Week 5 Day 2 Culture and Gender Issues

8/6/2019 Week 5 Day 2 Culture and Gender Issues

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Gender and Cultural Issues in

Psychology

Laura C. Lomeli



For Today:

� Culture

± Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions

±

GLOBE study ± Culture of Honor

� Gender

± Gender role attitudes

� Stereotypes



Culture

� What is culture?

± The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and

traditions shared by a large group of people

transmitted from one generation to the next.

� Countries differ in many ways

± These differences distinguish members of one

group or society from those of another



Culture

� Hofstedes Dimensions (dimensionsparadigm):

± Power Distance

± Uncertainty Avoidance

± Individualism/Collectivism

± Masculinity/Femininity

±

Long Term Orientation ± http://www.geert-

hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php



Culture

� Power Distance

± The degree to which persons in a society are willing toaccept the distribution of power in an organization

� Small power distance ± More equal distribution of power

� Large power distance

± The order of power is accepted without justification

± Power and inequality are extremely fundamental facts

of any society.� All societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than

others'.



Culture

� Uncertainty Avoidance

± Willingness to accept ambiguousness

� Some cultures are more accepting of ambiguousness

than others



Culture

� Individualism

± People care only for themselves

� Collectivism ± People are part of a team and worry about the

teams best interest, not the individuals best

interest



Culture

� Masculinity

± achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and

material success

± Endorse differences between the sexes

� Femininity

± preference for relationships, modesty, caring for

the weak, and the quality of life

± Endorse equality of the sexes



Culture

� Long Term Orientation

± Thrift and perseverance

� Short Term Orientation ± Respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations,

and protecting ones face

**Added later on



Culture

� GLOBE study

± Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Effectiveness

± Conceived by Robert J. House in 1991

± 1994-1997

� 170 voluntary collaborators collected data from 17,000

managers and 951 local organizations in 62 societiesaround the world



Culture

� GLOBE objectives:

± Are there leader behaviors, attributes, andorganizational practices that are universally accepted

and effective across cultures? ± Are there leader behaviors, attributes, and

organizational practices that are accepted andeffective in only some cultures?

± How do attributes of societal and organizationalcultures affect the kinds of leader behaviors andorganizational practices that are accepted andeffective?



Culture

± What is the effect of violating cultural normsrelevant to leadership and organizationalpractices?

± What is the relative standing of each of thecultures studied on each of the nine coredimensions of culture?

± Can the universal and culture-specific aspects of

leader behaviors, attributes, and organizationalpractices be explained in terms of an underlyingtheory that accounts for systematic differencesacross cultures?



Culture

� Expanded Hofstedes dimensions

± Power Distance

± Uncertainty Avoidance

± Collectivism

� Institutional Collectivism

� In-Group Collectivism

± Masculinity-Femininity� Assertiveness

� Gender Egalitarianism



Culture

± Long Term Orientation

� Future Orientation

± Human Orientation

± Performance Orientation

� These 9 dimensions served as the basis of the

GLOBE study

± 4 scales for each dimension



Culture

� For each of the dimensions:

± GLOBE distinguished cultural practices (as is) and

cultural values (should be)

� GLOBE also distinguished between

organizational cultures and societal cultures



Culture

� Cultural Diversity

± Diversity of languages, customs, and behaviors

�

Cultural Similarity ± an essential universality

� Humans hold some norms in common

± With friends:

» Make eye contact while talking» Dont divulge things said in confidence



Culture

� Norms

± Expected behavior

±

Describe what most others do ± Some are culture specific, others are universal

� Example:

± Personal Space

»

British versusF

rench» Cultures near the equator prefer less space and more

touching and hugging



Culture

� From an early age, small boys were taught to

think much of their own honor and to be

active in its defense. Honor in this society

meant a pride of manhood in masculine

courage, physical strength, and warrior virtue.

Male children were trained to defend their

honor without a moments hesitation lashingout against their challengers with savage

violence.



Culture

� South is more violent than the North

± White males are more violent in the South than in

the North

± Media is less likely to stigmatize violence in the

defense of honor and more likely to see it as

justifiable

± The difference is concentrated among whitemales



Culture

� Why?

