Communal Goals Research Articles

Examining interests and goals as predictors of gender differences in engineers' pursuit of managerial roles

AbstractBackgroundGiven the gendering of engineering roles and competencies, the evidence that the skills required for engineering management are widely referred to as social, and the fact that men engineers are stereotyped as more technical, and women as more social, it might be theorized that (a) those that occupy managerial (vs. technical) roles in engineering are more socially oriented, and (b) that this will especially be the case for women. However, no research has empirically tested the relationship between having socially oriented characteristics and being in managerial roles within the engineering profession, nor have gender differences been examined.PurposeWe test whether social interests and communal goal strivings are linked to engineers' positioning in managerial roles and explore gender as a moderator of these relationships. Additionally, because enterprising interests and agentic goal strivings have been linked to managerial roles in other occupations, we test these as additional predictors of engineers' positioning in managerial roles.MethodIn a field survey of 274 industry engineers from multiple organizations and subfields, we tested the relationships described using hierarchical linear regression analysis.ResultsEnterprising interests and agentic goals, but not social interests and communal goals, were associated with being in managerial roles, and there were no gender differences in these relationships.ConclusionsOur findings challenge perceptions that managerial roles in engineering, and particularly women's positioning in these roles, are associated with socially oriented tendencies. Findings have implications for research on gender stereotyping and intraoccupational gender segregation in engineering and hold educational implications for curriculum, instruction, and advising.

Recalled Childhood Gender-Related Play Behaviour and Current Gender-Related Occupational Interests in University Students: Examining the Mediating Roles of Gender Compatibility, Goal Endorsement, and Occupational Stereotype Flexibility.

Substantial average gender differences in childhood play behaviour and occupational interests have been well-documented. Recent research shows that childhood gender-related play behaviour longitudinally predicts gender-related occupational interests in adolescence (Kung, 2021). The first aim of the present study was to extend this recent finding by examining whether university students’ recalled childhood gender-related play behaviour predicts their current gender-related occupational interests. The second aim of the present study was to investigate whether gender-related socio-cognitive processes mediate the relation between childhood play behaviour and subsequent occupational interests. University students (260 men, 542 women) completed scales assessing recalled childhood gender-related play behaviour, gender-related occupational interests, gender typicality, gender contentedness, agentic goal endorsement, communal goal endorsement, and gender-related occupational stereotype flexibility. In the present study, recalled childhood gender-related play behaviour predicted gender-related occupational interests in both men and women. In men, gender typicality and gender contentedness mediated the play-interests link. In women, gender typicality and communal goal endorsement mediated the play-interests link. The present study provides further evidence that childhood gender-related play behaviour is related to subsequent gender-related occupational interests. Although the current study has a correlational design, one interpretation of the current findings is that childhood play may influence socio-cognitive processes, such as gender compatibility and goal endorsement, which may in turn shape occupational interests.

Preferences for and perceptions about politicians’ goals and how they impact women’s and men’s political ambition

Women consistently report lower levels of nascent political ambition than men, which causes problems for the recruitment of women in politics. The aim of this study is to better understand the mechanisms behind this gender gap by simultaneously studying the extent to which gender differences in preferences for and perceptions about the typical goals attained through a political career (power, independence and communal goals) can explain gender differences in political ambition. Using data collected among Belgian political and social sciences students (N = 322), our results provide a strong confirmation of the gender gap in political ambition. We also find substantial gender differences in preferences for and perceptions about goals pursued through political careers. However, these individual-level differences in preferences and perceptions only marginally reduce the gender gap in political ambition, emphasising the need for active political recruitment.

