GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SELF-PERCEPTIONS - CONVERGENT EVIDENCE FROM 3 MEASURES OF ACCURACY AND BIAS

This research assessed gender differences in the accuracy of self-perc eptions. Do males and females with equal ability have similar self-per ceptions of their ability? Three measures of accuracy were used: accur acy of self-evaluations, calibration for individual questions, and res ponse bias. As hypothesized, for a masculine task, significant gender differences were found for all three measures: Females' self-evaluatio ns of performance were inaccurately low, their confidence statements f or individual questions were less well calibrated than males', and the ir response bias was more conservative than males'. None of these gend er differences were found for feminine and neutral tasks. As hypothesi zed, strong self-consistency tendencies were found. Expectancies emerg ed as an important predictor of self evaluations of performance for bo th genders and could account for females' inaccurately low self-evalua tions on the masculine task. How females' inaccurate self-perceptions might negatively affect achievement behavior and curtail their partici pation in masculine domains is discussed.