The gendered nature of competence: Specific and general aspects of self-knowledge in social contexts

A sense of academic competence combines at least 2 forms of gender stereoty ping: an illusory. glow about performance on specific tasks, and traditiona l gender stereotyping about general perceptions of natural talent. Flexible categorization in terms of generality and content suggests a multifaceted model of aspects of self-knowledge about Mathematics and English (ASK-ME). This paper demonstrates the flexibility of the ASK-ME model for adolescents (N = 1,360) in 2 social contests (coed and single-gender schools). The for ms of gender stereotyping combine so that where traditional gender stereoty ping was reduced at single-gender schools, an illusory glow had more influe nce, One outcome was that boys in single-gender settings expressed enhanced perceptions of performance in mathematics and language. Results highlight the importance of generality and content in understanding the gendered natu re of academic self-concepts in social contests. Implications are for diffe rential influences on the plans and choices adolescents make about work and study.