218 Chapter 6evidence indicates that parents’ beliefs about
their children’s abilities influence children’s
own self-perceptions and children’s actual
abilities. In other words, parents’ stereotypes
about girls’ and boys’ abilities may become
self-fulfilling prophecies. The feedback and
experiences that parents provide to their
children may lead the children to develop
the different abilities parents initially
expected.
A second source of influence on
children’s beliefs about their abilities is
teachers. Teachers pay more attention
to boys than girls in the classroom. This
may be due, in part, to boys’ misbehavior
demanding more attention. Teachers aremore likely to criticize boys than girls;
interestingly, criticism is linked to greater
self-confidence. More important, the nature
of the feedback that teachers provide to
girls and boys differs. Boys seem to receive a
great deal of negative feedback about work-
irrelevant domains, which then leads boys
to discount negative feedback about their
work and maintain a belief in their abilities.
This type of negative feedback also may
undermine boys’ interest in school. Girls,
by contrast, seem to receive more positive
feedback about work-irrelevant domains,
which, unfortunately, leads girls to discount
positive feedback about their work and
make more unstable attributions for success.- Discuss the evidence in favor of and
against a “fear of success” in women.
What would be a good way to exam-
ine this issue today? - Of all the ideas discussed in this
chapter, which do you find to be
most convincing as an explanation
of why women do not pursue STEM
careers to the extent that men do? - Which is more adaptive: women’s
or men’s response to evaluative
feedback? - Under what circumstances would
you expect women and men to make
similar versus different attributions
for their performance? - Considering the results from
the studies on evaluative
feedback and the work by
Dweck on teachers’ attributions
for performance, what is the best
way to provide feedback to
children? To adults?
6. Given what you have learned about
the different ways women and men
define their core selves, what would
you predict influences women’s and
men’s self-esteem?
7. Consider the expectancy/value
model of achievement. In what
domains would you predict that
women and men would have
similar expectancies and values,
and in what domains would you
predict that women and men
would have different expectancies
and values?
8. What are some of the specific ways
in which parents’ beliefs about their
children’s abilities could influence
their children’s actual abilities?
9. What do you believe are the major
advantages and disadvantages of
single-sex classrooms? - What could be done to reduce
gender bias in the classroom?
Discussion Questions
M06_HELG0185_04_SE_C06.indd 218 6/21/11 8:10 AM