Michael McCarrey

Sex role attitudes of self and those inferred of peers, performance, and career opportunities as reported by women in nontraditional vs. traditional training programs

Compared to 135 women in traditional training programs (health care — nursing assistantship), the 151 women in nontraditional training programs (trades and technology — welding, drafting, electronics engineering technology, air conditioning technology, metal fabrication, etc.) were expected to report more egalitarian sex role attitudes and to perceive their peers in the program as more egalitarian also. They were expected to demonstrate greater academic success than traditional women in these nontraditional programs. Overall support was found with the exception that nontraditional women in the nontraditional program expected more difficulties than the traditional women outside than program. These findings were interpreted as reflecting person by environment fit and the consensual validation of sex role attitudes made possible by perceived similar-minded peers. The greater difficulties foreseen by women in the nontraditional program suggested systemic discrimination in the work force outweighed person by environment fit, in the womens assessment of nontraditional career opportunities.

Personal Values of Canadian Anglophone and Francophone Employees and Ethnolinguistic Group Membership, Sex, and Position Level

Summary The influence of ethnolinguistic group membership, sex, and position level on terminal and instrumental value hierarchies was investigated. Value profile data from 690 Anglophones and 250 Francophones working coast-to-coast in the Public Service of Canada sector reflected high overall value similarity and parallelism across ethnolinguistic, sex, and position level groupings. At the same time the distinctiveness of the groups was noted. Francophones gave a greater importance to social value orientation, and Anglophones to a more personal one, while females emphasized a more interpersonal value orientation and males a more immediate need-gratification orientation. Supervisors stressed a more delayed “work ethic” gratification orientation, while recruit level employees stressed a more interpersonal immediate need-gratification orientation. Results are discussed in view of multiple past and present primary and secondary socialization experiences.

Relations of Altruistic versus Competitive Values, Course of Study, and Behavioral Intentions to Help or Compete

Three altruistic and three competitive instrumental values from the Rokeach Survey of Values were rank ordered by 253 undergraduate students. On a separate occasion they also responded to an invitation from a different person to volunteer for either an altruistic or a competitive task involving 10 to 20 hours of their time. Value orientation was significantly related to course of study as 60% of the Business Students espoused the predominantly individual/competitive value orientation, while 74% of the Nursing students espoused the predominant social altruistic value orientation. The Fisher exact test of the behavioral intention to volunteer indicated a significant congruency between the type of instrumental values the person reported and the kind of activity chosen.

Relationship of Client-Perceived Facilitative Conditions on Outcome of Behaviorally Oriented Assertive Training

This study investigated the enhancement of assertive outcome via the addition of emphasis on development of a therapist-client facilitative relationship. Three assertive conditions were run for 8 wk. at 2 hr. per week. One condition concluded sessions with a 15-min. discussion, another with 15 min. facilitative interchange, the third in the usual behavioral training manner. All three used modeling, role-playing, imagery, and feedback. Significant changes in assertion were noted in all three conditions. While gains between conditions were not significant, clients, irrespective of treatment, who perceived higher levels of facilitative conditions had lower post-treatment scores of discomfort associated with assertive behavior. Results suggest support for an enhancer or additive effects of a facilitative relationship between therapist and client on change in assertiveness following the behaviorally oriented training program. Training in assertiveness was conceptualized as a two-stage process, an initial stage of realistic self-assessment and assessment of the situation, followed by a stage in which acquisition and practice predominate.

Self-Enhancement, Self-Protection as a Function of Esteem-Related Feedback and Success Contingency

This experiment was conducted to assess the impact of esteem-related feedback and success-contingency on the self-protective/self-enhancing aspects of self-handicapping behavior. Following feedback about either contingent or noncontingent success on an intellectual task provided by a male experimenter, 67 male subjects randomly received either ego-enhancing or ego-diminishing feedback on an unrelated task (social skills) provided by a female experimenter. It was hypothesized that the effect of esteem-related feedback on an unrelated task (social skills) provided by the female experimenter would generalize to other ego functions and activate self-protective/self-enhancing processes. It was predicted that those individuals whose self-esteem had been lowered, whether in the conditions of contingent or noncontingent success would self-protect more in that they would be more inclined (1) to attribute their success externally, (2) to self-handicap by choosing the performance-inhibiting drug more often, (3) to show a lower expectancy of future success on retest, and (4) to self-protect by refusing more often to volunteer in a proposed high-risk experiment than those subjects whose self-esteem had been raised via ego-enhancing feedback on the unrelated task. Analysis showed that esteem-related affect did not generalize from the intellectual domain to the social-skills area or from the male to the female experimenter. The findings are discussed in terms of the compartmentalization of affect such that risk-taking reflected self-protection on tasks associated with the female experimenter while the remaining variables associated with the male experimenter showed no such effects.

