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I Can Do That: The Impact of Implicit Theories on Leadership Role Model Effectiveness
Abstract
This research investigates the role of implicit theories in influencing the effectiveness of successful role models in the leadership domain. Across two studies, the authors test the prediction that incremental theorists ("leaders are made") compared to entity theorists ("leaders are born") will respond more positively to being presented with a role model before undertaking a leadership task. In Study 1, measuring people's naturally occurring implicit theories of leadership, the authors showed that after being primed with a role model, incremental theorists reported greater leadership confidence and less anxious-depressed affect than entity theorists following the leadership task. In Study 2, the authors demonstrated the causal role of implicit theories by manipulating participants' theory of leadership ability. They replicated the findings from Study 1 and demonstrated that identification with the role model mediated the relationship between implicit theories and both confidence and affect. In addition, incremental theorists outperformed entity theorists on the leadership task.
... One possible reason for these findings is through the process of upward social comparison whereby participants exposed to successful women may feel inadequate by comparison [18]. This may be especially likely if the female participants have low levels of leadership self-efficacy [16][17] or believe that leadership qualities are innate rather than learned [19]. Another possible reason for these findings could be because the primes potentially activated the association of the backlash and negative social effects that participants could experience if they follow a similar nontraditional career path as the primes. ...
... Other researchers, however, have found that in certain contexts, exposure to accomplished women can be beneficial and can decrease implicit gender associations [12,20]. One of the key features necessary for exposure to exemplars to reduce implicit gender and leadership stereotypes is the perception that similar success is attainable for the participant [19,21]. In Dasgupta and Asgari's study [22], the more participants believed that other women, including themselves, could become as successful as the famous leaders, the less likely they were to express automatic gender stereotypes. ...
... Thus, Hypothesis 2 was supported. As Dasgupta [12] and others [19,21] have argued, perceived similarity is key to the effectiveness of counterstereotypical role models in changing implicit associations. When role models represent ways of being and behaving that are perceived as possible for the participant, they can disrupt stereotypic associations and encourage counterstereotypical ones. ...
... While the influence of the leader as role model appears to have a strong effect on the organisation, it is, however, not the only factor at play. Other aspects of organisational life affect goal attainment; chiefly the other people within the organisation themselves (Hoyt, Burnette and Innella, 2012). Individual beliefs, important for self-relevant outcomes are exemplified in the debate concerning whether leaders are born or made. ...
... Individual beliefs, important for self-relevant outcomes are exemplified in the debate concerning whether leaders are born or made. People who hold the view that leadership is learned are more likely to be influenced by a leader role model who is engaged in professional learning than coworkers who believe that leaders are born, not made (Hoyt, Burnette and Innella, 2012). My professional view, born out of experience suggests that despite the disposition some educators have towards becoming a school leader, leadership is learned and developed over time. ...
This interpretive, mixed-methods research explores the experiences of school leaders who coach. Located within International and UK Schools, it uncovers the effect that being a coach has on school leaders’ leadership, learning, self-efficacy and professional agency. The topic is approached through a framework of Bandura’s self-efficacy and agency theory, critically exploring the coaching experiences of school leaders and a small sample of leaders working in adult learning settings. Fieldwork includes a two-part online survey blended with twenty-one semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that along with elevated levels of self-awareness, school leaders who coach experience the benefits of generativity, coupled with increased knowledge, understanding and skills in coaching and leadership. Furthermore, leaders develop increasingly patient listening, more profound reflexivity, increased abilities in posing resonant and relevant questions, enhanced attentiveness to others’ needs, greater empathy in building rapport and trust, and the capacity to develop emotionally safe environments in which colleagues can develop. Coaching appears to contribute to the leaders increased levels of self-efficacy belief, which acts as both a catalyst and a reinforcing mechanism for their agency. The thesis addresses a gap in research by exploring coaching in schools from the perspective of the coach, noting that there is little or no difference between the experiences of school leaders who coach and the sample of leaders who work in adult learning environments. The research advances the argument for school leaders to develop and use coaching skills in their work with colleagues. Using coaching as a tool to support the development of others, appears to sustain leaders who coach in their leadership and mitigates the pressures and challenges of their professional work. The thesis concludes with suggestions for an increase in knowledge, understanding and skill development of coaching and a wider uptake by school leaders.
... While the influence of the leader as role model appears to have a strong effect on the organisation, it is, however, not the only factor at play. Other aspects of organisational life affect goal attainment; chiefly the other people within the organisation themselves (Hoyt, Burnette and Innella, 2012). Individual beliefs, important for self-relevant outcomes are exemplified in the debate concerning whether leaders are born or made. ...
... Individual beliefs, important for self-relevant outcomes are exemplified in the debate concerning whether leaders are born or made. People who hold the view that leadership is learned are more likely to be influenced by a leader role model who is engaged in professional learning than coworkers who believe that leaders are born, not made (Hoyt, Burnette and Innella, 2012). My professional view, born out of experience suggests that despite the disposition some educators have towards becoming a school leader, leadership is learned and developed over time. ...
This interpretive, mixed-methods research explores the experiences of school leaders who coach. Located within International and UK Schools, it uncovers the effect that being a coach has on school leaders’ leadership, learning, self-efficacy and professional agency. The topic is approached through a framework of Bandura’s self-efficacy and agency theory, critically exploring the coaching experiences of school leaders and a small sample of leaders working in adult learning settings. Fieldwork includes a two-part online survey blended with twenty-one semi-structured, in-depth interviews.
Findings reveal that along with elevated levels of self-awareness, school leaders who coach experience the benefits of generativity, coupled with increased knowledge, understanding and skills in coaching and leadership. Furthermore, leaders develop increasingly patient listening, more profound reflexivity, increased abilities in posing resonant and relevant questions, enhanced attentiveness to others’ needs, greater empathy in building rapport and trust, and the capacity to develop emotionally safe environments in which colleagues can develop. Coaching appears to contribute to the leaders increased levels of self-efficacy belief, which acts as both a catalyst and a reinforcing mechanism for their agency.
The thesis addresses a gap in research by exploring coaching in schools from the perspective of the coach, noting that there is little or no difference between the experiences of school leaders who coach and the sample of leaders who work in adult learning environments. The research advances the argument for school leaders to develop and use coaching skills in their work with colleagues. Using coaching as a tool to support the development of others, appears to sustain leaders who coach in their leadership and mitigates the pressures and challenges of their professional work. The thesis concludes with suggestions for an increase in knowledge, understanding and skill development of coaching and a wider uptake by school leaders.
... One reason that growth mindset cultures promote trust may be because employees choose to learn from, rather than feel threatened by, high performers. Research has shown that people who hold a growth mindset are more able to learn from positive role models (Hoyt et al., 2012). Whereas people with fixed mindsets become discouraged and perform worse after exposure to a successful role model, those with growth mindsets become inspired, internalize salient lessons, and perform better (Hoyt et al., 2012). ...
... Research has shown that people who hold a growth mindset are more able to learn from positive role models (Hoyt et al., 2012). Whereas people with fixed mindsets become discouraged and perform worse after exposure to a successful role model, those with growth mindsets become inspired, internalize salient lessons, and perform better (Hoyt et al., 2012). ...
Grit—the tendency to pursue especially long-term goals with both passion and perseverance—has been shown to predict high achievement in a range of individual performance domains. We make a case for introducing the concept of grit to the organizational behavior literature. To begin, we elaborate the conceptual foundations of grit, highlighting ways in which grit differs from related traits and situating grit in the broader literature on goal pursuit. We then discuss three organizational antecedents—leadership, culture, and job design—that can encourage grit at work. Next, we discuss how and under what circumstances encouraging grit can improve workplace outcomes such as employee retention, work engagement, and job performance. We conclude with suggestions for future research at the intersection of psychology and organizational behavior.
... For role models to change how role aspirants see themselves, it may not be enough for female role aspirants to become aware that other women have achieved success in a given domain. It may also be critical that the role aspirant see themselves as similar to the role model (e.g., Rosenberg-Kima et al., 2008;Cheryan et al., 2011;Stout et al., 2011;Asgari et al., 2012;Hoyt et al., 2012). For example, Rosenberg-Kima et al. (2008) exposed undergraduate students to either a relevant role model (young and cool) or an irrelevant role model (old and uncool). ...
... However, it seems that a role model effect is less likely to occur when the role aspirants perceive themselves as unable to achieve what the role model has achieved (Lockwood and Kunda, 1997). For example, when undergraduate women had made an incremental attribution, i.e., when they believed that successful women had achieved success through hard work, discipline, and persistence, they were more likely to associate themselves with leadership traits than when they had made an entity attribution, i.e., when they believed successful women had achieved success because of their talent (Hoyt et al., 2012). This suggests that in order for female counterstereotypical role models to be effective role models and reduce stereotypical beliefs about women's capabilities, it is important that female counterstereotypical role models are seen as representative of women in general. ...
Gender roles are formed in early childhood and continue to influence behavior through adolescence and adulthood, including the choice of academic majors and careers. In many countries, men are underrepresented in communal roles in health care, elementary education, and domestic functions (HEED fields, Croft et al., 2015), whereas women are underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields (Beede et al., 2011) and top leadership positions (Leopold et al., 2016). Theories focusing on the development of gender roles suggest that across the lifespan people perceive certain roles to be more or less appropriate for their gender (e.g., Gender Schema Theory, Martin and Halverson, 1981; Social Role Theory, Eagly and Wood, 2011). Specifically, researchers have postulated that observing same-sex role models triggers learning processes whereby observers internalize gender-stereotypical knowledge of roles and act accordingly, which results in gender-congruent aspirations and behavior. It seems reasonable that if observing men and women in gender congruent roles fosters gender-congruent aspirations and behavior, then frequently observing gender-incongruent role models (e.g., male kindergarten teachers or female scientists and leaders) should reduce gender stereotyping and promote gender-counterstereotypical aspirations and behavior. In many countries, governments and societal decision-makers have formed initiatives based on the idea that exposure to gender-counterstereotypical role models influences aspirations and career choices among children, adolescents, and young adults. The present review gives an overview of research-based interventions involving observing or interacting with counterstereotypical role models, particularly focusing on outcomes for girls and women. Extending earlier reviews, we summarize laboratory-based and field-based studies and then critically discuss and integrate the findings in order to provide an overall picture of how counterstereotypical role models shape observers’ occupational aspirations and academic choices in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. We conclude by outlining suggestions for future research and briefly discussing implications for future interventions.
