The Gendered Nature of Competence: Specific and General Aspects of Self-Knowledge in Social Contexts1

Abstract

A sense of academic competence combines at least 2 forms of gender stereotyping: an illusory glow about performance on specific tasks. and traditional 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 contexts (coed and single-gender schools). The forms of gender stereotyping combine so that where traditional gender stereotyping was reduced at single-gender schools, an illusory glow had more influence. 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 nature of academic self-concepts in social contexts. Implications are for differential influences on the plans and choices adolescents make about work and study.