Ariella Friedman

Gender differences in romantic jealousy.

Findings of studies of gender differences in jealousy are contradictory. In the present study, conflicting literature was addressed by distinguishing 5 dimensions of jealousy: level, trigger, experience, focus, and responses. In 4 studies, 3 in the U.S. and 1 in Israel, gender differences were explored in these 5 dimensions of romantic jealousy. Although there were no gender differences in the likelihood, frequency, duration, or intensity of jealousy, there were differences in the responses to certain jealousy-producing occasions as well as in the focus, experience, and expression of jealousy.

Effects of Helper's Sex, Subjects' Androgyny, and Self-Evaluation on Males' and Females' Willingness to Seek and Receive Help

The present study investigated the effects of sex of available helper on the willingness to seek and receive help reported by androgynous and sex-typed males and females who were categorized as being high and low in self-evaluation. Subjects received a questionnaire that included description of situations involving a need for help. For half the subjects the situation described a potential male helper, and for the other half it described a female helper. Subjects were asked to indicate how likely they were to seek help in each situation, and how they expected to feel if they received help. Results indicate that (a) males were more willing to seek and receive help from a female helper; (b) sex-typed males were less receptive, and sex-typed females were more receptive, to help; (c) relative to androgynous individuals, sex-typed individuals indicated greater willingness to seek and receive help from a female than from a male helper; and, finally, (d) these effects were more pronounced for subjects with low self-evaluation. The conceptual and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Sexuality and Motherhood: Mutually Exclusive in Perception of Women

The purpose of the present two studies was todemonstrate the existence of a split between motherhoodand sexuality in mens and womens perception of awoman, and to explore the effects gender, parental status and age have on it. In the first study,117 men and 121 women (ages 20-60) all Jewish, werepresented with one of three descriptions of a targetwoman varying her level of sexuality. They were told that she is married, has two children and worksoutside her home, and were asked to rate her on 4dimensions of mothering. In the second study, 45 men and45 women, all Jewish, were presented with one of the three descriptions of the target woman, butwithout the information about her marital/parentalstatus, and were asked to write a short story about her.The findings of the two studies demonstrate the existence of the split. Both quantitative andqualitative analyses concur in showing that sexualityand motherhood are mutually exclusive in the perceptionof women: The more sexual a woman is perceived to be, the less she is seen as a good mother.The split between sexuality and motherhood is somewhatstronger among men than among women and among parentsinvolved in active parenting than among olderparents.

Women Growing Stronger With Age: The Effect of Status in the United States and Kenya

Previous research suggests that there is a shift in the perceived balance of interpersonal power in the second half of life in favor of older women, towards equality between men and women. To see if this age shift in power is universal, a study of women in two cultures, the United States and Kenya, examined the effect of status on the shift. As an indirect measure of interpersonal power, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories were collected from 60 U.S. and 60 Kenyan women and rated by trained judges for aspects of the interpersonal power of the characters in the stories. In each country there were two groups of 15 women under age 36 and 15 women over age 44, one of higher and one of lower status. In both countries, only the higher status women showed the shift in power with age. That status modulated the shift in power with age in two different cultures is discussed in terms of the necessity for a resource base for power.

Sex differences in vulnerability and maladjustment as a function of parental investment: an evolutionary approach.

Sex differences in aspects of mental health are examined as a function of uneven parental investment in children. Relative vulnerability is a new construct mediating the influence of parental investment on mental health. Couples (129) in three stages of the family life cycle are measured by scales for parental investment, relative vulnerability, anxiety, depression, and ten psychosomatic syndromes. Results show a path of positive correlations from the parents sex to level of parental investment, to level of relative vulnerability, and to levels of anxiety and depression. Women invest more than men, and hence they are more vulnerable, anxious, and depressed. They reach the summit of their vulnerability while they have three young children. Relative vulnerability was found to have positive effects along with the negative ones and to affect women in different ways than it does men. Results are interpreted in terms of different parental strategies selected by evolution for each sex.

