Deck 5: The Contents and Origins of Gender Stereotypes

Question 1

Stereotypes about Middle Eastern men have fewer unique traits than stereotypes about Middle Eastern women. What is the cause of this finding according to intersectional theory?

A) Middle Eastern women are ascribed both communal and agentic traits, whereas Middle Eastern men are only ascribed agentic traits.
B) People's views of Middle Eastern men are especially rigid and simplistic.
C) Middle Eastern women fulfill more roles in society than Middle Eastern men.
D) Middle Eastern men are more likely to serve as the group prototype because they hold more power than Middle Eastern women.

Answer 1

Middle Eastern men are more likely to serve as the group prototype because they hold more power than Middle Eastern women.

Question 2

Which of the following is the most likely explanation of the evidence presented by MacNell and colleagues (2015) study on gender bias in teaching evaluations?

A) Gender bias in teaching evaluations is driven by explicit, conscious sexism.
B) Instructor evaluations are biased by gender stereotypes outside of students' awareness.
C) Bias in evaluations favoring men is mainly driven by the attitudes of male students.
D) Individualistic, Western culture increases gender bias in teaching evaluations favoring men.

Answer 2

Instructor evaluations are biased by gender stereotypes outside of students' awareness.

Question 3

______ is(are) a defining feature of stereotyping.

A) Generalizing from traits assigned at the group level to individuals
B) Negative affect
C) Unfavorable trait ascriptions
D) Explicit, conscious awareness of group level attitudes

Answer 3

Generalizing from traits assigned at the group level to individuals

Question 4

Thomas Eckes (2002) compared subgroups of male and female participants on communal and agentic traits finding that ______.

A) sex differences on communal and agentic traits are consistent across subgroups
B) many subgroups of men and women are stereotyped differently than men and women as a whole
C) thinking about subgroups, rather than men or women as a whole, increases the use of gender stereotypes
D) individuals identify belonging to a small number of subgroups

Question 5

Haines and colleagues (2016) present evidence that gender stereotypes in the United States have followed what trend from 1983 to 2016?

A) Gender stereotypes have grown weaker.
B) Gender stereotypes have grown stronger.
C) The strength of gender stereotypes has fluctuated following a parabolic function.
D) The strength of gender stereotypes has not changed.

Question 6

While on average women are rated more highly than men on traits such as ______, men are rated more highly on ______.

A) effectiveness; competitiveness
B) emotional sensitivity; cooperativeness
C) competence; agreeableness
D) kindness; assertiveness

Question 7

What is meant by the "women-are-wonderful effect?"

A) Stereotypes of women tend to be rated as more favorable than stereotypes of men.
B) Women are more likely to be rated high on both communal and agentic traits.
C) Women are less likely to be blamed than men for the same transgressions.
D) The halo effect causes more positive evaluations of women generalized from physical attractiveness.

Question 8

Research shows that ______ is an effective strategy for increasing tendencies to view people as unique individuals, as similar to ourselves, and to like them.

A) considering the multiple subgroups that people belong to
B) describing people in agentic rather than communal traits
C) stereotyping people according to superordinate rather than subordinate identities
D) participating in intergroup competitions

Question 9

Which stereotype do gay men share with heterosexual men?

A) assertiveness
B) extraversion
C) competitiveness
D) sexual promiscuousness

Question 10

What describes the stereotypes applied to someone who belongs to multiple subordinate groups, each with their own stereotypes?

A) They reflect a sum of the stereotypes of each of their group identities.
B) The stereotypes associated with the group of the highest power to which they belong carry the most weight.
C) Crosscutting identities carry their own unique stereotypes that are not always applied to either subordinate group.
D) Conflicting stereotypes tend to balance each other out resulting in less extreme trait ascriptions.

Question 11

MacNell and colleagues (2015) manipulated whether students in an online anthropology course were told their instructor was male or female. What was the outcome of this manipulation?

A) Men rated the instructor more favorably when they were told he was male, but women showed the opposite pattern.
B) Student evaluations were affected by the actual sex of the instructor but not by the perceived sex.
C) Instructors were rated as more warm and friendly when perceived to be female.
D) Instructors were rated as more effective when perceived to be male.

Question 12

Which of the following social groups should, on average in the United States, be rated highest on communal traits?

A) White women
B) Black women
C) women with low socioeconomic status
D) White men

Question 13

Which of the following groups will be stereotyped most similarly to men overall?