± Possible explanations:

� Poverty/Inequality

� Legacy of slavery

� Temperature

� Culture of Honor

±

Poverty, legacy of slavery, and temperature onlypartly explain this phenomenonculture of honor

may better explain it.



Culture

� The southern culture of honor

± Violence is used to defend ones own and family

honor

� Where does this culture come from?

± Cultures of honor are common among herders

± Herders must defend their property

± South was settled by herders, whereas the North

was settled by farmers (Colonial period)



Culture

� Evidence of higher violence in South

± Higher argument-related violence rather thanfelony-related violence

� People are more likely to get into a bar fight� People are not more likely to rob a bank

± This is not necessarily true for Southern cities

± South has different attitudes toward violence

� More southerners buy and carry guns

� Support free access to guns

� Believe guns make the home safer



Culture

� Establishing ones reputation for toughness

± Even on matters that might seem small on the

surface

� Consequences of allowing oneself to be

pushed around

± Easy mark/taken advantage of



Culture

� Waiteveryone is so polite in the South?

± True.

± However, politeness in the South may function to

promote violence.

± Small signs of anger (not consistent with being

polite) are useful in deterring violence.

� Small signs of anger more common in North.



Culture

� Culture of honor norms are still part of thesouthern legacy

� Examples:

± turn right around and knock some jerk to theground cause he copped a feel as you walked by

� Brad Paisley, Im still a guy

± A man has the right to kill to defend his house.

± A man who does not respond with violence will bestigmatized.

� Not much of a man.



Gender

� Why gender?

± Is it a boy or a girl?

�

Gender� The characteristics people associate with male and

female

� Gender Stereotypes



Gender Roles

� Agentic vs. Communal

± Agentic

� Males

� Assertive, goal directed, and controlling tendency

± Communal

� Females

� Concern for the welfare of other people

� Division of these qualities traced back towomen engaging in domestic chores and menworking outside the home.



Gender Roles

� Gender role attitudes

± Beliefs about the appropriate role activities for

men and women

� Men were hunters, women were gatherers

± Traditional versus non traditional

� Non traditional associated with high egalitarianism

± Egalitarianism

» Men and women are equal

» Men and women are not required to conform to their

traditional gender roles



Gender Roles

� Vary with culture

� Result of biology and culture

� http://youtu.be/PDBMHz1Dthw



Gender Roles

� Social Role Theory (Eagly, 1987)

± Men and women occupy different roles in society

� Men = provider

� Women = caregiver

± Men and women learn different skills and beliefsthat impact their social behavior

� Gender differences in actual behavior

± Gender role stereotypes are bound to social rolesand reflect current occupational and societaltrends



Gender Roles

± Gender role stereotypes are dynamic and

malleable

� Number of women entering the paid labor force has

doubled since the 1950s and is steadily increasing.� Drastic increase in the number of women pursuing

more traditionally masculine career paths.

� Result = more flexible attitudes and perceptions

pertaining to the female gender role.



Gender Roles

� We usually assume only women are affected

by gender role attitudes

± BUT Gender role attitudes also affect men.

� Women have more flexible gender roles than

men

� http://youtu.be/CXqxP-bUC7I



Gender Roles

� Wilbourn and Kee (2010):

± Henry the Nurse is a Doctor Too: Implicitly ExaminingChildrens Gender Stereotypes for Male and Female

Occupational Roles.� Purpose:

± Test social role theory by examining childrens genderrole stereotypes

±

Specifically, whether childrens occupationalstereotypes were less restrictive for females whoengaged in counter-stereotypic occupations comparedto males



Gender Roles

� Gender stereotypes from birth

� boy or girl category (e.g., blue vs. pink)

� Increased flexibility in female gender role

compared to male gender role

± Current trends maintain gender role stereotypes



Gender Roles

� Study:

± Fifty-seven 3rd grade students (25 boys, 32 girls)

� (1) have a well-established knowledge base regarding

occupational stereotypes (e.g., who typically is a

doctor?)

� (2) understand that both genders can violate gender

role norms

� (3) have differential evaluations of male and femalegender role norm violations (e.g., Should a man be a

nurse?)