The Meaning of Time-Related Concepts across the Life-Span: An Israeli Sample

Three-hundred-thirty-eight Israeli participants rated five time-related concepts on Semantic Differential Scales. Participants constituted six, age-based, groups, representing different life stages: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, late adulthood, and old age. The concepts rated were: time, past, present, and future. In addition, each group rated its own life stage. Results were analyzed in terms of the relationship between age and attributed meaning of these concepts, as denoted by the three Semantic Differential dimensions: evaluation, potency, and activity. The results indicate that people of different ages differ significantly in the way they construe most of the time-related concepts. Past ratings show a significant tendency to increase with progressive age, while future ratings decrease with progressive age. The ratings of present tend to remain stable across the life-span, and the ratings of life stages are significantly lower in older groups as compared to the younger ones. Results are discussed in light of developmental processes, the role that meaning of time-related concepts play in psychological adjustment, and methodological aspects.

Increase in arab women's perceived power in the second half of life

An increase in perceived power in midlife was demonstrated among 60 middle-class Arab women in Israel. 20 of the women were young (age 20–40) 20 were middle aged (45–55) and 20 were older (60–80). Perceived power was studied using card 4 of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The TAT stories were rated on three dimensions of perceived power: security, inner strength, and interpersonal influence. Results indicate that the young Arab women ranked lowest in security and inner strength. There was a bigger difference between the young women and the two other groups than between the middle-aged and older women. In addition, all three groups, while describing men as having more interpersonal power and security, still described women as having more inner strength.

Kenyan women tell a story: Interpersonal power of women in three subcultures in Kenya

In an exploratory study of the perceived interpersonal power of women in three subcultures in Kenya, urban lower class, urban middle class, and rural traditional, a story telling technique was utilized to elicit information about the womens perceptions of their interpersonal power relative to men and their coping strategies. Theme analysis of the stories revealed group differences which may reflect the womens position in the context of social change, urbanization, and detribalization going on in Kenya. The stories of the urban lower class group indicated high vulnerability, low interpersonal power, and a strategy of compliance and submissiveness. The urban middle class women produced stories which indicated low vulnerability and high interpersonal power with a strategy of nurturance and support of partner. The theme in the stories of the rural women revolved around childbearing and showed low vulnerability and low interpersonal power relative to men. The results are discussed in terms of the negative and positive effects of social change for Kenyan women.

The shift in power with age : changes in perception of the power of women and men over the life cycle

Previous research has described an apparent shift in perceived interpersonal power towards equality between men and women later in life. This study investigated (a) whether the “shift in power with age” would appear in the Israeli kibbutz, (b) the role of the “parental emergency” in the shift, and (c) whether changes in behaviors or attitudes best account for the shift. One hundred twenty younger and older Israeli women and men, half from the city and half from the kibbutz, wrote TAT stories, which were then rated for overall power of the female and male characters, their power strategies, and their motives. A shift in perceived power with age was found in both the city and the kibbutz. Parental status reduced the power of the woman and increased the power of the man only in the city, whereas the reverse was true in the kibbutz. These results counter the “parental emergency” explanation for the shift in power with age. Furthermore, older women used traditionally feminine power strategies, but their behavior was evaluated as more powerful than the same behavior in younger women. Thus, it is not the behaviors but rather peoples evaluation of the behaviors that changes across the life span of the individual.

Cooperative and Competitive Behavior of Urban and Rural Children in Kenya

In an attempt to investigate the effect of social change on the development of competition, the present study tested 120 Kenyan children, aged 9 to 13, with a game played in groups of four that required cooperative interaction among them to obtain prizes. The children came from three subcultures: urban middle class, poor seniiurban, and rural. All three subcultures cooperated adaptively under conditions of group reward. With a change from group to individual reward, urban children competed in a nonadaptive manner, whereas the semiurban children cooperated throughout the game and the rural children were influenced by the competitive cues but were able to return to cooperation. These results, which were contrary to prediction, are compared to rural and urban differences in cooperation and competition in other countries and are discussed in terms of the effects of urbanization in Kenya.