Global Black Rhetorics: A New Framework for Engaging African and Afro-Diasporic Rhetorical Traditions

ABSTRACT Given the influx in people of African descent immigrating to the United States from diverse national, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds, the demographics of the US Black community has shifted significantly over the last several decades. As a result of these changes, it is imperative that approaches to rhetorical studies, especially African-centered cultural rhetorics, remain inclusive and representative of diverse Black experiences in the United States and abroad. Toward this end, the authors propose a new disciplinary subfield called Global Black Rhetorics (GBR). GBR emphasizes engaging similarities and differences across Black experiences, positions of power, and privilege, which includes acknowledging, studying, and prioritizing the histories, languages, rhetorical traditions, and practices of continental Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Latinx, Afro-Europeans, and other people of African descent across the African Diaspora. The authors introduce a four-themed framework for GBR that includes: assessing methods of education about global Black experiences, studying and teaching Black language diversity, teaching and citing contemporary rhetors and texts from Africa and African Diasporic contexts, and prioritizing healing as a communal goal for all Black people. The essay concludes with an introduction to the contributors of this special issue whose research advances the authors’ call for a globalized approach to Black Rhetorics.

Why do women opt for gender-atypical fields of study? The increasing role of income motivation over time

Gender segregation in fields of study represents an important explanation for gender inequalities in the labor market, such as the gender wage gap. Research shows that horizontal gender segregation in higher education persists for a variety of reasons, including women’s greater communal goals and men’s greater motivation to earn high incomes. Yet with the male breadwinner model in decline, a key question is whether women’s motivation to earn high incomes might contribute to increasing women’s participation in female-atypical fields of study. Using data from the German Student Survey over a period of 30 years, our findings show that the proportion of women enrolled in female-atypical fields of study increased from 1984 to 2015. Moreover, women’s motivation to earn high incomes mediates the effect of time on enrollment in female-atypical fields of study. Their motivation to earn high incomes might thus be a factor contributing to the disruption of gender segregation in fields of study over time. Furthermore, contrary to expectations, the motivation to earn high incomes as a driving force for women to opt for gender-atypical fields of study is not stratified by social background.

Seeking congruity for communal and agentic goals: a longitudinal examination of U.S. college women’s persistence in STEM

An abundance of literature has examined barriers to women’s equitable representation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, with many studies demonstrating that STEM fields are not perceived to afford communal goals, a key component of women’s interest in future careers. Using Goal Congruity Theory as a framework, we tested the longitudinal impact of perceptions of STEM career goal affordances, personal communal and agentic goal endorsements, and their congruity on persistence in science from the second through fourth years of college among women in STEM majors in the United States. We found that women’s intent to persist in science were highest in the fall of their second year, that persistence intentions exhibited a sharp decline, and eventually leveled off by their fourth year of college. This pattern was moderated by perceptions of agentic affordances in STEM, such that women who believe that STEM careers afford the opportunity for achievement and individualism experienced smaller declines. We found that higher perceptions of communal goal affordances in STEM consistently predicted higher persistence intentions indicating women may benefit from perceptions that STEM affords communal goals. Finally, we found women with higher agentic affordances in STEM also had greater intentions to persist, and this relationship was stronger for women with higher agentic goals. We conclude that because STEM fields are stereotyped as affording agentic goals, women who identify interest in a STEM major during their first years of college may be drawn to these fields for this reason and may benefit from perceptions that STEM affords agentic goals.

Middle School, Middle-Skills: 8th Grader’s Interest in Middle-Skill Occupations

There is a workforce shortage in middle-skill occupations requiring some educational training but not a 4-year college degree, such as skilled trades (e.g., construction), transportation (e.g., drivers), and manufacturing. Identifying factors that promote adolescent interest in middle-skill occupations is crucial in combating this shortage. This study examined whether variables contributing to adolescent interest in STEM occupations, such as gender, occupation goal affordances, and occupational knowledge, extend to middle-skill occupations. Results from hierarchical linear models revealed that adolescents ( N = 502) were interested in middle-skill occupations for which they felt knowledgeable and perceived to afford agentic and communal goals. The effect of perceived knowledge on interest in construction and manufacturing occupations was stronger for boys than girls. Efforts to increase interest in middle-skill occupations should address the gender gap in perceived knowledge and highlight how these occupations fulfill agentic and communal goals.

Boosting prosocial career aspirations: Loving-kindness meditation relates to higher communal career goals in youth.