... Although earlier research in this area had focused on fixed vs. growth beliefs about intelligence (e.g., Dweck, 1986) and personality (e.g., Heslin, Latham, & Vandewalle, 2005;Heslin & VandeWalle, 2011;Heslin, Vandewalle, & Latham, 2006), more recent work has shown that people also differ in whether they hold fixed versus growth beliefs about leadership ability (Burnette & Pollack, 2013;Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012), and these beliefs have significant consequences for people's leadership outcomes. For example, women with a fixed belief about leadership ability were more demotivated by information showing that men greatly outnumber women in leadership positions compared to those with a growth belief (Burnette, Pollack, & Hoyt, 2010). ...
... The current research identifies an important role of lay theories in the leadership domain. Thus far, research on fixed versus growth theories about leadership has focused on testing the influence of a growth belief on people's attitudes and self-efficacy in the domain of leadership (Burnette et al., 2010;Hoyt et al., 2012). We documented that fixed-growth beliefs about leadership ability have broader consequences that extend to the domain of motivation and performance. ...
Extensive research has shown that when a social identity is made salient, people tend
to embrace positive identities (e.g., being a voter) and shy away from negative identities
(e.g., being a cheater). The present research proposes that this effect of identity
salience could be reversed for identities that cannot be attained or rejected by engaging
in simple behaviors (e.g., being a leader). People perceived leadership education
programs that highlighted the leader identity as more difficult (Studies 1 and 3), and
were less interested in signing up for such programs (Study 2). People performed worse
when learning educational material framed in terms of the leader identity (Study 4).
However, a growth mindset about leadership ability reduced the negative effects of
identity frames on performance (Study 4). These findings highlight that the motivational
effects of making identities salient might not hold for identities that cannot be attained by
executing simple behaviors.
... Mentorship psychosocial, career, and role modeling support To measure participants' perception of support from each of their mentors, two items from the Global Measure of Mentoring Practices (historical internal consistency α = 0.95 and α = 0.75, respectively; Dreher & Ash, 1990;Tenenbaum et al., 2001) and one item from the Role Model Identification scale (Hoyt et al., 2012) were used. Specifically, participants rated their level of Relationship duration and contact frequency Participants indicated how long they had known each mentor in years (relationship duration) and how many hours per week they spent with their mentors (contact frequency). ...
Background
While dyadic faculty–mentored relationship research currently saturates the mentoring literature, recent developments suggest the need for a broader consideration of a student's mentor network. Research taking a network approach may provide deeper insights into the formation and benefits of mentorship for undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Utilizing Developmental Mentor Network Theory and ego-centric social network analysis, this pre-registered study evaluates how the characteristics of mentees and mentors relate to both the content of support and structure of mentor networks in a large sample of White and Hispanic/Latino(a) STEM undergraduates across 12 universities.
Results
Results were nuanced but showed that perceived psychological similarity with their mentor(s) predicted both dyadic and network average levels of mentor support (i.e., psychosocial, career, role modeling) and relational satisfaction. Furthermore, results point to homophily and engagement in undergraduate research effects on mentor network structures.
Conclusions
These findings highlight the importance of using a network approach to deepen our understanding of the factors (e.g., psychological similarity) that may influence the formation and maintenance of robust and diverse supportive mentoring networks.
... We assessed ISMR quality with five items taken from previously validated scales to capture global mentoring quality, which included psychosocial support, career support, role modeling support and relationship satisfaction (Dreher and Ash, 1990;Hoyt et al., 2012). The items were modified to focus on the mentorship relationship with their course instructor. ...
Introduction
Despite numerous (co)curricular efforts, diversifying the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) research workforce remains challenging and large segments of the U.S. population continue to be underrepresented. Promoting instructor–student mentoring relationship quality is a potentially important mechanism to support biomedical workforce diversity, as relationship quality has been positively associated with learning and persistence. We tested the impact of a “Creating Birds of a Feather” (CBoaF) intervention designed to promote perceptions of shared similarities (psychological similarity), which in turn should promote instructor-student mentoring relationship quality.
Methods
This pretest-posttest cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted with a large and diverse sample of instructors (J = 15) and the undergraduates (N = 567) enrolled in biological course-based undergraduate research experience courses at 13 universities across the U.S.
Results
Multilevel modeling results indicated that the intervention effect on undergraduates’ perceptions of psychological similarity was moderated by pretest psychological similarity. That is, among classes with low levels of similarity at pretest, the intervention group developed stronger perceptions of posttest psychological similarity than the control group, but there were no between group differences in classes with high levels of similarity at pretest. Furthermore, the intervention exhibited a positive indirect effect on posttest instructor–student mentoring relationship quality through posttest psychological similarity.
Discussion
These findings highlight the potential of the CBoaF intervention to enhance undergraduate perceptions of instructor-student psychological similarity, subsequently leading to improved instructor-student mentoring relationship quality. These insights have significant implications for initiatives that aim to promote diversity and inclusion in the STEM research workforce by emphasizing the cultivation of psychological similarity between students and instructors.
... GMs were proven to enhance academic performance among young students. Over time, the application of the theory expanded into multiple avenues like the impact of FM vs GMs on athletic performance, leadership styles and weight regulation (Burnette & Finkel, 2012;Chen, Yang, & Zhao, 2008;Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012). Another line of inquiry examining subjective well-being verified that the FM orientation was linked to lower life satisfaction (King, 2017). ...
... As long as employees feel that Examining the cross-level mechanisms they belong to a work unit, they tend to consider their supervisor as a role model who they can learn from (Geis et al., 1985;Brown and Treviño, 2014). The supervisor's observable behaviors, such as job crafting, encourage the subordinates to follow them and behave similarly (Hoyt et al., 2012;Ogunfowora et al., 2021). Such trickle-down influences of the supervisors on their subordinates have been observed at both the cross-unit and individual levels (Ogunfowora et al., 2021). ...
Purpose
Frontline employees’ proactive behaviors (i.e. job crafting) are critical to satisfying customers’ idiosyncratic needs. If the supervisors practice job crafting, their subordinates are more likely to mimic such behaviors. However, there has been limited research on how leaders’ job crafting can influence subordinates’ job crafting. This study aims to examine the cross-level mechanisms (i.e. trickle-down effects) of supervisors’ job crafting on the subordinates’ attitudes and performance. Specifically, such trickle-down effects can be explained via two cross-level mechanisms of the supervisors’ job crafting on the subordinates’ work engagement and performance: social learning mechanism and job demands-resources mechanism.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-wave cross-lagged study was conducted in two-week intervals. The valid responses from 67 supervisors and their 201 subordinates were collected. The data set was analyzed using multilevel Structural Equation Modeling.
Findings
The results demonstrated that the social learning and job demands-resources mechanisms are not independent. The supervisor’s job crafting improves employment relationships, subsequently encourages subordinates’ job crafting and ultimately enhances work engagement and work performance.
Practical implications
The findings suggested that hospitality organizations should encourage job crafting among supervisors and managers. A proactive hotel manager can establish strong employment relationships, motivate subordinates to work proactively and obtain positive work outcomes.
Originality/value
The findings enrich the knowledge about the trickle-down effects of supervisors on subordinates in terms of job-crafting behaviors. In particular, this study found a new theoretical perspective that the job demands-resources and social learning mechanisms may not be independent, and the subordinates’ perception of the employment relationship plays a critical role.
... Although a rather large portion of the research on implicit theories has focused on academic performance, researchers have branched out to examine behavior in other contexts. For example, studies have explored the impact of fixed versus growth mindsets on success in weight regulation (Burnette & Finkel, 2012), leadership (Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012), athletic performance (Chen, Yang, & Zhao, 2008), and self-control. Another line of research has explored the relationship between implicit theories of intelligence and subjective well-being. ...
We utilize the concept of implicit theories, or individuals' lay beliefs about the malleability of human attributes, to illustrate how certain individuals can be dispositionally poised to resist (or seek) new and innovative products. We find that entity theorists, or those who believe in the fixedness of human traits, are relatively more likely to resist innovative new products, while incremental theorists, or those who believe in the malleability of human traits, are relatively more likely to seek out new products. We find this effect is bound by the perceived learning cost of the innovative product-such that low perceived learning costs reduce the differences in evaluations of new products between entity and incremental theorists. Several potential mechanisms for the effect are explored-most notably, the roles of fear of negative evaluation, negative effort beliefs, and need for cognition. Finally, we discuss theoretical and managerial implications and suggest avenues for future research.
... In addition, World Economic Forum [27] state that despite many policies to increase gender equality in recent decades, gender discrimination based on gender stereotypes continues to exist and continues to cause underrepresentation of women in leadership positions. Further, with regard to characteristics associated with leadership stereotype still persist that establish that women take care of and assist people, while men take control and focus on the task [28,29]. In addition, gender stereotypes can halt or hinder to a great extend the career development of women in senior management, given that when any ambiguity exist about their competence, they are likely to be judged as incompetent and when their competence is beyond reproach, they run the risk of being penalized socially [30]. ...
This study assessed women’s participation in decision making at schools and political leadership at local government in Ibumu and Image Ward in Kilolo District, Iringa region, Tanzania. It also assessed factors contributing to women’s underrepresentation in leadership positions and low levels of their participation in decision making and what should be done in order to enable them have equal access to decision making and leadership. The study was conducted in Kilolo District. The study was guided by questions focusing on how women participated in decision making and leadership, reasons for the situation and strategies to address women’s low level of participation in decision making and leadership. The methods of data collection were semi-structured interviews, document analysis and observations. Data were analyzed using a thematic framework. The findings revealed that very few women participate in decision making and leadership positions due to lack of education, men were not ready to allow women to participate in decision making. The basis for the lack of women participation, came from threats from husbands, antiquated traditions and customs, family responsibilities, lack of confidence in women and stereotypes. Male leaders held most top political leadership position and were the main decision makers.
... Subordinates' mindsets of personality shape the extent to which they trust supervisors (Emerson & Murphy, 2015), perceive supervisors as fair (Heslin & VandeWalle, 2011), and are satisfied with their jobs (Burnette & Pollack, 2013;Rattan & Dweck, 2018). Researchers have also studied people's mindsets about the malleability of leadership ability (Burnette et al., 2010;Hoyt et al., 2012) and their perceptions about the mindset culture prevalent in the workplace (Emerson & Murphy, 2015;Murphy & Dweck, 2010;Murphy & Reeves, 2019). ...
Approximately 44% of U.S. workers are low-wage workers. Recent years have witnessed a raging debate about whether to raise their minimum wages. Why do some decision-makers support raising wages and others do not? Ten studies (four preregistered) examined people’s beliefs about the malleability of intelligence as a key antecedent. The more U.S. human resource managers (Study 1) and Indian business owners (Study 2) believed that people’s intelligence can grow (i.e., had a growth mindset), the more they supported increasing low-wage workers’ compensation. In key U.S. swing states (Study 3a), and a nationally representative sample (Study 3b), residents with a more growth mindset were more willing to support ballot propositions increasing the minimum wage and other compensation. Study 4 provided causal evidence. The next two studies confirmed the specificity of the predictor. People’s beliefs about the malleability of intelligence, but not personality (Study 5a) or effort (Study 5b), predicted their support for increasing low-wage workers’ compensation. Study 6 examined multiple potential mechanisms, including empathy, attributions for poverty, and environmental affordances. The relationship between growth mindset and support for raising low-wage workers’ wages was explained by more situational rather than dispositional attributions for poverty. Finally, Studies 7a and 7b replicated the effect of growth mindset on support for increasing low-wage workers’ compensation and provided confirmatory evidence for the mediator—situational, rather than dispositional, attributions of poverty. These findings suggest that growth mindsets about intelligence promote support for increasing low-wage workers’ wages; we discuss the theoretical and practical implications.
