The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

204 Chapter 6

no overall sex difference, but there was a sex

by age interaction, meaning that the sex dif-

ference depended on the age of the respon-

dents (Mezulis et al., 2004). Among children,

girls displayed more of a self-serving bias

than boys; among early adolescents, there

was no sex difference; and among older ado-

lescents and adults, men displayed more of a

self-serving bias than women.

Attributions for performance have

been studied among children, in an effort

to understand how they perceive their per-

formance. One study of gifted second grad-

ersshowedthatgirlsweremorelikelythan

boys to believe that they had to work hard

to get good grades (i.e., attributions to ef-

fort), but this sex difference disappeared for

be repeated. On masculine tasks, perceivers

attributed men’s failure to unstable causes,

that is, lack of effort and bad luck, whereas

perceivers attributed women’s failure to the

difficulty of the task. Again, perceivers are at-

tributing men’s failure to unstable causes that

will not necessarily be repeated but women’s

failure to a stable cause that implies the

failure will be repeated. The meta-analysis

showed fewer differences in the attributions

made for women’s and men’s performance

on feminine tasks (e.g., those involving ver-

bal abilities). To be fair, most studies exam-

ined only masculine tasks, and the majority

of studies focused on college students.

A meta-analysis on sex comparisons of

the self-serving bias showed that there was

FIGURE 6.10 Expectancy model of attributions: actors. This model shows

that when performance fits our expectations (success following high expecta-

tions for performance, failure following low expectations for performance), we

attribute the cause to stable factors. When performance does not fit our expec-

tations (success following low expectations for performance, failure following

high expectations for performance), we attribute the cause to unstable factors.

Source: K. Deaux (1984). From individual differences to social categories:

Analysis of a decade’s research on gender. American Psychologist, 39, 105–116.

Low

Expectations

for Performance

Success

(inconsistent)

Failure

(consistent)

Attribution to

Unstable Cause

(e.g., luck,

effort)

Attribution to

Stable and

Internal Cause

(e.g., lack of

ability)

High

Expectations

for Performance

Success

(consistent)

Failure

(inconsistent)

Attribution to

Unstable Cause

(e.g., bad luck,

lack of effort)

Attribution to

Stable and

Internal Cause

(e.g., ability)

M06_HELG0185_04_SE_C06.indd 204 6/21/11 8:10 AM