A) White men
B) Black men
C) Middle Eastern men
D) Latino men

Question 14

Which of the following best matches the definition of stereotypes?

A) attitudes toward individuals
B) attitudes toward groups
C) feelings toward individuals
D) feelings toward groups

Question 15

Researchers find evidence for each of the following downsides or limitations of the "women-are-wonderful effect" EXCEPT ______.

A) Nontraditional women are not stereotyped as warm relative to other social groups.
B) Lower class women are stereotyped as lower in both communion and agency than middle-class women.
C) Men are perceived as more moral because of their stereotyped agency.
D) Men are more respected than women because of their stereotyped agency.

Question 16

Where do women as a group fall on dimensions of communion and agency relative to other social groups?

A) average on both communion and agency
B) slightly below average on communion and well below average on agency
C) very high on communion and moderately high on agency
D) very high on communion but slightly below average on agency

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT one of Deaux and Lewis's (1984) proposed four components of gender stereotypes?

A) verbal characteristics
B) trait dimensions
C) role behaviors
D) physical appearance

Question 18

When Terri Conley (2013) asked Blacks, Asian Americans, and Latinas/os about their attitudes toward White women she found that people of color stereotype White women as ______.

A) dumb and sexually easy
B) intelligent and beautiful
C) bossy and condescending
D) nitpicky and conscientious

Question 19

Which of the following is FALSE of stereotypes about transgender people?

A) Male-to-female stereotypes are largely consistent with stereotypes about cisgender women.
B) Female-to-male men are stereotyped as more androgynous.
C) Transgender people are stereotyped as being gay.
D) Non-binary people are stereotyped as lacking sex drives.

Question 20

Williams and Best (1990) found what about the generalizability of the stereotype content model across culture?

A) Across all cultures, stereotypes toward men tended to be more favorable.
B) Men and women were stereotyped as being the most alike in European countries.
C) Eastern cultures have the most positive stereotypes toward women.
D) Women are consistently associated with communal traits and men with agentic traits.

Question 21

______ refers to when members of negatively stereotyped groups feel anxiety about the possibility of confirming negative group stereotypes.

A) Self-fulfilling prophecy
B) Stereotype threat
C) Discrepancy accuracy
D) Prototype anxiety

Question 22

When it comes to judging which sex differences tend to be largest and which tend to be smallest people are ______.

A) poor judges
B) reasonably accurate
C) biased according to their own gender
D) motivated to rate differences that favor men as larger than differences that favor women

Question 23

Researchers assess stereotype accuracy with respect to both ______ and ______.

A) strength; validity
B) validity; reliability
C) consistency; discrepancy
D) discrepancy; direction

Question 24

Which of the following theories proposes that gender stereotypes ultimately originate from physical differences between men and women but rejects genetically based sex differences in personality?

A) biosocial constructionist theory
B) evolutionary psychology
C) social role theory
D) genetic recapitulation

Question 25

Which of the following theories suggests that men and women are genetically disposed toward displaying different personality traits?

A) biosocial constructionist theory
B) evolutionary psychology
C) social role theory
D) genetic recapitulation

Question 26

Holleran and colleagues found that gender stereotypes are inaccurate for which of the following traits/behaviors?

A) talkativeness
B) extraversion
C) interruptions
D) verbal ability

Question 27

Social role theory proposes that gender stereotypes ultimately originate from ______.

A) sex-based divisions of labor
B) modern depictions of gender roles in the media
C) hormonal differences between males and females
D) the unique adaptive problems faced by males and females

Question 28

Which of the following explanations of the origins of gender stereotypes is most consistent with evolutionary psychology?

A) People associate men with competitive and dominant traits because of their high social status in society.
B) Men are prone to risk taking because society rewards risky behavior in men more than women.
C) People infer women are nurturing because they observe them caring for children more than men.
D) People associate men with assertiveness because such traits facilitated man's likelihood of reproducing.

Question 29

Which of the following groups tend to evoke the most negative stereotypes overall?

A) heterosexual women
B) gay men
C) lesbian women
D) bisexual people

Question 30

Labor statistics indicate that Black men are overrepresented in roles such as athletes and laborers. According to findings from social role theory, about what correlation should exist between the ratings of these occupations on communion/agency and the communion/agency traits ascribed to Black men?

A) r = −.70
B) r = .20
C) r = .70
D) r = .00

Question 31

Halpern and colleagues (2011) found what about the accuracy of gender stereotypes for cognitive tasks?

