Kristen C. Kling

• University of Minnesota

Women typically earn higher grades than men, even though they tend to score lower than men on the SAT, a pattern known as the female underprediction effect (FUE). In three samples, we tested our hypothesis that gender differences in Conscientiousness can explain this effect. Within each sample, we created a regression-based measure of under (vs. ov...

A newly developed brief measure of nursing facility (NF) resident self-reported quality of life (QOL) has been proposed for inclusion in a modified version of the minimum data set (MDS). There is considerable interest in determining whether it is possible to develop indicators of QOL that are more convenient and less expensive than direct, in-perso...

We used measures created to assess the quality of life (QOL) of nursing home residents to distinguish among nursing facilities. We statistically adjusted scores for 10 QOL domains derived from standardized interviews with nursing home residents for age, gender, activities of daily living functioning, cognitive functioning, and length of stay, and t...

The current studies were designed to examine the influence of apparent gender on the interpretation of ambiguous emotional expressions. Participants rated the intensity of emotions that were expressed in two versions of the same emotional expression, in which hair style and clothing were altered to manipulate gender. The emotional expression in eac...

This study investigates the influence of personality on adjustment to a particular life transition, community relocation. Participants were 285 women (average age=69.5) who were interviewed once before they moved, and then multiple times after the move. Within the context of this multiwave design, personality traits were used to predict changes in...

Quality of life (QOL) is a goal for nursing home residents, but measures are needed to tap this phenomenon. In-person QOL interviews were attempted for 1988 residents, stratified by cognitive functioning, from 40 nursing homes in five states. Likert-type response options were used with reversion to dichotomous responses when necessary; z-score tran...

Women’s educational and occupational achievements are crucial to the economic productivity and prosperity of the nation, as well as to the mental health of women and their families. In this article we review psychological research on motivation and on educational achievement, focusing on gender and the contributions that have been made by feminist...

Two analyses were conducted to examine gender differences in global self-esteem. In analysis I, a computerized literature search yielded 216 effect sizes, representing the testing of 97,121 respondents. The overall effect size was 0.21, a small difference favoring males. A significant quadratic effect of age indicated that the largest effect emerge...

In this article, graduate students and one faculty member respond to the innovative methods presented in this issue. We identify three theoretical and methodological tensions that shape our interest in and willingness to work with these methods. The first questions whether the strengths of doing qualitative research outweigh the limitations. The se...

Theories about the self-concept suggest that different aspects of the self are organized according to importance, or psychological centrality. The ways in which psychological centrality can change and how these changes are associated with psychological well-being were investigated in a sample of aging women who had experienced community relocation....

Two distinctive late-life challenges, community relocation and caring for an adult child with mental retardation, were studied to determine their influence on coping and well-being. These challenges differ in terms of their normativeness, duration, and whether they were expected. Data from 2 ongoing longitudinal studies (N = 449) were used to test...

Two distinctive late-life challenges, community relocation and caring for an adult child with mental retardation, were studied to determine their influence on coping and well-being. These challenges differ in terms of their normativeness, duration, and whether they were expected. Data from 2 ongoing longitudinal studies (N = 449) were used to test...

In compartmentalized self-organization, positive and negative self-beliefs are separated into distinct categories (i.e., self-aspects), so that each self-aspect contains primarily positive or primarily negative beliefs. In evaluatively integrative organization, self-aspect categories contain a mixture of positive and negative beliefs. Positive-comp...

In compartmentalized self-organization, positive and negative self-beliefs are separated into distinct categories (i.e., self-aspects), so that each self-aspect contains primarily positive or primarily negative beliefs. In evaluatively integrative organization, self-aspect categories contain a mixture of positive and negative beliefs. Positive-comp...