Priming Effects and Gender-Based Performance Expectations: Expanding the Informational Structure of the Interaction

Sociological research within the expectation states paradigm has repeatedly demonstrated that status differences produce behavioral inequalities in task groups. Outside this tradition, psychological research on priming effects suggests that non-conscious processes related to the accessibility of cognitive constructs influence how actors perceive and categorize social stimuli. The extent to which such categorization processes affect status-organizing processes is unclear. In this research I experimentally examine psychological and expectation states theoretical accounts of how non-conscious information that is seemingly irrelevant to group interactions becomes relevant to the informational structure of a task situation. In phase one of the experiment, participants completed a task in which they were primed with photographs of women occupying either stereotypical or counter-stereotypical roles. In phase two, participants, along with an opposite-sex partner, completed a standardized contrast sensitivity test. The two phases were ostensibly unrelated from the participants’ point of view. The results provide new insights into the processes by which status cues present within the social environment impinge upon interaction in mixed-sex groups.

Name thesis:degree_name

PHD

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Grantor dc:publisher

Kent State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Dippong, Joseph C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kalkhoff, Will

• Sociology

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365543123

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:kent1365543123