Explaining poor performance in female solos: The role of group representation and other's expectancies about women's competency in performance.

Abstract

Solo status occurs when individuals are the only member of their social category (e.g., gender or race) in an otherwise homogenous group. Previous research indicates that low status groups (e.g., females and Blacks) perform worse as solos than high status groups (e.g., males and Whites) because they experience solo status more negatively (see Thompson & Sekaquaptewa, 2002 for a review). For example, low status solos expect to perform poorly, are concerned about being stereotyped, and believe that a poor performance will reflect negatively on their group. This thesis investigates the hypothesis that feelings of representativeness and other's expectancies affect women's psychological reactions to solo status and their performance under solo status. In Experiment 1, White female participants were either told that they would be seen as representatives of their gender or not while performing an oral exam alone, in a same-sexed (nonsolo), or in an opposite-sexed (solo) group. Solo females felt more representative of their gender, wanted to change the gender composition of their group, performed less confidently, and gave less detailed responses than alone and nonsolo participants. These effects were more pronounced for solo females who were told they were gender representatives. In Experiment 2, African-American male and female participants were placed in same-race but opposite-sexed groups (solo status) and learned members of their gender were expected to perform well or poorly on an academic task. Female solos had more positive reactions (e.g., fewer concerns about representing other women, higher expectancies, lower anxiety) in the high than low expectancies condition; male solos had similar reactions in each expectancy condition. Despite their improved reactions to solo status, females did not answer more confidently, provide more detailed responses, or answer more accurately in the high expectancies condition during an oral exam. Reducing feelings of representativeness and communicating high expectancies are discussed as strategies for improving the experiences and performance of low status solos.