Text

theses

Women leave science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at much higher rates than men. One reason for this gender disparity may be differences in the way women respond to STEM-related feedback relative to men. Some past research suggests women tend to make stable/internal attributions for their failures and unstable/external attributions for their successes, whereas men do the opposite. However, research in recent years has failed to replicate this finding that was once well-established in the literature. To reconcile these conflicting findings, in two studies I examined the relationship between gender and causal attributions for success and failure in STEM fields. In Study 1, undergraduate STEM students at Rutgers University read one of two hypothetical scenarios in which they either earned an A on or failed an exam in one of their STEM courses. In Study 2, participants completed an actual STEM test and received randomized success or failure feedback about their performance on the test. In both studies, participants then completed a series of measures capturing the reasons they may have succeeded or failed. Across both studies, there was little evidence for gender differences in the types of attributions STEM students made for success and failure. Although the notion that women tend to make maladaptive attributions has been long held in psychology, it may not be as prevalent now as it once was.

http://dissertations.umi.com/gsnb.rutgers:12313

M.S.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-nxec-km25

The author owns the copyright to this work.