... Research has found that women believing that leadership ability can be developed were less demotivated by information showing that men greatly outnumber women in leadership positions (Burnette et al., 2010). Individuals exposed to the idea that leadership ability can be developed benefited from the provision of a role model before completing a leadership task, compared to those exposed to the view that leadership ability is fixed (Hoyt et al., 2012). ...
Implicit morality theories refer to people’s beliefs about whether individuals’ moral character is fixed or malleable. Drawing on the social cognitive theory of morality, we examine the relationship between employees’ implicit morality theories and their organizational citizenship behaviors toward coworkers (OCBC) and coworker-directed deviance (CDD) through a moral self-regulatory mechanism. A laboratory experiment (Study 1), an online experiment (Study 2), and a multi-wave, multi-source field survey (Study 3) found that the more employees held a fixed belief about morality, the lower their sense of moral control, especially when their moral identity was lower. This perceived lack of moral control, in turn, predicted decreased OCBC, particularly when the workgroup ethical climate was weak. However, this relationship did not hold for CDD. Overall, our research highlights implicit morality theories as a novel antecedent of employees’ workplace behaviors, and identifies the underlying moral self-regulatory process, along with individual and situational boundary conditions.
... In addition to improving women's sense of fit, visible women leaders also may serve as influential role models that contribute to other women's leader efficacy (Olsson & Martiny, 2018). For example, women exposed to relatable role models of female leadership are likely to feel greater efficacy for becoming leaders themselves (Hoyt & Simon, 2011;Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012;Olsson & Martiny, 2018) and to mimic the women role models' powerful postures and behaviors, which can improve their own leader effectiveness (Latu, Mast, Bombari, Lammers, & Hoyt, 2019). Women-only workshops, panels of successful women, and other examples drawn from mentoring programs in STEM (e.g., Hernandez et al., 2018) might provide a useful guide to raising the visibility of inspirational women role models in organizations. ...
Many efforts to close the persistent gender gap in corporate American’s leadership have approached women as deficient men in need of fixing. Taking a different approach, this paper seeks to shed light on how features of male-dominated work cultures—which remain common in corporate America—may deflate women’s motivation to strive for leadership roles. The inquiry is guided by social cognitive career theory (SCCT), which is a vocational psychology theory founded on the expectancy-value model of motivation. Consistent with that model, SCCT proposes that people will not pursue career goals (such as leadership) that they perceive as unfeasible. Perceptions of feasibility are shaped by work culture. And the most dominate transmitter of workplace culture is other people, including leaders, supervisors, mentors, and colleagues. Such social agents of the work culture can powerfully impact women’s expectancies about leadership through at least three social psychology-based mechanisms: relational efficacy beliefs, expectations states, and social identity threat. The review examines how these mechanisms operate through four common features of male-dominated work cultures (prevalent gender bias, an all-male leadership tier, failure to identify and develop women as leaders, and inadequate mentors and sponsors) to negatively impact women’s beliefs about the feasibility of achieving leadership positions. The result of such lowered expectancies is that women may refrain from even trying for leadership positions, if not leave their organizations altogether. The review concludes by offering potential next steps for research and intervention-development.
... Examples of these cultivation strategies are thinking about how the subject relates to their personal goals or to improving society, building experience in and familiarity with the subject, or seeking out inspirational mentors and peers. This hypothesis is consistent with prior theories that link growth mindsets (of intelligence, personality, leadership, empathy, and more) to the mastery goal of working on and improving those skills (Dweck et al., 1995;Blackwell et al., 2007;Hoyt et al., 2012;Schumann et al., 2014;Schroder et al., 2017). Comparatively, a fit mindset might not be as relevant (and therefore unrelated) specifically to the goal of actively cultivating passion, because it tends to be associated with seeking a match with one's interests from the outset, rather than actively growing passion over time. ...
College students are encouraged to major in subjects they are passionate about but less often advised about what to do when passion is low. What self-regulatory strategies do students use to up-regulate their passion toward their subjects, and how might they be oriented toward using such effective strategies? Three studies examined how the belief that passion is developed – a “develop” mindset – relates to students’ intentions to use strategies to actively grow their passion. The more strongly students endorsed a develop mindset, the more of these “cultivation strategies” they reported using, and in turn, the larger their increase in reported passion toward their subject majors (Study 1). Instilling a develop mindset causally increased students’ intentions to use more cultivation strategies (Study 2) – with some effects lasting up to a year (Study 3). Instilling a develop mindset can potentially help students to ignite their passion when its flame burns low.
... Organizations can foster experience sharing by recognizing the personality of their employees and pick those who actively engage in experience sharing. This might encourage others to follow, as we know from previous research how important role models are for motivation [38]. ...
... Participants who indicated that they had one or more mentors were asked follow-up mentorship support questions for each of their career mentors. This adapted four-item scale measured the degree to which each mentor in their network provided psychosocial support, instrumental support, role modeling support, and overall relationship satisfaction (e.g., "To what extent has your mentor conveyed empathy for your concerns or feelings you have discussed with him or her?") 71,78,79 . Participants rated the degree of support received from each mentor on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 7 (to a large extent). ...
Diversity in the geosciences is low despite efforts to improve the representation of different groups in society, for example in terms of gender. Specifically, women are underrepresented in recruitment and retention at every stage of the academic to professional pipeline. Mentoring programs can improve women’s motivation and persistence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career pathways. However, mentorship programs consist of multiple components that vary in complexity and cost, which can limit scalability. Here we present results from a randomized experiment with 158 undergraduate women majoring in a geoscience field to identify the critical elements of a successful mentorship program. The combination of three factors was necessary to increase mentoring, motivation, and persistence: inspiration through exposure to geoscience careers via female role models, inoculation through training on how to grow their mentor network and overcome obstacles, and an introduction to a local female geoscientist mentor.
... Although most of the research on fixed and growth mindsets exists outside of a leadership context, the little evidence that is there demonstrates that leaders aren't immune to the effects their fixed or growth mindsets have on their processing and behavioral dispositions, and select studies have demonstrated that is the case. Specific studies reveal that those with growth mindsets are more likely to engage in efforts to develop their followers (Heslin et al., 2006), demonstrate greater leadership confidence (Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012), and set more challenging goals (Tabernero & Wood, 1999). ...
In order to enhance leaders' effectiveness, it is critical to clearly and accurately understand the underlying processes that contribute to leaders' decision making and behavior. The traditional trait approach to understanding leaders' underlying processing carries limitations and does not capture any of the situational characteristics that may be important. We thus advance the situation-trait approach by introducing the Cognitive Affective Processing Systems framework more fully into the leadership domain. A primary benefit of integrating this framework is that it identifies an attribute largely overlooked by leadership scholars, yet foundational to leaders' processing and behaviors: situation-encoding schemas. We integrate and review decades of research on four sets of situation-encoding schemas to demonstrate their important role in determining why leaders do what they do. This consensus shift, novel focus on situation-encoding schemas, and integration of four disparate sets of well-studied situation-encoding schemas has important implications for leaders' self-awareness, meta-cognition, effectiveness, and development.
... The absence of robust content validation evidence for role modeling and negative experiences may be relatively easy to correct. That is, there is robust theoretical and empirical guidance on the relevant facets of role modeling (i.e., attainability of a role model's achievements, relevance of a role model, and identification with a role model) outside of STEMM contexts (Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012;Lockwood, 2006;Lockwood & Kunda, 1997). Similarly, there is robust theoretical and empirical content validation evidence on assessments of negative mentoring experiences outside of STEMM contexts (Eby et al., 2004;Eby et al., 2008). ...
Paper commissioned by the National Academies of Sciences Engineering & Medicine Committee on The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM
... Although a fulsome amount of research on implicit theories has focused on academic performance, some researchers have moved on to examine behavior in other contexts, such as exploring the impact of entity versus incremental orientations on success in weight regulation (Burnette & Finkel, 2012), leadership (Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012), athletic performance (Chen, Yang, & Zhao, 2008), and self-control. Another line of inquiry has explored the relationship between implicit theories of intelligence and subjective well-being, finding that entity beliefs are associated with lower life satisfaction and higher levels of negative affect (King, 2017). ...
Implicit theories are the beliefs that individuals hold regarding the nature of human and nonhuman attributes, as well as more global phenomena. Over the past three decades, social and consumer psychologists have garnered a rich set of findings from investigating the processing and judgmental impact of implicit theories on various facets of people's day‐to‐day lives. This review begins with a brief summary of the history of implicit theory research before explicating its current state in consumer psychology. The review categorizes the current, and rather fragmented, landscape of the consumer psychology of implicit theories into three broad areas: brands, persuasion, and consumption behaviors. We conclude our review by contributing to an expanding dialogue regarding the future of consumer research pertaining to implicit theories.
... Fixed mindset beliefs-when personally endorsed by the individual-engender greater concerns about proving and demonstrating one's talent and ability, leading people to avoid new challenges and hide their mistakes (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007;Burnette, O'Boyle, VanEpps, Pollack, & Finkel, 2013;Hong, Chiu, Dweck, Lin, & Wan, 1999;Nussbaum & Dweck, 2008;Pollack, Burnette, & Hoyt, 2012). In organizations, people's personal fixed mindset beliefs affect how managers evaluate their employees, the strategies people use to manage conflict, and people's leadership effectiveness (Heslin, Latham, & VandeWalle, 2005;Heslin & VandeWalle, 2011;Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012;Kray & Haselhuhn, 2007). These studies suggest that people's personal mindset beliefs can affect employees' goals, motivation, and behavior. ...
Three studies examine how organizational mindset —whether a company is perceived to view talent as fixed or malleable—functions as a core belief that predicts organizational culture and employees’ trust and commitment. In Study 1, Fortune 500 company mission statements were coded for mindset language and paired with Glassdoor culture data. Workers perceived a more negative culture at fixed (vs. growth) mindset companies. Study 2 experimentally manipulated organizational mindset and found that people evaluated fixed (vs. growth) mindset companies as having more negative culture norms and forecasted that employees would experience less trust and commitment. Study 3 confirmed these findings from more than 500 employees of seven Fortune 1000 companies. Employees who perceived their organization to endorse a fixed (vs. growth) mindset reported that their company’s culture was characterized by less collaboration, innovation, and integrity, and they reported less organizational trust and commitment. These findings suggest that organizational mindset shapes organizational culture.