Wanting to help others and benefit society in one's future career are examples of communal career goals. Raising these goals in youth should increase interest in HEED‐occupations (Healthcare, Early Education, Domestic, and the Domestic fields) which are strongly gender‐skewed and face labor shortage. Research has yet to find ways to increase communal career goals. In this study, we test the novel hypothesis that after listening to a brief loving‐kindness meditation, participants will rate stronger communal career goals, as compared to controls. In three experimental studies, volunteering high‐school students (Study 1 and 3) and university students (Study 2) listened to a 12‐min recording of the meditation with the explicit purpose of investigating its effect on stress. They thereafter filled out an apparently unrelated career goal survey. We compared the results with a control group that just rated the career goals (Studies 1–3) and a control group that listened to calm music before filling out the survey (Study 2 and 3). The results showed that the high‐school students rated higher communal career goals after listening to the meditation, as compared to controls. We did not replicate the result in the sample of university students, which could relate to adults having less flexible career goals than youth, or to a ceiling effect in communal goals. This is the first study that has demonstrated a method with the potential of increasing communal career goals in youth. In addition to increasing interest in HEED, raising communal goals could benefit society, since they are intrinsically prosocial.

Associations between moral identity, social goal orientations, and moral decisions in adolescents

ABSTRACT Adolescence is a time in which peers gain in importance and more time is spent engaging in social interactions with them. Within these interactions, adolescents will also be confronted with moral dilemmas, in which moral decisions need to be taken. The aim of the current study was to examine two factors that may influence moral decisions, namely moral identity and social goal orientations. The sample consisted of 455 adolescents (251 girls), with ages ranging from 10 to 18 (MAge = 14.11, SDAge = 1.79), who completed questionnaires. In line with the hypotheses, there was a significant positive association between moral identity and moral decisions, and communal goals and moral decisions; there was also a significant negative association between agentic goals and moral decisions. We propose that both moral identity and social goal orientations be added to the social information processing-moral decision-making framework, and further theorize about the relation between constructs in the database. We discuss the findings from a development perspective and provide first ideas for practical implications.

In the Face of Opportunities: Facial Structures of Scientists Shape Expectations of STEM Environments.

Impressions of role leaders provide information about anticipated opportunities in a role, and these perceptions can influence attitudes about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways. Specifically, the facial structures of role leaders influenced perceived affordances of working with that person, such as the availability of communal and agentic opportunities (e.g., mentorship; achievement). STEM faculty with trustworthy (relative to dominant) faces were seen as valuing communal goals (Studies 1-3), and in turn, perceived as affording both communal and agentic opportunities in their research groups (Studies 2-3b). These heightened goal opportunities aligned with perceptions that trustworthy-faced advisors would enact more group-supportive behaviors (Study 2). Consequently, students anticipated fairer treatment and reported greater interest in labs directed by trustworthy- than dominant-faced leaders (Studies 3a-4a), even when images were accompanied by explicit information about leaders' collaborative behavior (Study 4b). The faces of leaders can thus function as the "face" of that role and the surrounding culture.

Callous-unemotional traits, social goal orientations, and bullying perpetration: exploring concurrent associations during adolescence

ABSTRACT Bullying and cyberbullying is a severe problem afflicting adolescents worldwide, underscoring the need to understanding of the mechanisms behind bullying perpetration. In the current study, we examined the association between callous-unemotional traits, social goal orientations, and bullying/cyberbullying behaviours. The current study draws upon a sample of 435 adolescents, who completed an online questionnaire. A path model, which separately included the dimensions of callous-unemotional traits, revealed that callousness and agentic goals had a direct positive association with bullying and cyberbullying behaviours; uncaring also had a direct positive association with cyberbullying behaviour. There was a direct positive effect from callousness and uncaring onto agentic goals, and a negative effect onto communal goals. Unemotionality had a direct negative effect onto both agentic and communal goals. There was an additional indirect effect, linking callous-unemotional traits to bullying/cyberbullying behaviour via social goal orientations. We discuss the findings, drawing upon motivational, evolutionary, and social-emotional deficiency perspectives.

