Malleability in Communal Goals and Beliefs Influences Attraction to STEM Careers: Evidence for a Goal Congruity Perspective
Malleability in Communal Goals and Beliefs Influences Attraction to STEM Careers: Evidence for a Goal Congruity Perspective
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DOI：
10.1037/a0025199
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发表时间：
2011-11-01
影响因子：
7.6
通讯作者：
Steinberg, Mia
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Diekman, Amanda B.;Clark, Emily K.;Steinberg, Mia
目标一致性观点认为，两种不同的社会认知预测对科学、技术、工程或数学(STEM)领域的吸引力。首先，个人可能特别重视共同目标(例如，与他人合作或帮助他人)，这要么是由于长期的个人差异，要么是这些目标在特定背景下的突出。其次，个人持有促进或阻碍这些目标的活动的信念，或目标负担的刻板印象。女性比男性更倾向于支持共同目标，以及STEM职业阻碍共同目标的共识刻板印象，相互交织在一起，产生了对STEM职业的不感兴趣。我们为基本预测提供了证据，即性别差异主要出现在共同目标而不是代理目标上(研究1a和3)，目标负担定型观念反映了STEM职业与共同目标相对分离的信念(研究1b和1c)。最关键的是，我们提供的因果证据表明，被激活的共同目标降低了人们对STEM领域的兴趣(研究2)，并且STEM职业生涯负担得起共同目标的潜力引发了更大的积极性(研究3)。因此，这些研究提供了一个新的证据，即理解共同目标和目标负担刻板印象可以帮助我们洞察对STEM追求的态度。
The goal congruity perspective posits that 2 distinct social cognitions predict attraction to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields. First, individuals may particularly value communal goals (e.g., working with or helping others), due to either chronic individual differences or the salience of these goals in particular contexts. Second, individuals hold beliefs about the activities that facilitate or impede these goals, or goal affordance stereotypes. Women's tendency to endorse communal goals more highly than do men, along with consensual stereotypes that STEM careers impede communal goals, intersect to produce disinterest in STEM careers. We provide evidence for the foundational predictions that gender differences emerge primarily on communal rather than agentic goals (Studies la and 3) and that goal affordance stereotypes reflect beliefs that STEM careers are relatively dissociated from communal goals (Studies 1b and 1c). Most critically, we provide causal evidence that activated communal goals decrease interest in STEM fields (Study 2) and that the potential for a STEM career to afford communal goals elicits greater positivity (Study 3). These studies thus provide a novel demonstration that understanding communal goals and goal affordance stereotypes can lend insight into attitudes toward STEM pursuits.