... After evaluating the manipulation materials, participants then began the leadership portion of the study using a modified version of a task used in previous research (Hoyt et al. 2012). Participants were told that they would play the role of a hypothetical recruitment manager and they were to brief their ostensible "followers" on how to complete a task involving the selection and screening of potential employees. ...
The current research explored appraisals of the negative emotions that arise in the context of setbacks. We proposed that experiencing negative emotions could be appraised as either enhancing or debilitating. Across two studies, we investigated the hypotheses that individuals who perceive experiencing negative emotion to be enhancing, relative to debilitating, would report experiencing less severe negative emotions and engage in more mastery-oriented behavioral strategies after encountering setbacks. In Study 1 (N = 283), we examined initial associations among negative emotion appraisals, severity of emotions experienced, and behavioral strategies. In Study 2 (N = 141), in a preregistered report, we experimentally manipulated negative emotion appraisals to test causal relationships among these constructs. Results supported hypotheses in Study 1. In Study 2, we manipulated negative emotion appraisals but failed to shift self-regulatory processes.
... Doing so can enable momentarily feeling better though not much is learned, relative to reflecting upon positive role models who exemplify better ways to tackle one's sustainable career challenges. When people hold a growth mindset, they are more likely to learn from (Nussbaum & Dweck, 2008) and feel inspired (rather than diminished) by reflecting upon exemplary performers (Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012). In short, a fixed mindset impedes drawing upon positive role models when contemplating what else one may have done and could do to enable career sustainability. ...
A sustainable career is one in which individuals enjoy at least a moderate degree of productivity, health, and happiness across their lifespan. To elucidate what people might need to learn to enhance their career sustainability, we depict a wide range of typical career- and home-realm challenges. Being in learning mode is proposed as a self-regulatory meta-competency that shapes self-directed learning regarding how to tackle sustainable career challenges. People are in learning mode when they hold a growth mindset as they cycle through relevant approach, action, and reflection experiential learning processes. Given the relative stability yet plasticity of mindsets, we offer a dual-process model of mindsets that highlights how people may be nudged in and out of learning mode, both momentarily and over longer time frames. We outline implications for sustainable careers and mindsets theory and research, as well as practical implications for organizations, management education, vocational counseling and peer coaching, and those striving to forge a more sustainable career.
... Social psychologists who study academic performance (e.g., Clark, Martin, and Bush 2001;Hoyt, Burnette, and Innella 2012;Lockwood 2006;Lockwood, Jordan, and Kunda 2002) and professional development (e.g., Gibson 2004;Lockwood and Kunda 1997) define role models as the individuals we look up to and aspire to be like. A role model can be someone who occupies an elevated position in society, or it can be an ideal type created by blending together the desired characteristics of several people (Speizer 1981). ...
Because of the national conversation about her status as a role model, the former First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) presents an opportunity to analyze an Obama effect—particularly, the idea that Michelle Obama's prominence as a political figure can influence, among other things, citizens’ impressions of black women in America. Using evidence from the 2011 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation/ Washington Post survey, we demonstrate that Michelle Obama's status as a role model operates as a “moderated mediator”: it transmits the effect of the former FLOTUS’ media activities to respondents’ racial attitudes, and the degree to which role model status functions as a mediating variable differs by race (and, to a lesser degree, by gender). Thus, our research provides both a theoretical and an empirical contribution to the Obama-effect literature.
... Role Modeling (Hoyt, Burnette, & Innella, 2012) Instructions: Please answer the following questions about how much you identify with your summer research faculty-mentor as a role model on a scale from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). ...
... Faculty mentorship role modeling (Hoyt et al., 2012):. This four-item scale was adapted to the current summer research context to assess the extent to which individuals identified their faculty mentor as a role model (e.g., "I identify with the life of my mentor"). ...
It is widely recognized that the United States needs to attract and retain more people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Intensive undergraduate research experiences (UREs) are one of the few strategies shown to improve longitudinal student interest and persistence in STEM-related career pathways; however, less is known about the underlying process linking activities to positive outcomes. The tripartite integration model of social influences (TIMSI) provides a framework for understanding the social influence processes by which students integrate into STEM careers and culture. The current study used a longitudinal design and latent growth curve modeling to examine and predict the development of scientific research career persistence intentions over the course of an intensive summer URE. The latent growth curve analysis showed that student persistence intentions declined and rebounded over the course of the summer. Furthermore, the positive impact of faculty mentor role modeling on growth trajectories was mediated through internalization of science community values. In addition, project ownership was found to buffer students from the typical trend of declining and rebounding persistence intentions. The TIMSI framework illuminates the contextual features and underlying psychological processes that link UREs to student integration into STEM careers and culture.
... But in social learning theory, behavior is regu- lated not only by directly experienced consequences arising from external sources, but also by vicarious reinforcement and self-reinforcement […]." (Bandura 1971, S. 46) Aus der Sozialpsychologie ist beispielhaft Leon Festingers populäre Theorie des Sozialen Vergleichs (1954) zu nennen, die ebenfalls die Thematik der Vorbilder berührt. Die Vorbildwahl wird gemeinhin als ein sozialer Vergleich aufgefasst (Gibson 2003;Hoyt et al. 2012). Laut Festinger haben Menschen das Bedürfnis, ihre Meinungen und Fähig- keiten zu bewerten. ...
Der Band analysiert die Trennung zwischen redaktioneller Berichterstattung sowie PR-Produkten, Marketing und Werbung, die grundsätzlich gefordert wird und in rechtlichen Bestimmungen unter dem Stichwort „Trennungsgrundsatz“ festgeschrieben ist. Allerdings ist in der Praxis festzustellen, dass zwischen diesen Professionen nicht immer klare Linien zu erkennen sind. Dies hat unterschiedliche Ursachen, die in den Marktbedingungen, Ressourcen, Medienentwicklungen zu finden sind. Kritisch zu hinterfragen ist der Umgang mit solchen Vermischungen. Dabei geht es um die Prüfung und Beurteilung von Grenzziehungen sowie deren Konsequenzen.
Der Inhalt
Intereffikation und antagonistische Partnerschaft auf dem Prüfstand.- PR aus Sicht von Journalismus-Studierenden.- Journalistischer Kompetenzbedarf in der Online-Marketingkommunikation.- Zur Selbstdefinition der Medienberufe im digitalen Informationszeitalter.- Ethik in der Medienpraxis.- u.a.
Die Zielgruppen
Wissenschaftlerinnen, Wissenschaftler, Praktikerinnen und Praktiker verschiedener Disziplinen (Kommunikationswissenschaft, Marketing, Betriebswirtschaft) und Bereiche (Medien/Journalismus, Unternehmen, Agenturen)
Die Herausgeberinnen
Dr. Nicole Gonser ist Professorin am Institut für Journalismus & Medienmanagement der FHWien der WKW sowie Leiterin des dortigen Forschungscenters.
Dr. Uta Rußmann ist Professorin am Institut für Kommunikation, Marketing & Sales der FHWien der WKW.
This volume brings together recent insights about the psychology of organizational change. The authors are leading scholars in the study of organizational change, taking on a micro-perspective for understanding the process through which responses to change emerge and impact work-related outcomes. Each chapter approaches the topic from a different perspective, highlighting a different aspect of the phenomenon. The book includes review chapters, chapters with new theoretical developments, and descriptions of empirical studies and their findings. It is intended for both academic and practitioners who wish to keep up to date about the mechanisms that explain how recipients of organizational change respond to and cope with change.
Growth mindsets are beliefs that abilities, like intelligence, are mutable. Although most prior work has focused on people’s personal mindset beliefs, a burgeoning literature has identified that organizations also vary in the extent to which they communicate and endorse growth mindsets. Organizational growth mindsets have powerful effects on belonging and interest in joining organizations, suggesting that they may be a productive way to intervene to improve individual and societal outcomes. Yet, little is known about for whom organizational mindset interventions might be more or less effective, a critical question for effective implementation and theory. We examine whether people’s personal mindset beliefs might determine the effect of organizational growth mindsets, and if so, whether this moderation reflects a matching or mismatching pattern. Three experiments manipulated the espoused mindset of an organization and found that organizational growth mindsets primarily increased belonging and interest in joining among participants who personally endorsed matching growth mindset beliefs. An additional field study provided ecological validity to these findings, replicating them with students’ experiences of belonging in classrooms. This study also revealed a divergent mismatching pattern on grades: rather than bolstering the grades of students with growth mindsets, growth mindset classroom contexts primarily enhanced the grades of students with more fixed mindsets. By clarifying for whom organizational growth mindsets are beneficial and in what manner, the current work provides theoretical and practical insight into the psychological dynamics of organizational growth mindsets.
Mentorship can be part of the solution to developing a more diverse global scientific workforce, but robust longitudinal evidence is limited. Developmental mentor network theory can advance our understanding of the impact of a wide range of mentors across social contexts by distinguishing between the content of mentorship support (eg career support) and the structural characteristics of an individual's mentor network (eg density of connections among mentors). We tested the influence of mentor network characteristics on longitudinal social integration into the Earth and environmental sciences, as indicated by science identity development (a key indicator of social integration) and graduate‐school applications in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)‐related fields of study, based on a sample of 233 undergraduate women at nine universities in the US. Our findings indicated that belonging to close‐knit, larger, and skill‐focused mentorship networks creates a “sticky web” of social connections, providing information and resources that increase retention of college women in the Earth and environmental sciences.
In this study, we explore the phenomenon of reluctant leadership with an inductive longitudinal study. Based on interview data with members of the Swiss Armed Forces, we disentangle motivational states of willingness and reluctance to lead and illustrate trajectories of leadership motivation. Our findings show that initially reluctant leaders may become willing leaders over time and vice versa. We spotlight the individual, social, and contextual factors underlying such turnarounds and underline the theoretical and practical relevance of a better understanding of reluctant leadership in management research in general and the literature on leadership motivation in particular.
High-quality mentoring relationships help college students to achieve their academic potential and career goals. However, less is known about factors that shape the antecedents of mentoring relationships (e.g. mentor-protégé psychological similarity), or the impact of similarities on the development of high-quality mentoring relationships. The current study advances mentoring theory by testing effects of research apprenticeship program involvement on perceptions of psychological similarity and the development of high-quality mentoring relationships over time. Undergraduate students (N = 170) in a research apprenticeship program and matched control students completed survey measures of mentoring experiences at the end of fall (Time 1) and spring (Time 2) semesters. Longitudinal structural equation model results show that involvement in the program promoted similarity, which in turn promoted support and relationship quality over time. Furthermore, early development of relationship quality strengthened the future experiences of psychosocial support from and role modeling identification with the faculty mentor.
