According to stereotypic beliefs about the sexes, women are more communal (selfless and concerned with others) and less agentic (self-assertive and motivated to master) than men. These beliefs were hypothesized to stem from perceivers' observations of women and men in differing social roles: (a) Women are more likely than men to hold positions of lower status and authority, and (b) women are more likely than men to be homemakers and are less likely to be employed in the paid work force. Experiments 1 and 2 failed to support the hypothesis that observed sex differences in status underlie belief in female communal qualities and male agentic qualities. Experiment 3 supported the hypothesis that observed sex differences in distribution into homemaker and employee occupational roles account for these beliefs. In this experiment, subjects perceived the average woman and man stereotypically. Female and male homemakers were perceived as high in communion and low in agency. Female and male employees were perceived as low in communion and high in agency, although female employees were perceived as even more agentic than their male counterparts. Experiments 4 and 5 examined perceptions that might account for the belief that employed women are especially agentic: (a) A double burden of employment plus family responsibilities did not account for this belief, and (b) freedom of choice about being employed accounted for it reasonably well.Gender stereotypes, like other social stereotypes, reflect perceivers' observations of what people do in daily life. If perceivers often observe a particular group of people engaging in a particular activity, they are likely to believe that the abilities and personality attributes required to carry out that activity are typical of that group of people. For example, if perceivers consistently observe women caring for chil-
According to our social-role theory of gender and helping, the male gender role fosters helping that is heroic and chivalrous, whereas the female gender role fosters helping that is nurturant and caring. In social psychological studies, helping behavior has been examined in the context of short-term encounters with strangers. This focus has tended to exclude from the research literature those helping behaviors prescribed by the female gender role, because they are displayed primarily in long-term, close relationships. In contrast, the helping behaviors prescribed by the male gender role have been generously represented in research findings because they are displayed in relationships with strangers as well as in close relationships. Results from our meta-analytic review of sex differences in helping behavior indicate that in general men helped more than women and women received more help than men. Nevertheless, sex differences in helping were extremely inconsistent across studies and were successfully predicted by various attributes of the studies and the helping behaviors. These predictors were interpreted in terms of several aspects of our social-role theory of gender and helping. Whether women and men differ in the extent to which they give and receive help is a question of considerable interest from both theoretical and applied perspectives. Although many psychologists have addressed this question (e.g., Deaux, 1976; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974; J. A. Piliavin & Unger, 1985), until now no systematic review has been carried out on sex differences in the large social psychological literature on helping. An analysis based on social roles provides a theoretical framework for our synthesis of this literature. Like other social behaviors, helping can be viewed as role behavior and therefore as being regulated by the social norms that apply to individuals based on the roles they occupy. To account for sex differences in helping from this perspective, we must understand the ways in which helping is sustained and inhibited by the social roles occupied mainly or exclusively by one sex versus the other. Gender roles are one important class of social role in this analysis. Other roles, if they are occupied primarily by a single sex (e.g.,
Subjects' beliefs about the communion and agency of part-time employees were compared with their beliefs about the communion and agency of homemakers, full-time employees, and persons without an occupational description. Female part-time employees were believed to be more communal and less agentic than female full-time employees as well as less communal than female homemakers. Male part-time employees were believed to be less agentic than male full-time employees as well as less communal and less agentic than both male homemakers and men without an occupational description. In addition, subjects believed that part-time employment is associated with different life situations for women and men. For women this situation is substantial commitment to domestic duties, whereas for men it is difficulty in finding full-time employment. These findings support the theory that stereotypes concerning the communion and agency of women and men are a product of the social roles that women and men have been observed to occupy.Because 20% o f the work force i s employed part-time (U. S. Department o f Labor, 1984), it i s important to understand how part-time employment affects the image that peopIe project to others. The effects of part-time employment on how people are perceived are especially important to women because a far larger proportion o f the female than the male work force (30% versus 12%) i s employed part-time.
Many behaviors are performed less frequently than intended because they require knowledge and skill to overcome behavioral barriers. This experiment tested effects of two factors, direct experience and message frame, that were hypothesized to affect men's intention to perform the testicle self-exam for cancer (TSE) and their actual exam performance, in part by affecting their knowledge and beliefs about overcoming TSE performance barriers. Men's experience performing the TSE on a life-like model and the frame (negative, positive, or neutral) of the recommendation promoting the exam were manipulated factorially. Consistent with prediction, men who practiced (vs. did not practice) the self-exam: (a) endorsed stronger beliefs about behavior-specific knowledge (e.g., ability to imagine a lump), (b) held more positive intention, and (c) translated that intention more consistently into self-reported action, in part because their behavior-specific knowledge increased their tendency to act on their intention. Consistent with action phase theory (Gollwitzer, 1990), intention related more strongly to behavior-specific beliefs than to general, long-term beliefs, and more strongly than attitude related to behavior-specific beliefs. These findings have practical and theoretical implications for promoting healthful and other intended behaviors.'We thank Shelly Chaiken for providing BSE brochures containing the framing manipulation used in Meyerowitz and Chaiken's (1987) experiment. We also thank Roy Lilly for data analytic advice, for their help collecting or managing data. We are grateful to Suzi Aberasturi and Linda Kern for helping analyze the data. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.
College men reported their attitude and intention to perform the testicle selfexam (TSE) and they rated the likelihood of various consequences of performing the TSE, as well as the likelihood that several other people approved of this behavior. Half of these men had read a brochure about the ' B E before completing the questionnaire, and half had not. Also, about half had heard about the TSE prior to the experiment and the others had not. Men's beliefs about the consequences of doing the TSE clustered into two factors: Beliefs about practical consequences and beliefs about health consequences. Men with (vs. without) prior knowledge about the exam and men who read (vs. did not read) the brochure endorsed more positive beliefs about practical and health consequences and more positive TSE attitude and intention. However, the effect of the brochure was far stronger for men without than with prior knowledge. In addition, factors influencing TSE attitude and intention differed for men without versus with prior TSE knowledge. Although the findings were generally consistent with the theory of reasoned action, some findings supported elements of protection motivation theory. Implications for promoting the TSE are discussed.
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