 categories as detailed elsewhere [9, 21]: medical [internal medicine and related subspecialties]; surgical [general surgery and surgical subspecialties]; hospital-based [for example, radiology, pathology, and anesthesiology fields]; relating to care of women, children, and families [family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and related subspecialties]; or basic sciences), PhD degree (yes or no), and spousal employment (full-time, part-time, or not employed) through self-report. Statistical Analysis We conducted statistical analyses using SAS, version 9.2 (SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina). We compared respondents with the remainder of the initial target population for gender, K award type and year, and institution (ranked by total NIH funding) using chi-square or Fisher exact tests for categorical data and 2-sample t tests or the Wilcoxon rank-sum test for continuous data. The analytic sample was limited to persons who held MD degrees and were still affiliated with U.S. academic institutions. We described the characteristics of this sample by gender and constructed a multivariate linear regression model to explain the time spent on domestic labor. Time spent on domestic labor was assessed graphically and using other diagnostics and was found to be normally distributed. The model was restricted to the married or partnered population with children using the following theoretically selected respondent characteristics: gender, age, age of the youngest child, number of children, weekly work hours, race, spousal employment, K award type, specialty nature, and MD or MD/PhD status. Most characteristics were categorical and modeled as indicator variables with a reference category. Continuous variables were centered at their medians. We also constructed linear regression models to test for the independent associations of gender with time spent on clinical and research activities. For time spent on teaching, we constructed a logistic regression model for the odds of spending more than the median time of 1 hour on teaching, given the lack of a sufficiently normal distribution for a linear model. We constructed CIs for proportions from categorical data using the exact binomial distribution or the multinomial distribution (22). For statistical inference, we conducted 2-tailed tests and considered P values of 0.05 or less to be significant. Role of the Funding Source This work was supported by the NIH. The funding source had no role in the design or conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; or preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. Results Of the 1719 K awardees identified, 1708 were surveyed, with 1435 of those surve

Women's Personality in Middle Age: Gender, History, and Midcourse Corrections

Social psychological research often relies on measures of group identification in assessing levels of group consciousness. However, for women, the relationship between gender identification and group consciousness may not be a straightforward one. Questionnaire data were used to examine the relationships between measures of group identity and group evaluations with other attitudinal, phenomenological, and developmental measures of feminist consciousness. Research participants were 234 undergraduate women; the majority (75%) were white and from middle-to upper-middle-class backgrounds. The results supported the hypothesis that use of the reference group “feminists,” rather than the more general group “women,” would be more strongly related to other dimensions of group consciousness in women.

If I had it to do over again . . .: Midlife review, midcourse corrections, and women's well-being in midlife

This article examines several key features of the course of adult development in the cohort of women born during the baby boom. By focusing on the women in this group and comparing their experience with that of older cohorts and research on men, the authors demonstrate the need for models of aging that take account of the inter-sections of history, gender, and individual development. Concepts proposed as universal features of middle age (midlife crisis, generativity, aging), as well as those proposed as specific to women (empty nest, menopause) are examined. Perhaps most important, certain features not commonly viewed as particularly important in womens middle aging (midlife review, identity, confident power) are shown to be central. The need for further research examining these same processes among men and different groups of women is underscored.