Why do some potential entrepreneurs promptly engage in entrepreneurial behavior while others do not pursue their entrepreneurial intentions or delay acting? This study investigated whether potential entrepreneurs’ mindset shapes engaging in entrepreneurial behavior and the time until they do so. Over a 16-month period, holding more of a growth (vs. fixed) mindset positively predicted taking various entrepreneurial actions and doing so sooner. Interestingly, these effects vanished when individuals faced a less challenging context for entrepreneurship. Post-hoc exploratory analyses revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic magnified the impact of mindsets on entrepreneurial behavior. These findings pave the way for preliminary research on the viability of growth mindset interventions for fostering entrepreneurial behavior.
Today, more than ever, there is a need to uncover the patterns of thinking that shape the rationality of the leader cohort to aid them in their role-making of the challenging niche truly. This Husserlian phenomenological inquiry purported to explore the individual and collective lived experiences of nine (9) purposively selected Filipino academic managers regarding the essence of Dweck’s growth and fixed mindsets in their leadership preparation. A semi-structured interview was employed as the main data gathering tool. Field texts were analyzed using Colaizzi’s Procedural Steps to abstract the phenomenon's essence and were validated through the member checking procedure and critical friend technique. Interestingly, the study debuts an insightful Taxonomy of Cognitive Personas, which typifies the dynamic nature of the leader cohort's mindsets. Embedded in the Perennial Learner, Proactive Player, and Pragmatic Leader personas are cognitive tools and value priorities utilized in various influencing and regulating experiences in academic organizations. Academic organizations can use the findings of this study to focus on the cognitive preparation of millennial managers for higher leadership roles. Such findings are expected to complement the skill-based preparation that the millennials can employ for their role-making efforts in school leadership.
The relation of various math attitudes to math achievement has been extensively studied in adolescents and adults. Recently, researchers have begun to examine the math attitude-math achievement relation in young children. We review theories and research on four attitudes relevant to early math learning—math anxiety, math self-concept, mindset, and math-gender stereotype. These attitudes emerge and are related to math achievement by early elementary school. Our review suggests that early math achievement plays an important role in the initial development of either positive or negative math attitudes, which in turn, may initiate a vicious or virtuous cycle that can enhance or undermine math learning. Additionally, gender differences in math attitudes (favoring boys) emerge by early to mid-elementary school. An important future direction involves understanding how early attitudes about math relate to each other, and whether certain constellations of attitudes are prevalent. We also consider three types of math attitudes that key socializers—parents and teachers—hold: general (math-gender stereotypes and mindsets), self-relevant (math anxiety), and child-specific (expectations and value of math for their child or student). Our review highlights a link between key socializers’ math attitudes and associated behaviors, and their children’s math attitudes and math achievement. Based on these findings, we propose the Early Math Achievement-Attitude model (EMAA). An important future direction involves increasing our understanding of how key socializers with different math attitude constellations engage with children around math. Finally, based on our review of these topics as well as intervention studies, we discuss intervention approaches that hold promise for improving young children’s math achievement and math attitudes.
The scientific advancement of leader and leadership development has offered various conceptualizations and operationalizations of evaluation criteria. However, because the complex learning that occurs during leader and leadership development is typically ignored, current leader and leadership development evaluation criteria do not fully capture the multidimensional and temporal nature of learning which serves as a critical mediating mechanism between training and more distal outcomes. Further, evaluations of leadership programs tend to focus on individual (i.e., leader development) outcomes without consideration of collective (i.e., leadership development) outcomes. Thus, we present a comprehensive typology of leader and leadership development learning outcomes that elucidates the multidimensional and multilevel nature of such outcomes and provides greater construct definition and precision. Our purpose is to integrate multiple theoretical perspectives, generating a more precise classification to provide researchers and practitioners assistance in 1) designing and evaluating the effectiveness of leader and leadership development, and 2) clarifying the limits of generalizability of both conceptualizations and empirical research across learning outcomes.
Decades of research have shown that people’s mindsets beliefs—their beliefs about the fixedness or malleability of talent, ability, and intelligence—can powerfully influence their motivation, engagement, and performance. This article explores the role of mindsets in organizational contexts. We start by describing the evolution of mindset theory and research and review why mindsets matter for people’s workplace outcomes. We discuss some of the most common growth mindset misconceptions—termed “false growth mindset”—that emerged as the fixed and growth mindset became popularized and (mis)applied in educational settings. We review literature on the situations that move people between their fixed and growth mindsets. Finally, we review new research on organizational mindsets and how organizations’ mindset culture—communicated through its norms, policies, practices, and leadership messages—influences people’s motivation and behavior in the workplace. We outline open theoretical and methodological questions as well as promising future directions for a forward-looking research agenda on mindsets at work. We suggest that extending mindset research—at the personal and organizational levels—to workplace contexts may shed new light on classic organizational behavior questions such as how to create more positive, innovative, and ethical organizational cultures; how to increase employee engagement; and how to reduce group-based disparities and inequalities in organizations.
Increasing the competition in global tourism is less addressed by higher education institutions of tourism. The demands on the quality of the tourism institution graduates increased along with the growth of the tourism industry. Carrying capacity of tourism development does not expect cheap prices. Human resources (HR) quality generated by tourism higher education grade is required to boost the competitiveness of the tourism industry. Policies, standards, and quality management should be integrated into the governance of tourism higher education to produce graduates who are qualified by the needs of tourism. The research aims to gain an overview and analyze the policies, standards, quality management, and develop a high-quality management model of tourism higher education. The researcher used a qualitative approach with a case study on the STP (tourism higher education) Trisakti. Stages analysis using an interactive model. Research shows quality policy to continue the former policy (incremental), there has been no breakthrough of new quality policy. The quality standards of education are based on government policy, there have been no new quality standards improved results after a new policy (still in process). Quality planning refers to the quality of government policies and the results of the identification problem. Focusing on the issue of quality of teaching and learning, there is no support in the planning of human resources, improve internal quality system concepts. Organizing quality is the responsibility of the chairman of Internal Quality Assurances at the operational level, especially socialization. Quality system documentation is still lacking and the structure is no unit or group on the quality of each study program or department. The major activities and support activities do not have a quality manual as guidance in implementation quality. Control and quality assurance are limited to teaching and learning activities (focus on the student). Recommendations in the study of the need to optimize the function of the quality culture and transformative leaders to optimize the performance of policies, the establishment of quality standards as the norms and establish a quality management system that produces quality graduates.
Sowohl in Deutschland als auch weltweit sind weiterhin relativ wenige Frauen in Führungspositionen tätig. Diese wenigen weiblichen Führungskräfte weichen in ihrem Verhalten kaum von ihren männlichen Kollegen ab. Das resultiert aus Prozessen, die eng mit geschlechtsbezogener Voreingenommenheit in Verbindung stehen. Weibliche Führungskräfte werden weniger wahrscheinlich eingestellt, schlechter in ihrer Leistung beurteilt und weniger gemocht als männliche Führungskräfte. Eine Gegenstrategie ist das Verleugnen der eigenen Weiblichkeit und die Anpassung an die männlichen Verhaltensweisen, die noch die Führungskulturen vieler Unternehmen bestimmen. Dies führt jedoch dazu, dass die männlichen Führungskulturen bestehen bleiben. Nur eine Veränderung der Unternehmens- und Führungskulturen kann nachhaltig eine Steigerung des Frauenanteils in Führungspositionen bewirken.
Campaign training programs for women often spotlight women political leaders as role models for attendees, presumably with the intention that their achievements will help inspire other women to aspire to political leadership themselves. There is, however, contradictory evidence in the extant literature on role model effects, which exists primarily outside of political science. Although never applied directly to purposeful efforts to inspire women to run for office, findings in psychology point to ways role models can both enhance and depress ambition in areas other than electoral politics. In this study, I use data on participants in two candidate training programs to explore the effectiveness of this role models tactic. I find that the strength of participant identification with role models is positively associated with enhanced political ambition, but that specific role model characteristics (i.e., stereotypical, counter-stereotypical traits) may be more or less effective. These findings add greater nuance to scholarly discussions of political ambition and suggest that women’s political ambition may be better evaluated with a more refined approach.
Numerous theories seek to explain gender gaps in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and the literature on social and motivational factors implicated in women's STEM pursuits is burgeoning. We contend that a next‐generation strategy is needed to translate multiple and complex theories to practice: We focus on the overlap of multiple social psychological theories to propose common‐ground strategies to foster women's interest and participation in STEM. Building upon the foundational work of lone‐theory approaches is a next‐generation intervention approach that identifies where different theories have common ground—that is, where a particular intervention strategy might capitalize on multiple psychological mechanisms to yield benefit. We focus in particular on theories relevant to two incongruities that contribute to the gender gap in STEM: the incongruity between women and STEM (discussed in theories about stereotyping/discrimination, social identity, and stereotype threat), and the incongruity between STEM and student values (discussed in theories about expectancy‐value, goal congruity, and work‐family conflict). Three core strategies encompass multiple mechanisms described from these scientific frameworks, and these form the basis for intervention tactics: (1) Challenge stereotypes; (2) Align STEM activities with students’ values; (3) Cultivate growth mindsets related to STEM ability. We outline opportunities for structural change within educational and occupational settings that can enhance and sustain interest.
LİDERLİKLE İLGİLİ ÖRTÜK TEORİLER ÖLÇEĞİ’NİN
TÜRKÇE’YE UYARLAMA ÇALIŞMASI
The substantial literature on dispositional antecedents of career success (e.g., extraversion and conscientiousness) implies that being low in career-facilitating traits may hamper people’s careers. We develop a cognitive-affective personality system theory about the role of situational cues, personality, and mindsets regarding the plasticity of one’s attributes in determining when this will occur and how the related dysfunctional dynamics may be mitigated. We draw on trait activation theory to describe how the interaction of situational cues, personality, and mindsets may trigger an array of cognitive-affective units within a cognitive-affective personality system that influence subjective and objective career outcomes. The contributions of this article are to offer the largely between-person careers literature a within-person account of when and why people experience subjective and objective career success as a function of their personalities, situational cues, prevailing mindsets, and career contexts. A theoretical account of how personality predicts subjective career outcomes more strongly than objective career outcomes is thereby provided. Our intent is to also extend trait activation theory by considering the cognitive and affective dynamics whereby personality traits and situational cues have their effects. The conditions under which mindsets are likely to shape career outcomes are outlined. Finally, implications for mindsets, personality, and career theory, research, and practice are discussed.
