Jayne E. Stake

Sexual Harassment on Campus: Individual Differences in Attitudes and Beliefs

Attitudes about sexual harassment were assessed in a group of 224 undergraduate students. Participants responded to scenarios in which a male professor made inappropriate sexual advances to a female student. Participants then completed rating scales and questions concerning attributions of blame for harassment, educational and emotional effects, and strategies for coping with harassment. The students were divided into high and low groups on the basis of their scores on the Performance Self-Esteem Scale (PSES) and Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS). The subject groups most tolerant of harassment and least aware of potential harm to its victims were high self-esteem women with traditional sex-role attitudes. Participants also provided information as to their own harassment experiences. Womens reported reactions to actual harassment were consistent with their responses to scenarios. Results are discussed in the context of prevailing sex-role standards.

The Ability/Performance Dimension of Self-Esteem: Implications for Women's Achievement Behavior.

A 33-item measure, the Performance-Self-Esteem Scale (PSES), was developed to tap self-evaluations of ability and performance. Evidence from four samples of undergraduates (a total of 224 women and 236 men) indicate that the PSES measures a separate, distinct dimension of self-esteem. As predicted, undergraduate males scored higher on the scale than undergraduate women (p < .003), although this difference was significant for juniors and seniors only. Implications for research related to womens achievement-related behaviors and the college experience are considered.

Changes in Student Social Attitudes, Activism, and Personal Confidence in Higher Education: The Role of Women’s Studies

Goals of higher education have included the development of understanding and acceptance of diverse groups, commitment to working for social justice, and personal confidence. The effectiveness of women’s studies (WS) and non-women’s studies (NWS) classes in bringing about these student outcomes was assessed on 32 college campuses; 548 WS and 241 NWS students participated. Both repeated (pretest, posttest, and follow-up) and subjective change measures indicated that WS students increased more than NWS students in egalitarian attitudes toward women and other stigmatized groups, awareness of sexism and other forms of discrimination, activism for social causes, and intention to engage in social activism. Teachers’ pedagogical practices, as assessed by students, related to student outcomes but accounted for only a small portion of the difference between WS and NWS classes. Implications for higher education are considered.

APPEARANCE SELF‐ATTITUDES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN AMERICAN WOMEN: MEDIA COMPARISONS AND INTERNALIZATION OF BEAUTY IDEALS

African American (AA) women have reported less body image disturbance than European American (EA) women, but questions remain about the nature and extent of this difference. This study examined differences in the body image of 80 AA women and 89 EA women with an improved methodology that controlled for body size, distinguished between satisfaction with and importance of body features, and included nonweight (e.g., hair texture, skin color) as well as weight-related features. Results provide evidence that, in contrast to AA women, EA women (a) were more dissatisfied with both weight and specific appearance features, (b) compared themselves more often to media beauty figures and internalized Western beauty standards more, and (c) showed a significant relation between media comparisons and body dissatisfaction. Internalization of Western beauty ideals was related to body dissatisfaction in both groups of women.

Integrating Expressiveness and Instrumentality in Real-Life Settings: A New Perspective on the Benefits of Androgyny

Personality trait research has failed to substantiate a link between androgyny and well-being. Using an alternate, social context approach, the present study investigated (a) positive and negative aspects of situations in which expectations for androgynous behavior were salient (dual expectation situations), and (b) associations between gender role coping strategies and well-being in these situations. Interviews were conducted with 124 female and 70 male undergraduates, most of whom were African American (14%) or White American (81%). Participants reported significantly more negative aspects of the process of coping with dual expectation situations and more positive aspects of the outcomes of the situations. Androgynous coping strategies were associated with greater positive well-being and lesser negative well-being than were instrumental or indeterminate strategies. Well-being scores of expressive strategists were not significantly different from those of androgynous strategists.

Teacher-Pupil Relationships in the Elementary School Classroom: Teacher-Gender and Pupil-Gender Differences

This study examined teacher-sex differences in attitudes and behaviors toward male and female pupils. Observation data were obtained from the classrooms of 11 female and 10 male upper grade elementary school teachers. Following the 4½ hours of observation periods, the teachers described their attitudes toward their pupils on 7-point scales. No evidence was found for teacher bias toward pupils of either gender. A number of significant findings and nonsignificant trends combined to suggest that (1) boys received more reprimands than girls, and (2) female teachers were more positive than male teachers in their attitudes and behaviors toward their pupils. The combination of observational and self-report methodologies appeared to be useful in gaining a more complete understanding of teacher-pupil relationships in the classroom.

The Women's Studies Experience: Personal and Professional Gains for Women and Men.

This study included 212 women and 38 men students from nine womens studies classes and 101 women and 35 men from nine non-womens studies classes. At pretesting and posttesting students completed the Performance Self-Esteem Scale (PSES) and measures of their educational and job certainty and motivation. Comparison students were similar to womens studies students in having a woman teacher and having an interest in the womens studies curriculum. At posttesting womens studies students showed greater gains in PSES scores (p < .01) and in job motivation and job certainty (p < .01) than did the comparison students. The results support the value of womens studies for men as well as women students.

Development and validation of the Six-Factor Self-Concept Scale for adults

The Six-Factor Self-Concept Scale is a multidimensional measure of adult self-concept that was designed to have broad applicability across life settings, roles, and activities. Developed through a series of exploratory factor analytic studies, the measure consists of six subscales: Likability, Morality, Task Accomplishment, Giftedness, Power, and Vulnerability. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the 36-item, six-factor structure provided a reasonably good fit for data derived from a sample of 365 noncollege adults. Factor structures of correlation matrixes for men and women and for undergraduates and noncollege adults were highly similar. The subscales were tested for distinctiveness, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, and divergent validity. Evidence for all five qualities is reported. The subscales differentially predicted childhood memories, recent behaviors and events, and ratings by knowledgeable observers.

Mathematics and Self-Esteem: Implications for Women's Career Choice

The relationship of math participation and success to self-esteem and career goals is examined in a sample of 64 women and 52 men college students at the end of their sophomore year. No gender differences were found in math anxiety or perceptions of the usefulness of mathematics, but women were less likely to select a math-related career goal. Among the men students, math participation and self-assessments of math ability were positively related to more general self-estimates of competence; among women, these variables were not related significantly. Womens choices for math-related careers were more closely associated with scholastic ability and math background than were mens career choices. These results are discussed in the context of societal pressures and supports for men and women in regard to math participation.

Women's self-estimates of competence and the resolution of the career/home conflict

Abstract Relationships among womens role factors, self-estimates of competence, and career commitment were investigated. Eighty female business students and 111 business alumnae completed the Attitudes Toward Women Scale, the Performance-Self-Esteem Scale (PSES), and questions regarding home and career choices. As predicted, PSES scores were related to extent of career commitment, and PSES scores mediated the relationship between career commitment and womens role factors. Among high PSES subjects, career commitment was positively related to nontraditional sex-role attitudes and negatively related to family involvement. Among low PSES subjects, the relationship between career commitment and womens role factors was weaker. Implications for womens career development are discussed.