Gender Roles

± Children were presented with stereotypic and

counter-stereotypic name-occupation pairs

± Asked to create sentences using both the name

and occupation

± Response latencies were used as measures of

knowledge base access.

±

Overall memories for name-occupation pairingsand types of errors were also examined.



Gender Roles

A B

Pairing Category Pairing Category

Henry- Auto Mechanic Mm Henry-Nurse Mf

Heather-F

irefighterF

m Heather- Telephone OperatorF

f Mark- Secretary Mf Mark- Dentist Mm

Patricia- Nurse Ff Patricia-Janitor Fm

Julie- Police Officer Fm Julie- Schoolteacher Ff

David- Truck Driver Mm David- Housekeeper Mf

William- Schoolteacher Mf William- Doctor Mm

Alison- Librarian Ff Alison- Plumber Fm



Gender Roles

� Results

± Equally processed information regarding womenin stereotypically female positions and in

stereotypically male positions ± More efficient at processing the counter-

stereotypic female name-masculi ne pairi ngsrelative to the counter-stereotypic male name-

femi ni ne occupation pairings ± Childrens gender role stereotypes were more

restrictive for males, than for females



Gender Roles

� Glass Ceiling

± a barrier of prejudice and discrimination that

excludes women from higher level leadership

positions



Gender Roles

� Not quite

± Women constitute:

� 4% of the five highest earning officers in Fortune 500

companies and 0.4% of the CEOs

� 13% of senators

� 14% of congressional representatives

� 10% of state governors

� 2% of military officers at the level of brigadier general

and rear admiral or higher



Gender Roles

� Role incongruity leads to two kinds of bias:

± Descriptive

� Female follows her gender role and will not be

perceived as having the necessary characteristics to bea leader

± Prescriptive

� Female adopts more masculine characteristics in her

leadership role, violating her gender role



Gender



Gender

� Mens images of women

± If women had no existence save in the fiction

written by men, one would imagine her a

personvery various; heroic and mean; splendidand sordid; infinitely beautiful and hideous in the

extreme.

� Virginia Woolf, A Room o f Ones Ow n



Gender

� Pomeroy (1975) suggested the following

categories of women:

± Goddesses

± Whores

± Wives

± Slaves

� In the media now, women are depicted as

faithful wives and murderous seductresses.



Gender

� Benevolent Sexism

± Characterize women as pure creatures who ought

to be protected, supported, and adored and

whose love is necessary to make a man complete

� Women are weak, suited for conventional gender roles

� Women should be protected and provided for by men

± Is confining, but seen as cherishing

± Greater social acceptability than hostile sexism



Gender

� Cross-culturally prevalent

� Benevolent sexism is positively correlated with

hostile sexism

� Women are equally or more accepting of

benevolent sexism than men, whereas they

generally reject hostile sexism



Stereotypes

� What are stereotypes?

± Generalizations about a groups characteristics

that do not consider any variations from one

individual to the next

� Are not prejudices, but may support prejudice



Stereotypes

� To stereotype is to generalize

± Examples:

� Europeans have bad teeth

� Americans are outgoing

� Women are more understanding, kind, and helpful

� All people stereotype



Stereotypes

� Stereotype threat

± Feeling at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic,

a negative stereotype about ones group.



Stereotypes

� How does stereotype threat work?

± Distracting

� More effort to dismiss its allegations

± Motivational

� Worrying about mistakes

� Negative stereotypes disrupt performance,

positive stereotypes can facilitateperformance



Gender Roles

� Hypotheses:

± Children would take significantly longer to createsentences for the counter-stereotypic male pairings(e.g., Henry-Nurse) relative to the stereotypic malepairings (e.g., Mark-Dentist).

± Children would have significantly more sentencesomitted (i.e., child could not come up with asentence) and sentences that did not incorporate the

relevant aspects of the occupations for the malecounter-stereotypic pairs relative to male stereotypicpairings.



Social Roles

� A whole cluster of norms describe a social role

± Examples:

� Parent

� Student� Friend

� High vs. low status roles

± Example:

� George Orwells Animal Farm

� Roles often come in pairs

Week 5 Day 2 Culture and Gender Issues

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