A) Stereotypes accurately reflect the size of sex differences but not the direction.
B) People tend to overestimate the size of sex difference in cognitive abilities.
C) Gender stereotypes about cognitive abilities are largely accurate for direction.
D) Stereotypes are accurate for boys cognitive abilities but not for girls.

Question 32

Swim (1994) examined the rank-order accuracy of gender stereotypes, allowing her to test whether ______.

A) the direction (i.e., favoring men versus favoring women) of stereotypes is accurate
B) some stereotypes are more central to people's judgmental than others
C) certain stereotypes are more accurate than others
D) people understand that sex differences are larger in some domains than others

Question 33

Which of the following describes the results from Eagly and Steffen's (1984) test of social role theory?

A) participants relied on gender stereotypes regardless of the target's occupation
B) participants rated women as higher on communion across conditions
C) information about the target's job overrided gender stereotypes
D) men were rated higher on agency than women in business occupations

Question 34

Which of the following theories would predict the slowest and smallest changes in gender stereotypes over time?

A) biosocial constructionist theory
B) evolutionary psychology
C) social role theory
D) genetic recapitulation

Question 35

Which of the following best describes Löckenhoff and colleagues (2014) findings regarding stereotype accuracy for personality traits?

A) Stereotypes for men's traits are accurate but not for women.
B) Stereotypes are accurate for communal traits but not for agentic traits.
C) Stereotypes overestimate the size of sex differences in personality.
D) Stereotypes are correct for direction and close to the actual size of personality differences.

Question 36

Matsick and Conley (2016) discovered that members of the LGBQT community hold unique stereotypes about heterosexual men and women. For example, heterosexual men were stereotyped as ______ while heterosexual women were stereotyped as ______.

A) appearance obsessed; intolerant
B) unintelligent; ignorant
C) macho; hyper feminine
D) efficient; caring

Question 37

Traits such as athletic, self-reliant, and rational are examples of ______ for men.

A) gender proscriptions
B) gender prescriptions
C) sex differences
D) gender schemas

Question 38

Which of the following theories argues that stereotypes attributing high agency to men are the result of intrasexual competition for mates?

A) biosocial constructionist theory
B) evolutionary psychology
C) social role theory
D) genetic recapitulation

Question 39

The status incongruity hypothesis argues that gender role violating women are viewed negatively because they ______.

A) are less warm and affable
B) justify gender hierarchies and the unjust status quo
C) are incongruous with the low social status that women are expected to have
D) threaten men's feelings of economic security

Question 40

Which of the following is an example of stereotype threat?

A) participants rating a Black male as more threatening and intimidating than a White male
B) a female performing worse in an online video game following a reminder that few women play the game
C) police officers targeting suspects based on race
D) feelings of anxiety that result from being in the presence of racial outgroups

Question 41

The interpersonal process--in which a stereotypes shapes how group members are treated, which then yields outcomes that "prove" the stereotype true--is referred to as ______.

A) subtyping
B) confirmation bias
C) stereotype threat
D) a self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 42

What is the purpose of gender rules according to the status incongruity hypothesis (Rudman et al., 2012)?

A) to facilitate the division of labor in society
B) to bring about social change and progress toward egalitarian goals
C) to take advantage of men and women's psychological and physical differences
D) to justify and reinforce the unequal gender hierarchy

Question 43

Overall, the content of gender stereotypes is largely consistent across culture.

Question 44

The effects of stereotype threat upon girls and women's math performance are strongest in regions characterized by greater gender inequality.

Question 45

Modest men are viewed less favorably than modest women.

Question 46

Suppose a math teacher stereotypes male students as better at math than female students, and this in turn causes the teacher to give more attention to male students. This ultimately results in male students performing better in the teacher's class than female students. This is an example of ______.

A) subtyping
B) confirmation bias
C) stereotype threat
D) a self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 47

Cuddy and colleagues' (2015) reanalysis of Williams and Best's (1990) cross-cultural data on gender stereotypes revealed what subtle pattern?

A) Gender differences in stereotypes are larger in countries with low socioeconomic status.
B) Men are stereotyped as holding the most culturally valued traits.
C) Women are stereotyped as more agentic than men in Western cultures that score highest on gender egalitarianism.
D) Stereotypes are most accurate in collectivist cultures.

Question 48

Endorsement of gender stereotypes in the United States has weakened significantly over the past 30 years.

Question 49

Which of the following reasons most likely explains why there is little research examining stereotypes of heterosexual women and men?

