Social Psychology and Gender

1
Social Psychology and Gender

• Principle Applications in the Real World

2
Topics for Discussion

• Social Comparison Theory and Body Image
• Attractiveness and Performance Evaluations
• Marriage and Health

3
Social Comparison Theory

• Festinger (1954)
• We compare ourselves with other people as a
  source of information when judging attributes
  about the self
• More likely when objective information is
  unavailable
• Similar others offer a more informative
  comparison

4
Social Comparison Theory

• Accuracy, Inspiration, or Ego-Boost?

But what happens when we are constantly
confronted with upward comparison that is
unattainable?
5
Social Comparison Body Image
Thin Ideal unrealistically slender body type
disseminated through the media as the standard of
attractiveness for women -------------------------
--------------
Do women use these images as a source for social
comparison?
6
Social Comparison Body Image

• Greater media exposure related to greater body
  dissatisfaction and desire for thinness
• Viewing thin models leads to decreases in
  self-esteem and lower satisfaction with
  weight/body image
• ________________________________
• Media images function as detrimental upward
  comparisons for women

7
Social Comparison Body Image

• Downward social comparison
• Exposure to overweight individuals does not
  improve self-esteem or body image satisfaction
• Peers who are thin and
• heavy have same experimental effects as media
  images

8
Social Comparison Body Image

• What about men?
• Difference between ideal and achievable body
  not as great
• Minimal or no effects on self-esteem and body
  image

9
Physical Attractiveness and Performance
Evaluations

• Beauty is a greater recommendation than any
  letter of introduction
• Aristotle
• Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell
  together
• Petrarch

10
Physical Attractiveness and Performance
Evaluations

• What is beautiful is good (Dion,
  Bercheid Walster, 1972)
• Traits like sociability, extraversion, happiness
  and assertiveness are attributed more to the
  attractive
• What about intelligence?

11
Physical Attractiveness and Performance
Evaluations

• Does attractiveness affect intelligence?
• Attractive children rated as more intelligent
  than unattractive children
• Attractive kids earned higher grades and
  achievement scores
• Note Teachers made these ratings and
  assigned grades any problem?

12
Physical Attractiveness and Performance
Evaluations
Perceptions of Intelligence Related Attributes By
Gender and Attractiveness
(Chia, et al, 1998)
13
Physical Attractiveness and Performance
Evaluations

• Attractive women rated less qualified and were
  less likely to be recommended for hire to high
  status positions than unattractive women

Youre Hired?
14
Physical Attractiveness and Performance
Evaluations

• Attractive men and women are seen as being less
  causal in achieving their position of status
  than unattractive colleagues

15
Physical Attractiveness and Performance
Evaluations

• Are we doomed?
• Attractiveness effects diminished with knowledge
  of past performance
• But, some evidence suggests that high past
  performance favors the unattractive, while low
  past performance favors the attractive

16
Physical Attractiveness and Performance
Evaluations

• Blonde or Brunettes?
• Men judged blondes to be less intelligent than
  either redheads or brunettes
• Women did not differ in their judgments of
  intelligence based on hair color

Weir Fine-Davis, 1989
17
Marriage and Health

• Are we better off getting married or staying
  single?
• Who gets more of the benefit from marriage, men
  or women?

18
Marriage and Health

• Men benefit more from marriage
• Troubled relationships are more detrimental for
  women than men

19
Marriage and Health

• Why might men benefit more from marriage?
• Social Support
• Health Behaviors
• Household management

20
Marriage and Health

• Women are also more affected by marital conflict
• Cardiovascular
• Stress response
• Mental health and depression

21
Marriage and Health

• Why the difference in impact of interpersonal
  conflict?
• Relationship power
• Gender roles

22
Marriage and Health

• Why the difference in impact of interpersonal
  conflict?
• Relationship power wives are subordinate to
  husbands and more vulnerable to relationship
  breakdown

23
Marriage and Health

• Why the difference in impact of interpersonal
  conflict?
• Gender roles women are more interpersonally
  oriented, emotion-focused and feel responsible
  for relationship functioning

24
Conclusions Principles of psychology can have
different implications for men and women in the
real world

• Media images are detrimental for womens body
  image and self-esteem
• Physical attractiveness can influence perceptions
  of intelligence and competence
• Marriage offers more benefits for men than women