Perceived affect following male and female success and failure at occupations

Abstract

This study investigated the responses of 345 secondary school children (males and females) from five Adelaide schools to questionnaires involving items in which both a male and u female either succeeded or failed to enter an occupation. Each of the two forms of the questionnaire (success or failure) covered 12 occupations which varied in status and sex-linkage. For each item subjects indicated which character (male or female) would be happier about success (or failure) and then rated the level of happiness (or unhappiness) for each character. Subsequently subjects rated the 12 occupations for status and male-dominance and then provided background information. Results indicated a strong tendency for judgements of affect to be related to the perceived status and sex-linkage of the occupations. Judgements of affect were higher for higher status occupations and when there was consistency between the sex of the person entering or failing to enter an occupation and the sex-linkage of that occupation. SES differences in the groups who were tested had virtually no effect on judgements of affect. More detailed studies of the effects of social learning were suggested, going beyond SES differences.