Devaluation by Women of Self-Reported Criticism Skills.

Abstract Using behavioral role play, in vivo, and self-reported giving and receiving criticism behaviors, we examined Canadian male and female students with comparable fear of negative evaluation for sex differences. We hypothesized that men and women would demonstrate equivalent role play and in vivo criticism skills but that women would devalue their skills on self-report measures on the theoretical grounds that possessing criticism skills would render them less likeable as women. The results supported the hypothesis.

Assertion training outcome and generalization effects under didactic vs. Facilitative training conditions

One hundred and eleven college undergraduates (25% male) participated in one of two cognitive behavioral training programs, which included behavior rehearsal, modelling, coaching, cognitive-restructuring, and emphasis on the transferability of skills. Neither self-report nor behavioral outcome differences between the facilitative vs. the didactic approaches were noted. Both programs produced impressive self-report and behavioral gains in comparison to pretest scores; these gains were maintained 1 to 2 years after the program. There was also evidence of verbal and nonverbal bilateral transfer between request behavior and refusal behavior in the short term. The generalization results were interpreted on the basis that the distinctive components of request behavior (such as enunicating a statement of a problem and a specific request) are more difficult than those of refusal behavior, such than there is transfer of request training to refusal behavior, but not vice versa. Request behavior involves the mobilization and personal initiation of a complex interaction with another person rather than the more reactive non-compliance with the initiative of another, as is the case in refusal behavior.

SPOUSES' VALUE SYSTEMS: SIMILARITY, TYPE AND ATTRIBUTED MARITAL ADJUSTMENT

The present study investigated the effect of similarity of either terminal or instrumental value systems on attributed marital adjustment and the effects of various degrees of similarity of value systems on attributed marital adjustment. A total of 447 undergraduate students were administered a packet which contained the value profiles of two “bogus couples” and were asked to rate attributions regarding each couples marital adjustment. The written attributions indicated degree of similarity was significant. Results are discussed in terms of Byrnes (1971) attraction paradigm and Rokeachs (1973) theory of values.

Short versus long term gains of a cognitive-behavioral social skills program targeting the giving and receiving of criticism

Seventy-four university undergraduates (40.2% male and 59.8% female) reporting difficulty in giving and receiving criticism were randomly assigned to either a training group consisting of cognitive behavioral criticism skills including behavior rehearsal, modeling, coaching, cognitive restructuring, or to a control group. Dependent measures were given at pre-test, post-test, and one year follow-up. Included were self-report measures consisting of Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE), Criticism Concerns Scale (CCS), Criticism Self-Esteem Giving and Receiving Scales, and behavioral role-play measures consisting of judges’ global ratings of subject’s verbal and nonverbal criticism behaviors in role-play scenarios with a live actor. Results for the self-report measures, FNE, and Criticism Self-Esteem Receiving showed both training program and control groups improved at post-test, but only the training program group maintained gains at one year follow-up. For the CCS and Criticism Self-Esteem Giving, the training program group improved over time, yet was only significantly different from control group at post-test. Results were discussed in terms of the pro-active nature of giving criticism versus the more reactive nature of receiving criticism.

Consistency between Self-Report and Actual Proficiency in Giving and Taking Criticism

This study investigated the level of consistency between demonstrated proficiency in giving and taking criticism and related personal beliefs and feelings about doing so. Accordingly, the proficiency of 87 female and 45 male college students was tested in terms of the extent to which they actually did give and take criticism effectively in response to a standardized interaction with a confederate. There were no effects associated with sex of confederate; men were more effective in taking criticism. Those who showed greater skills had previously reported higher aspiration for improvement and greater difficulty in giving and taking criticism as well as higher social anxiety and irrational beliefs. Significant low eta coefficients suggested that higher performers set higher goals for themselves, felt more risk, and reported more social anxiety and irrational beliefs.