Two studies tested the prediction that the outcome of social comparison will differ depending on whether interpersonal or intergroup comparison processes have been engaged. Results of an experiment in which college student participants were assigned to membership in a minority or majority social category confirmed the predicted three-way interaction effect of in-group salience, target group membership, and upward-downward comparison on self-assessments of academic ability. Majority group members exhibited contrast effects in their self-ratings following exposure to a videotape of an in-group member displaying either very high or very low academic competence. Self-evaluations of minority group members revealed assimilation effects in response to in-group comparisons and contrast effects in response to out-group comparisons. In a second, follow-up experiment, this in-group assimilation effect was found to be dependent on intergroup contrast.
Much of psychology focuses on universal principles of thought and action. Although an extremely productive pursuit, this approach, by describing only the "average person," risks describing no one in particular. This article discusses an alternate approach that complements interests in universal principles with analyses of the unique psychological meaning that individuals find in their experiences and interactions. Rooted in research on social cognition, this approach examines how people's lay theories about the stability or malleability of human attributes alter the meaning they give to basic psychological processes such as self-regulation and social perception. Following a review of research on this lay theories perspective in the field of social psychology, the implications of analyzing psychological meaning for other fields such as developmental, cultural, and personality psychology are discussed.
Recent theory and research suggest that certain situational factors can harm women’s math test performance. The three studies presented here indicate that female role models can buffer women’s math test performance from the debilitating effects of these situational factors. In Study 1, women’s math test performance was protected when a competent female experimenter (i.e., a female role model) administered the test. Study 2 showed that it was the perception of the female experimenter’s math competence, not her physical presence, that safeguarded the math test performance of women. Study 3 revealed that learning about a competent female experimenter buffered women’s self-appraised math ability, which in turn led to successful performance on a challenging math test.
This research examines the role of self-efficacy in women’s responses to elite leadership role models. Previous research on role models has been equivocal, demonstrating that the impact of social comparisons on the self is multifaceted. Using an experimental methodology, 102 female participants were presented with role models (elite, nonelite, control) before serving as the leader of an ostensible three-person group. Findings revealed that women with low, as opposed to high, levels of leadership self-efficacy were less inspired by the highly successful role models and showed deflating contrast effects as demonstrated in their diminished identification with leadership, leadership aspirations, and leadership performance. Moreover, the performance effects were mediated by participants’ identification with leadership. This research has identified an important self-regulatory variable that influences whether people engage in assimilative or contrastive processes when making strategic comparisons and it identifies the important role of self-perceptions in behavioral responses to role models.
The role of leadership efficacy in women's reactance responses to stereotype-based leadership role expectations was examined in two laboratory studies. Participants, selected on the basis of leadership efficacy scores, served as leaders of ostensible three-person groups. Half were primed with the gender leadership stereotype. An immersive virtual environment designed for this research served as the leadership setting. Results indicated that the effects of stereotype activation on women leaders were moderated by leadership efficacy such that high efficacy leaders exhibited more positive, reactance responses (increased perceived performance, increased rated performance, greater domain identification, and higher well-being) than low efficacy leaders. Additionally, perceived performance mediated the domain identification and well-being effects of stereotype activation on high and low efficacy leaders.
Special issue: Methodological developments in personality research. Examines the usefulness of factor analysis (FA) in developing and evaluating personality scales that measure limited domain constructs. The approach advocated follows from the assumptions that a scale ought to measure a single construct, that FA ought to be applied routinely to new personality scales, and that the factors of a scale are important if they are differentially related to other measures. A detailed study of the Self-Monitoring Scale illustrates how FA can help determine what a scale measures. A 2nd example uses the self-esteem literature to illustrate how FA can clarify the proliferation of scales within a single content domain. Confirmatory techniques are also introduced as a means for testing specific hypotheses.
This study investigated 3 broad classes of individual-differences variables (job-search motives, competencies, and constraints) as predictors of job-search intensity among 292 unemployed job seekers. Also assessed was the relationship between job-search intensity and reemployment success in a longitudinal context. Results show significant relationships between the predictors employment commitment, financial hardship, job-search self-efficacy, and motivation control and the outcome job-search intensity. Support was not found for a relationship between perceived job-search constraints and job-search intensity. Motivation control was highlighted as the only lagged predictor of job-search intensity over time for those who were continuously unemployed. Job-search intensity predicted Time 2 reemployment status for the sample as a whole, but not reemployment quality for those who found jobs over the study's duration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Social comparison theory has linked improved performance to both the tendency to compare with others who are performing well and the tendency to view the self as better than others. However, little research has investigated the effects of either variable outside of a controlled laboratory environment. Moreover, there is reason to believe that the 2 tendencies would be in opposition to one another, because people who compare upward might subsequently view themselves as relatively less competent. The results of a longitudinal study of 876 students in their 1st year of secondary education indicated that both variables independently predicted improved academic performance and that these 2 tendencies did not conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Past work has documented and described major patterns of adaptive and maladaptive behavior: the mastery-oriented and the helpless patterns. In this article, we present a research-based model that accounts for these patterns in terms of underlying psychological processes. The model specifies how individuals' implicit theories orient them toward particular goals and how these goals set up the different patterns. Indeed, we show how each feature (cognitive, affective, and behavioral) of the adaptive and maladaptive patterns can be seen to follow directly from different goals. We then examine the generality of the model and use it to illuminate phenomena in a wide variety of domains. Finally, we place the model in its broadest context and examine its implications for our understanding of motivational and personality processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This research sought to integrate C. S. Dweck and E. L. Leggett's (1988) model with attribution theory. Three studies tested the hypothesis that theories of intelligence—the belief that intelligence is malleable (incremental theory) versus fixed (entity theory)—would predict (and create) effort versus ability attributions, which would then mediate mastery-oriented coping. Study 1 revealed that, when given negative feedback, incremental theorists were more likely than entity theorists to attribute to effort. Studies 2 and 3 showed that incremental theorists were more likely than entity theorists to take remedial action if performance was unsatisfactory. Study 3, in which an entity or incremental theory was induced, showed that incremental theorists' remedial action was mediated by their effort attributions. These results suggest that implicit theories create the meaning framework in which attributions occur and are important for understanding motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors propose that superstars are most likely to affect self-views when they are considered relevant. Relevant superstars provoke self-enhancement and inspiration when their success seems attainable but self-deflation when it seems unattainable. Participants' self-views were affected only when the star's domain of excellence was self-relevant. Relevant stars provoked self-enhancement and inspiration when their success seemed attainable in that participants either still had enough time to achieve comparable success or believed their own abilities could improve over time. Open-ended responses provided rich evidence of inspiration in these circumstances. Relevant stars provoked, if anything, self-deflation when their success seemed unattainable in that participants either had already missed the chance to achieve comparable success or viewed their abilities as fixed and so unlikely to improve. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
addresses the question of how social comparisons affect the individual comparer / focuses on factors that moderate the affective, cognitive, and behavioral consequences of upward and downward comparisons / propose that two factors are key determinants of the consequences of upward and downward social comparisons: (a) the esteem-relevance of the social comparison, and (b) the degree of perceived control the comparer feels over his or her status relative to the comparison other on the dimension under evaluation / propose that esteem-relevance and perceived control interact to predict three major categories of responses to social comparisons: self-directed responses, dimension-directed responses, and comparison-other-directed responses (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Upward social comparison is generally regarded as ego deflating, yet people often compare themselves with those whose abilities and attributes are better than their own. Upward comparison provides useful information, which may partially account for this behavior. Furthermore, it is proposed that upward comparison only sometimes results in more negative self-evaluations; it can also be self-enhancing. A review of studies testing upward comparison effects on self-evaluations, self esteem, and affect is consistent with this conclusion. Thus, people may make upward comparisons in hopes of enhancing their self-assessment. It is concluded that upward comparison is not in conflict with the desire for positive self-regard and indeed serves it indirectly (through self-improvement) and sometimes directly (by enhancing the self). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Extending research on implicit theories to the leadership domain, we examined how individual differences in belief about the malleability of leadership ability influenced responses to stereotype threat. The study consisted of two time periods. At time 1, we assessed individual differences in implicit theories of leadership ability and self-efficacy for leadership. At time 2, we activated a stereotype threat in a high-stakes environment. Results revealed that women reported lower self-evaluation after a stereotype threat when they had low self-efficacy and believed leadership ability to be fixed (entity theory) rather than malleable (incremental theory). Results are discussed in terms of how implicit theories generate a network of allied cognitions and emotions that subsequently predict stable patterns of behavior.
This article addresses the convergence and complementarity between self-regulatory control-process models of behavior and dynamic systems models. The control-process view holds that people have a goal in mind and try to move toward it (or away from it), monitoring the extent to which a discrepancy remains between the goal and one's present state and taking steps to reduce the discrepancy (or enlarge it). Dynamic systems models tend to emphasize a bottom-up self-organization process, in which a coherence arises from among many simultaneous influences, moving the system toward attractors and away from repellers. We suggest that these differences in emphasis reflect two facets of a more complex reality involving both types of processes. Discussion focuses on how self-organization may occur within constituent elements of a feedback system—the input function, the output function, and goal values being used by the system—and how feedback processes themselves can reflect self-organizing tendencies.
Incremental theorists, who believe intelligence can improve, may be more resilient to failure than entity theorists, who believe intelligence is fixed. Three studies explored whether incremental theory reduces self-handicapping and self-esteem vulnerability in students who do and do not invest their self-worth in academics. In Studies 1 and 2, contingent incremental students self-handicapped by choosing to listen to performance-impairing music and by avoiding practice before a difficult task. In Study 3, contingent incremental students who could not self-handicap reported greater ability attributions and lower self-esteem following failure. These studies suggest that when self-worth is contingent on academics, incremental theorists remain concerned about their self-worth and self-handicap to protect their self-esteem from the ego-threat associated with failure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)
Barack Obama, the first Black-American president, has been widely heralded as a role model for Black-Americans because he inspires hope. The current study was conducted to assess whether, beyond simply inspiring hope, this “Obama Effect” has a concrete positive influence on Black-Americans’ academic performance. Over a three-month period we administered a verbal exam to four separate groups of Black- and White-American participants at four predetermined times. When Obama’s stereotype-defying accomplishments garnered national attention – just after his convention speech, and election to the presidency – they had a profound beneficial effect on Black-Americans’ exam performance, such that the negative effects of stereotype threat were dramatically reduced. This effect occurred even when concerns about racial stereotypes continued to exist. The fact that we found performance effects with a random sample of American participants, far removed from any direct contact with Obama, attests to the powerful impact of ingroup role models.
Social comparison theory has evolved considerably since Festinger (1954) originally proposed it. This article integrates these changes with insights offered by recent social comparison studies and by research on social cognition and the self. Contrary to the original theory or subsequent research, (a) the individual is not always an unbiased self-evaluator but may seek many goals through social comparison; (b) the social environment may not be inactive but may impose unwanted comparisons; and (c) the comparison process involves more than selecting a comparison target: It is bidirectional, rather than unidirectional, and it may adopt a variety of forms to meet the individual's goals. Research involving comparisons of personal attributes illustrates these principles.
