Attributions and Performance : The Effects of Sex Role Identity and Sex-Typed Tasks / Sandra S. Lee.

Female college students (N=59) filled out the Bem Sex Role Identity Scale, and were told that they would be asked to do an anagram task. Half of the subjects, assigned on a random basis to the masculine task condition, were told that males do very well on the task, and that it seemed to be related to the masculine personality. The other half of the subjects were told that females do very well on the task, and that it seemed to be related to the feminine personality. Subjects completed the anagram task and were given random success or failure feedback. Subjects then filled out scales attributing the success or failure to each of the four major attributions: ability, effort, task ease/difficulty, and luck. Data were also collected on expectations for the same task in the future, and on affect. Results were analyzed by means of an analysis of variance, with sex role identity (feminine sex-typed vs. nontraditional women), masculine vs. feminine task situations, and success vs. failure feedback as factors. Results supported the hypothesis that nontraditional women would have a more self-enhancing pattern of attributions than feminine sex-typed women. Feminine sex-typed women attributed successes more often than nontraditional women to having had an easy task. In addition, feminine sex-typed women performed significantly less well on the anagram task than did nontraditional women. An inhibition factor was more apparent in the masculine task condition, suggesting that the lowered performance may be due to the sex role inappropriateness of the task. However, lowered performance may be due to other factors, and future research should explore this. (Author/AG)

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