Nash has argued that individuals will perform better on cognitive tasks when their self-concepts match the gender stereotyping of the tasks. To evaluate this hypothesis, we reviewed studies on the relation between gender self-concept and performance on spatial, mathematical, and verbal tasks. Meta-analytic techniques were used to estimate the average effect sizes and to determine the significance of the combined probabilities. The influence of subjects' sex and age, date of study, type of spatial task, and type of self-concept measure on these associations was also examined. In general, the results from spatial and mathematical tasks, which are usually stereotyped as masculine, supported Nash's hypothesis. Higher masculine and lower feminine self-concept scores were associated with better performance. These relations were observed more consistently for female than for male subjects. Most notably, there was some evidence of better spatial and mathematical performance among adolescent boys who described themselves as feminine. Nash's hypothesis was not supported for verbal tasks. Finally, there was no evidence that androgyny, defined either as high masculine and high feminine scores or as a balance between masculine and feminine scores, is associated with better cognitive performance.

Among women college students who did not know that the surface of still water in a bottle is always horizontal, two types of specific task procedures designed to elicit self-discovery of the principle were ineffective. Failure to acquire the concept was reflected in inaccurate responses on the adjustment task and by inability of students to verbalize a correct strategy.

This article reports original research examining characteristics of the active followers of the American animal rights movement. Typical respondents were Caucasian, highly educated urban professional women approximately thirty years old with a median income of $33,000 (1989). Most activists think of themselves as Democrats or as Independents, and have moderate to liberal political views. They were often suspicious of science and made no distinction between basic and applied science, or public versus private animal-based research. The research suggests that animal rights activism is part of a symbolic manifestation of egalitarian social and political views concerning scientific and technological change.

No abstract

No abstract