Service researchers have postulated that ads have an important “second” audience, namely an organization’s own service employees. Specifically, ads may depict how employees deliver on the service promise, thereby communicating to other service employees what kind of behaviors they are expected to perform. This research examines when and to what extent service employees are motivated to live up to such ad models. Two experiments at a Swiss bank demonstrate that the effectiveness of an ad model is determined not only by the challenge presented by the model’s behavior but also by an employee’s implicit beliefs. Employees who believe that their abilities are fixed (i.e., entity-focused) are more motivated to imitate an ad model if the model’s behavior is moderately challenging rather than strongly challenging. In contrast, employees who believe that their abilities are malleable (i.e., incremental-focused) are not affected by how challenging the model’s behavior is. Moreover, the reactions of entity-focused employees to challenging ads may be improved by encouraging them to mentally simulate the process they need to go through to achieve a similar performance as the model.
Stereotype threat is being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group. Studies 1 and 2 varied the stereotype vulnerability of Black participants taking a difficult verbal test by varying whether or not their performance was ostensibly diagnostic of ability, and thus, whether or not they were at risk of fulfilling the racial stereotype about their intellectual ability. Reflecting the pressure of this vulnerability, Blacks underperformed in relation to Whites in the ability-diagnostic condition but not in the nondiagnostic condition (with Scholastic Aptitude Tests controlled). Study 3 validated that ability-diagnosticity cognitively activated the racial stereotype in these participants and motivated them not to conform to it, or to be judged by it. Study 4 showed that mere salience of the stereotype could impair Blacks' performance even when the test was not ability diagnostic. The role of stereotype vulnerability in the standardized test performance of ability-stigmatized groups is discussed.
The tendency for people with high self-esteem to make inflated assessments and predictions about themselves carries the risk of making commitments that exceed capabilities, thus leading to failure. Ss chose their performance contingencies in a framework where larger rewards were linked to a greater risk of failure. In the absence of ego threat, Ss with high self-esteem showed superior self-regulation: They set appropriate goals and performed effectively. Ego threat, however, caused Ss with high self-esteem to set inappropriate, risky goals that were beyond their performance capabilities so they ended up with smaller rewards than Ss with low self-esteem. The results indicate the danger of letting egotistical illusions interfere with self-regulation processes.
Mediation is said to occur when a causal effect of some variable X on an outcome Y is explained by some intervening variable M. The authors recommend that with small to moderate samples, bootstrap methods (B. Efron & R. Tibshirani, 1993) be used to assess mediation. Bootstrap tests are powerful because they detect that the sampling distribution of the mediated effect is skewed away from 0. They argue that R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny's (1986) recommendation of first testing the X --> Y association for statistical significance should not be a requirement when there is a priori belief that the effect size is small or suppression is a possibility. Empirical examples and computer setups for bootstrap analyses are provided.
This article proposes an informational perspective on comparison consequences in social judgment. It is argued that to understand the variable consequences of comparison, one has to examine what target knowledge is activated during the comparison process. These informational underpinnings are conceptualized in a selective accessibility model that distinguishes 2 fundamental comparison processes. Similarity testing selectively makes accessible knowledge indicating target-standard similarity, whereas dissimilarity testing selectively makes accessible knowledge indicating target-standard dissimilarity. These respective subsets of target knowledge build the basis for subsequent target evaluations, so that similarity testing typically leads to assimilation whereas dissimilarity testing typically leads to contrast. The model is proposed as a unifying conceptual framework that integrates diverse findings on comparison consequences in social judgment.
Upward assimilation in social comparison should be defined as "an increase in the comparer's self-evaluation on a dimension as a result of comparing with someone better on that dimension." Current research does not always hew to this definition, confuses reflection in the Self Evaluation Maintenance model (Tesser, 1988) with assimilation, uses dependent variables other than self-evaluation, and frequently lacks adequate control conditions to understand where the action is. As a result, progress is not as great as it could be. We make suggestions for bringing more order to this relatively new and terribly important topic.
Since the first empirical tests of Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory, theorists have been concerned with the “direction” of comparisons: whether people compare with persons superior or inferior to themselves and under what conditions (Wheeler, 1991). This focus on comparison direction was maintained by theorists exploring how exposure to superior versus inferior others influences well-being (Wills, 1981). Comparison direction was considered important to study because it supposedly indicated whether one was looking for (or responding to) favorable or unfavorable information about the self. With the exception of two early studies (Wheeler, 1966; Thornton & Arrowood, 1966), the literature made two assumptions: (1) that the evaluative implications of comparison are intrinsic to its direction, and (2) that the comparison process involves contrasting one’s abilities or attributes with those of others. Accordingly, it was thought that upward comparison is used to learn how much one falls short of one’s superiors and lowers self-evaluations.
The impact of female role models on women’s leadership aspirations and self-perceptions after a leadership task were assessed across two laboratory studies. These studies tested the prediction that upward social comparisons to high-level female leaders will have a relatively detrimental impact on women’s self-perceptions and leadership aspirations compared to male and less elite female leaders. In Study 1 (N = 60), women were presented with both female and male leaders before serving as leaders of ostensible three-person groups in an immersive virtual environment. This study established the relatively deflating impact of high-level female leaders, compared to high-level male leaders and the control condition, on participants' self-perceptions. Using a similar methodology, Study 2 (N = 57) further demonstrated that the impact of elite female leaders on participants' self-perceptions in turn adversely affected their leadership aspirations. This study also showed more positive responses to nonelite female leaders with whom participants more strongly identify and who increase counterstereotypic thinking. Taken together, these studies point to a potential dark side of elite female leaders as role models in a domain where individuals are possible targets of a negative stereotype. However, they also point to the relatively more beneficial impact of female role models who disconfirm the negative stereotype.
African American college students tend to obtain lower grades than their White counterparts, even when they enter college with equivalent test scores. Past research suggests that negative stereotypes impugning Black students' intellectual abilities play a role in this underperformance. Awareness of these stereotypes can psychologically threaten African Americans, a phenomenon known as “stereotype threat” (Steele & Aronson, 1995), which can in turn provoke responses that impair both academic performance and psychological engagement with academics. An experiment was performed to test a method of helping students resist these responses to stereotype threat. Specifically, students in the experimental condition of the experiment were encouraged to see intelligence—the object of the stereotype—as a malleable rather than fixed capacity. This mind-set was predicted to make students' performances less vulnerable to stereotype threat and help them maintain their psychological engagement with academics, both of which could help boost their college grades. Results were consistent with predictions. The African American students (and, to some degree, the White students) encouraged to view intelligence as malleable reported greater enjoyment of the academic process, greater academic engagement, and obtained higher grade point averages than their counterparts in two control groups.
This paper reviews theory and research regarding the “Michelangelo phenomenon.” The Michelangelo model suggests that close partners sculpt one another's selves, shaping one another's skills and traits and promoting versus inhibiting one another's goal pursuits. As a result of the manner in which partners perceive and behave toward one another, each person enjoys greater or lesser success at attaining his or her ideal-self goals. Affirmation of one another's ideal-self goals yields diverse benefits, both personal and relational. The Michelangelo model and supportive empirical evidence are reviewed, the phenomenon is distinguished from related interpersonal processes, and directions for future work are outlined.
Social comparison consists of comparing oneself with others in order to evaluate or to enhance some aspects of the self. Evaluation of ability is concerned with the question “Can I do X?” and relies on the existence of a proxy performer. A proxy's relative standing on attributes vis‐à‐vis the comparer and whether the proxy exerted maximum effort on a preliminary task are variables influencing his or her informational utility. Evaluation of opinions is concerned with the questions “Do I like X?”“Is X correct?” and “Will I like X?” Important variables that affect an individual's use of social comparison to evaluate his or her opinions are the other person's expertise, similarity with the individual, and previous agreement with the individual. Whether social comparison serves a self-enhancement function depends on whether the comparer assimilates or contrasts his or her self relative to superior or inferior others. The kinds of self‐knowledge made cognitively accessible and variables such as mutability of self-views and distinctiveness of the comparison target may be important determinants of assimilation versus contrast.
Men tend to achieve higher response accuracy than women on surveys of political knowledge. We investigated the possibility that this performance gap is moderated by factors that render the communicative context of a survey intellectually threatening to women and thereby induce stereotype threat. In a telephone survey of college students' political knowledge, we manipulated two factors of the survey context: the alleged diagnosticity of the question set (i.e., whether it was portrayed as being sensitive to potential gender differences) and the gender of the interviewer. Consistent with previous studies of political knowledge, men scored higher than women overall. However, as predicted, this difference was reliably moderated by the manipulated factors. Women's scores were not reliably different from men's when the survey was portrayed as nondiagnostic and when women were interviewed by female interviewers. Diagnosticity and interviewer gender had no effects on men's scores. Consistent with previous research on stereotype threat, these results suggest that explicit and implicit cues reminding women of the possibility that they might confirm a negative gender stereotype can impair their retrieval of political knowledge.
This research examines female leaders' responses to the gender–leader stereotype and the role of leadership self-efficacy in these responses. Using the biopsychosocial model of threat and challenge, this laboratory experiment examined women's cardiovascular, behavioral (i.e., performance), and self-report responses to the negative female leader stereotype as a function of leadership efficacy. Female participants, selected on leadership efficacy scores, served as leaders of ostensible three-person groups within an immersive virtual environment. Half were explicitly primed with the negative stereotype. As predicted, women with high, as opposed to low, percepts of leadership self-efficacy exhibited cardiovascular patterns of threat when performing the leadership task, and they performed better in the explicit stereotype activation condition compared to those not explicitly primed. Additionally, this threat was consistent with positive reactance responses on behavioral and self-report measures. Low efficacy leaders were not threatened, but they did show stereotype priming effects by assimilating to the negative stereotype on the self-report and behavioral measures. This research provides greater insight into stereotype reactance effects and highlights the role of self-efficacy in moderating stereotype threat and stereotype priming effects.
Since the 1960s, personality and social psychologists have taken major strides toward understanding the intrapersonal processes that promote successful self-regulation. The current article reviews insights into the understanding of self-regulation gained by examining the impact of interpersonal processes on the initiation, operation, and monitoring of goals. We review research suggesting that other people can act as triggers of goals, causing people to unconsciously initiate new goal pursuits; that interpersonal interactions can tap self-control, leaving people with depleted resources for goal pursuit; that relationship partners can support goal operation, leading to more effective goal pursuit; and that the social environment can facilitate effective monitoring of one’s extant goal progress and likelihood of future goal achievement.
