Elmore Kristen C, Oyserman Daphna
University of Michigan.
Contemp Educ Psychol. 2012 Jul 1;37(3):176-185. doi: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2011.05.003.
Gender matters in the classroom, but not in the way people may assume; girls are outperforming boys. Identity-Based Motivation (IBM) theory explains why: People prefer to act in ways that feel in-line with important social identities such as gender. If a behavior feels identity-congruent, difficulty is interpreted as meaning that the behavior is important, not impossible, but what feels identity-congruent is context-dependent. IBM implies that boys (and girls) scan the classroom for clues about how to be male (or female); school effort will feel worthwhile if successful engagement with school feels gender-congruent, not otherwise. A between-subjects experimental design tested this prediction, manipulating whether gender and success felt congruent, incongruent, or not linked (control). Students in the success is gender-congruent condition described more school-focused possible identities, rated their likely future academic and occupational success higher, and tried harder on an academic task (this latter effect was significant only for boys).
性别在课堂上很重要，但并非人们可能认为的那样；女孩的表现超过了男孩。基于身份的动机（IBM）理论解释了原因：人们倾向于以符合重要社会身份（如性别）的方式行事。如果一种行为感觉与身份相符，困难会被解释为意味着该行为很重要，并非不可能，但感觉与身份相符的情况取决于具体情境。IBM意味着男孩（和女孩）会在课堂上寻找关于如何成为男性（或女性）的线索；如果在学校的成功参与感觉与性别相符，那么付出努力就会觉得值得，否则就不会。一项被试间实验设计对这一预测进行了测试，操纵了性别与成功之间是感觉相符、不相符还是没有关联（控制组）。处于成功与性别相符条件下的学生描述了更多以学校为重点的可能身份，对自己未来可能的学业和职业成功评价更高，并且在一项学术任务上更加努力（后一种效应仅对男孩显著）。