A) Because heterosexuality is the "normal" sexuality, and its stereotypes mimic those applied to women and men generally.
B) There is widespread bias against heterosexual women and men in academia.
C) Stereotypes toward heterosexuals are obvious and research examining them would not make a substantial scientific contribution.
D) Stereotypes toward heterosexual men and women are weak and inconsistent.

Question 50

Based on Cuddy and colleagues' (2015) analysis of cross culture gender stereotypes, you might predict that ______ are stereotyped as relatively high in social sensitivity ______.

A) women; in Japan
B) men; in United States
C) men; in South Korea
D) women; across all cultures

Question 51

Biosocial constructionist theory argues that gender stereotypes are ultimately the result of how labor has been divided throughout history.

Question 52

Evolutionary psychology postulates that changes in gender stereotypes will occur more rapidly over time than biosocial constructionist theory predict.

Question 53

The stereotype content model proposes what two dimensions of evaluation dominate group stereotypes?

A) morality and agency
B) agency and communion
C) sociability and intelligence
D) extraversion and neuroticism

Question 54

Cuddy and colleagues' (2015) analysis suggests what about the relationship between gender stereotypes and systems of status and power across cultures?

A) The contents of gender stereotypes work against systems of power in countries that value communal roles.
B) Groups with little power are stereotyped as communal to keep them out of agentic roles.
C) High status groups are attributed more agency to rationalize their role as leaders.
D) Dominant groups are ascribed the most valued traits to justify status differences.

Question 55

One defining characteristic of stereotypes is that they are conscious and explicit.

Question 56

Traits that society says women and men should exhibit are called gender ______, while traits that society disapproves of in women and men are called gender ______.

A) stereotypes; prejudices
B) prescriptions; proscriptions
C) norms; anti-norms
D) rewards; threats

Question 57

Stereotypes of White women share more in common with stereotypes of women in general than do stereotypes of Black women.

Question 58

Favorable stereotypes about women as warm, nurturing, and generous are consistent across race and socioeconomic status.

Question 59

Stereotypes toward people who belong to multiple social groups (e.g., Black and Muslim) are simply the aggregate of the stereotypes toward each of the individual groups.

Question 60

Which of the following is TRUE regarding gender stereotype accuracy across the domains of personality, cognitive ability, and communication?

A) Stereotypes are accurate for personality but not for cognitive abilities.
B) Stereotypes are only accurate for women in the domain of communication.
C) The evidence for stereotype accuracy is mixed across all domains.
D) In general, gender stereotypes for direction, discrepancy, and rank order are fairly accurate across all three domains.

Question 61

Collectivist cultures are more likely to stereotype men as communal.

Question 62

Describe the "women are wonderful effect." For what groups of women is this effect least likely to occur?

Question 63

Briefly describe how biosocial constructionist theory relates to social role theory.

Question 64

People are reasonably accurate about the relative size of sex differences across domains (e.g., personality, cognitive abilities).

Question 65

Genetic predispositions among males and females to display different personality traits are consistent with social role theory.

Question 66

Will Middle Eastern men or Middle Eastern women have more stereotypes in common with Middle Easterner in general? Why is this the case?

Question 67

Explain how evolutionary psychology, social role theory, and biosocial constructionist theory each account for the origins of gender stereotypes. Describe why the specific content of stereotypes applied to men and women (e.g., men as relatively high on agency and women relatively high on warmth) emerged according to each theory.

Question 68

What differences in gender stereotypes did Cuddy and colleagues (2015) find across individualistic and collectivist cultures?

Question 69

Describe the findings of Williams and Best's (1990) cross-cultural analysis of gender stereotypes and its implications for the universality of gender stereotypes. Then describe Cuddy and colleagues' (2015) reanalysis of this data. Discuss its implications for the universality of gender stereotypes and how they may relate to systems of status and power.

Question 70

What is stereotype threat and under what conditions is it most likely to impact performance?

Question 71

Members of the LGBQT community hold the same stereotypes of heterosexuals as straight people do.

Question 72

List and briefly explain the three different ways that researchers have assessed stereotype accuracy?

Question 73

Explain why, according to the status incongruity hypothesis, gender role violating women are viewed negatively.

Question 74

In general, gender stereotypes tend to be fairly accurate.

Question 75

Describe the accuracy of gender stereotypes for the domains of personality, cognitive ability, and communication. Detail the results for discrepancy, direction, and rank order accuracy.