We discuss how social comparison may influence achievement motivation and perceptions of competence. Perceptions of competence and motivation are strongly influenced by social comparisons. However, as we have described, social comparison can produce assimilative and contrastive effects. We have described how superstars and persons (proxies) who have attempted tasks that we are contemplating can serve as role models, allowing us to identify or assimilate to them. Their successes can be an important source of knowledge and motivation, because they are not our direct competitors. These role models, however, do need to have some similarities (in related attributes) with us, as social comparison theory stipulates, to be meaningful and allow us to identify or assimilate with them. Comparisons also can produce contrastive outcomes. Being exposed to a superflop may lower self-evaluations if people are forced to think about how the same thing could happen to them (assimilation), but it also prompts action to help them avoid such an outcome (contrast). In the school environment, the presence of many high-ability peers can reduce academic self-concept and academic aspirations via a contrast effect. We think that the contrast effect exceeds any effect of pride of identification with being in a selective school because of the inherent competition with same-age peers. However, in our view assimilation and contrast are not all-or-none outcomes. Probably every social comparison creates both the pull of assimilation and the push of contrast. Which process predominates depends on the person's degree of freedom and flexibility to make strategic comparisons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Elite-level leaders in business and government make significant and far-reaching decisions influencing many facets of society. However, relatively few of these powerful positions are held by women. This article explores gender in leadership by focusing on the difficulties women experience in attaining and being seen as effective in top leadership positions. It begins by revealing the lack of parity between the sexes in leadership and in the remaining sections it addresses empirical research that serves to illuminate the leadership labyrinth, or obstacles to women’s progress, also known as the glass ceiling. In the first section, research on gender and leadership styles, traits, and effectiveness is reviewed followed by a consideration of how both domestic responsibilities and current organizational cultures differentially impact women and men on their journey to top leadership positions. The focus then shifts to examining how stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination contribute to women’s under-representation in elite leadership roles by both impacting perceptions of and responses to women as well as impacting the experiences of women themselves. The final section concludes with thoughts on promoting parity in top-level leadership.
This research examines the role of mood and mood contagion in a leadership situation. In phase 1 of the study participants received a positive or negative mood induction and completed a leadership speech describing how to complete a hiring task. In phase 2, participants watched one of the speeches from phase 1, completed ratings, and performed the hiring task. Followers in the positive mood condition had higher levels of positive mood and lower levels of negative mood, rated their leaders as more charismatic, and performed better than followers in the negative mood condition. Followers' mood mediated the relationship between leader mood and follower outcomes. In the third phase of the study, participants read transcripts of the speeches from phase 2 but experienced no change in mood or performance, suggesting the previous effects found in phase 2 were due to mood contagion rather than the content of the speeches.
The individual and combined impact of blatant stereotype activation and solo status or mixed-sex groups on the self-appraisals, performance, and anxiety of female leaders was examined across three laboratory studies. The first study utilized a two-condition, two-stage design in which female leaders were exposed to a blatant stereotype threat or control condition after which they completed a leadership task. In the second stage, the threatened leaders received a solo status manipulation (leading a group of men) while the control condition did not. In the second study a 2 (blatant threat, no blatant threat) by 2 (solo status, all-female group) fully factorial design was used to test the hypotheses. Finally, in Study 3, a similar factorial design was used with a mixed-sex, rather than solo, condition. Across the studies it was hypothesized and found that receiving a single stereotype threat would result in a positive, stereotype reactance, response. However, when both threats were combined a stereotype vulnerability response was elicited, as expected. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Women remain underrepresented in science professions. Studies have shown that students are more likely to select careers when they can identify a role model in that career path. Further research has shown that the success of this strategy is enhanced by the use of gender-matched role models. While prior work provides insights into the value of using role models, it does not explain the cognitive process involved in girls identifying role models from nontraditional careers for women. This feminist study addresses this gap by examining the cognitive process eighth-grade girls use in identifying a person as a science role model and comparing it to the process used by women scientists seeking to serve as possible science role models. Data revealed that the girls' process in identifying a role model involved personal connections and their initial image of a scientist led them to believe they could not have such a connection with a scientist. The initial views expressed by the women suggested they felt pressure to portray “perfect“ scientists in order to be a role model. A common understanding of a science role model was realized only after changes occurred in the girls' image of scientists and the scientists' image of a role model. The catalysts for these changes were the relationships that developed between girls and women scientists. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed92:688–707, 2008
This study investigated the effectiveness of training in 2 components of charisma (charismatic communication style and visionary content). Forty-one business students received charismatic influence training, presentation skills training, or no training. All participants prepared and gave a speech. Groups of 2-3 students (N= 102) watched 1 of the videotaped speeches and then performed a task based on the speech instructions. Charismatic influence trainees performed better on a declarative knowledge test and exhibited more charismatic behaviors than those in the other conditions. In addition, participants who viewed a charismatic influence trainee performed best.
Based on a Selective Accessibility (SA) model of comparison consequences, it is suggested that the self-evaluative effects of social comparisons depend on the nature of the hypothesis that is tested as a starting-point of the comparison process. If judges test the hypothesis that they are similar to the standard, then standard-consistent self-knowledge is rendered accessible so that self-evaluations are assimilated towards the standard. If judges test the hypothesis that they are dissimilar from the standard, however, standard-inconsistent self-knowledge is made accessible so that self-evaluations are contrasted away from the standard. These predictions are tested by inducing participants to test for similarity versus dissimilarity to the standard via a procedural priming manipulation. Consistent with the SA model, assimilation occurs if participants are procedurally primed to focus on similarities to the standard, whereas contrast results if they are primed to focus on dissimilarities. These findings suggest that similarity versus dissimilarity testing is a crucial determinant of assimilation versus contrast. It is proposed that distinguishing between these two alternative hypotheses may provide an integrative framework for an understanding of the self-evaluative consequences of social comparisons. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Two studies examined the extent to which matching on gender determines the impact of career role models on the self. Because women face negative stereotypes regarding their competence in the workplace, they may derive particular benefit from the example of an outstanding woman who illustrates the possibility of overcoming gender barriers to achieve success. In contrast, men may not have the same need for same-gender role models. Study 1 assessed the impact of gender-matched and mismatched career role models on the self-perceptions of female and male participants. In Study 2, female and male participants were asked to describe a career role model who had inspired them in the past. In both studies, results indicated that female participants were more inspired by outstanding female than male role models; in contrast, gender did not determine the impact of role models on male participants.
Blanton and colleagues (1999) found that children who nominated a comparison-target in several courses chose same-sex students who slightly outperformed them in class. This had a beneficial effect on children's course grades, which were also independently predicted by comparative evaluation (i.e. how the children evaluated their relative standing in class). These phenomena were examined at two time periods with a more detailed record of comparison choices while including several psychological moderators (i.e. closeness to and identification with the comparison targets, perceived academic control, importance of academic domains). The present findings (1) replicate those found earlier by Blanton and colleagues, (2) offer evidence that children compare upward with close friends with whom they identify as a means of self-improvement, (3) show that this identification is more likely to occur when children perceive control over their standing relative to the comparison target, and (4) suggest that the effects of comparison-level choice (i.e. the level typical of the persons with whom one chooses to compare) diminish over time. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Standardized tests continue to generate gender and race gaps in achievement despite decades of national attention. Research on “stereotype threat” (Steele & Aronson, 1995) suggests that these gaps may be partly due to stereotypes that impugn the math abilities of females and the intellectual abilities of Black, Hispanic, and low-income students. A field experiment was performed to test methods of helping female, minority, and low-income adolescents overcome the anxiety-inducing effects of stereotype threat and, consequently, improve their standardized test scores. Specifically, seventh-grade students in the experimental conditions were mentored by college students who encouraged them either to view intelligence as malleable or to attribute academic difficulties in the seventh grade to the novelty of the educational setting. Results showed that females in both experimental conditions earned significantly higher math standardized test scores than females in the control condition. Similarly, the students—who were largely minority and low-income adolescents—in the experimental conditions earned significantly higher reading standardized test scores than students in the control condition.
This study investigated the influence of genetic factor and personality on leadership role occupancy among a sample of male twins. Identical twins (n = 238) who share 100% of their genetic background were compared with fraternal twins (n = 188) who are expected to share only 50% of their genetic background. Results indicated that 30% of the variance in leadership role occupancy could be accounted for by genetic factor, while non-shared (or non-common) environmental factor accounted for the remaining variance in leadership role occupancy. Genetic influences also contributed to personality variables known to be associated with leadership (i.e., social potency and achievement). Furthermore, the results indicated that the genetic influence on leadership role occupancy was associated with the genetic factors influencing the personality variables, but there was no definitive evidence whether these personality variables partially mediated the relationship between genetic factor and leadership. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for leader selection and training.
The current research extended the implicit theory approach to a weight management context and merged it with value expectancy theory. Three studies investigated the hypothesis that individuals are especially unlikely to self-regulate effectively after dieting setbacks when they believe body weight to be fixed (entity theory) rather than malleable (incremental theory). Study 1 examined avoidant coping after a hypothetical dieting setback. Study 2 examined the implicit theory-avoidant coping relation after naturally occurring challenges to participants' weight-loss goals. Across both studies, entity theorists, relative to incremental theorists, reported more avoidant coping after setbacks. In Study 2, avoidant coping, in turn, predicted difficulty achieving weight-loss success. Study 3 manipulated implicit theories of weight to test the causal effects of implicit theories on effortful regulation. Entity theorists, relative to incremental theorists, reported less persistence following setbacks. Across the three studies, expectations about the potential for future dieting success mediated the link between implicit theory and self-regulation.
Hypotheses involving mediation are common in the behavioral sciences. Mediation exists when a predictor affects a dependent variable indirectly through at least one intervening variable, or mediator. Methods to assess mediation involving multiple simultaneous mediators have received little attention in the methodological literature despite a clear need. We provide an overview of simple and multiple mediation and explore three approaches that can be used to investigate indirect processes, as well as methods for contrasting two or more mediators within a single model. We present an illustrative example, assessing and contrasting potential mediators of the relationship between the helpfulness of socialization agents and job satisfaction. We also provide SAS and SPSS macros, as well as Mplus and LISREL syntax, to facilitate the use of these methods in applications.
Two studies tested the prediction that the outcome of social comparison will differ depending on whether interpersonal or intergroup comparison processes have been engaged. Results of an experiment in which college student participants were assigned to membership in a minority or majority social category confirmed the predicted three-way interaction effect of in-group salience, target group membership, and upward-downward comparison on self-assessments of academic ability. Majority group members exhibited contrast effects in their self-ratings following exposure to a videotape of an in-group member displaying either very high or very low academic competence. Self-evaluations of minority group members revealed assimilation effects in response to in-group comparisons and contrast effects in response to out-group comparisons. In a second, follow-up experiment, this in-group assimilation effect was found to be dependent on intergroup contrast.