Science utility value intervention for elementary school students: A six-month follow-up study

Classroom utility value (UV) interventions have attracted growing attention for their power to increase students’ STEM motivation. However, their delayed effects and the mechanisms through which they bolster students’ STEM motivation have not been investigated thoroughly. We followed 416 Korean 5th and 6th graders who participated in a science UV intervention program in the previous academic semester. The immediate motivational benefit of the intervention for these young learners in the form of increases in mean scores largely dissipated six months after the intervention. Nonetheless, enhanced recognition of science UV for personal and communal goals predicted students’ participation/career intentions and behaviors assessed six months later both directly and indirectly via science interest and appreciation.

Interpersonal Rejection and Social Motivation in Adolescence: Moderation by Narcissism and Gender

Research on interpersonal rejection is voluminous, but less is known about perceived rejection in relation to social goals among peers during adolescence, especially while also considering factors that may moderate these associations. In a correlational design, we surveyed a diverse sample of middle school students to examine concurrent (Study 1; N = 269) and short-term longitudinal (Study 2; N = 321) links between rejection and adolescent communal (affiliation, closeness) and agentic (status, influence) goals, and narcissism and gender as moderators in the associations between rejection and social goals. Rejection was negatively related to (Study 1) and predicted decreases in (Study 2) communal goals. Narcissism was positively related to and predicted increases in agentic goals, and moderated the association between rejection and agentic goals (in both studies). One moderated effect of gender was found: perceived rejection predicted decreases in agentic goals for girls, but increases in agentic goals for boys. Our findings mostly align with existing research on interpersonal rejection in youth, and extend this literature by demonstrating that perceived rejection is meaningfully related to changes in trait-like social goals among peers, suggesting it may alter not only situation-specific cognitions, but also globalized goals, or motivations for peer interaction. The findings also call for further research on individual differences in associations between rejection and social goals, along with other outcomes.

The effect of outcome severity on moral judgement and interpersonal goals of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders

AbstractWhen two actors have the same mental state but one happens to harm another person (unlucky actor) and the other one does not (lucky actor), the latter elicits a milder moral judgement. To understand how this outcome effect would affect post‐harm interactions between victims and perpetrators, we examined how the social role from which transgressions are perceived moderates the outcome effect, and how outcome effects on moral judgements transfer to agentic and communal interpersonal goals. Three vignette experiments (N = 950) revealed similar outcome effects on moral judgement across social roles. In contrast, outcome effects on agentic and communal goals varied by social role: victims exhibited the strongest outcome effects and perpetrators the weakest, with bystanders falling in between. Moral judgement did not mediate the effects of outcome severity on interpersonal goals. We discuss the possibility that outcome severity raises normative expectations regarding post‐harm interactions that are unrelated to moral considerations.

“A Viable Path for Education”—Indigenous-Language Immersion and Sustainable Self-Determination

ABSTRACT This article examines Indigenous-language immersion (ILI) schooling, an innovative approach in which most or all instruction occurs in the Indigenous language, with a strong culture-based curriculum. With the goals of promoting language revitalization, academic/holistic wellbeing, and cultural identity and continuance, ILI is a form of sustainable self-determination. We ground our analysis in a growing body of ILI scholarship and preliminary findings from our research in a mixed-method, multisite, US-wide study of ILI schooling. The study asks: What can ILI teach us to improve education practice for Native American learners? How can such a study inform research, theory, practice, and policy for Indigenous and other minoritized learners? We begin with a brief history of ILI movements in the US and then discuss ILI’s de/anticolonial aims, highlighting connections to sustainable self-determination. We illustrate these processes with examples of pedagogical, communal, and nation-building goals and practices evident in our national study. We conclude with the broader implications of ILI as a “viable path for education” for sustainable enactments of Indigenous self-determination.

Nevertheless, she persisted (in science research): Enhancing women students’ science research motivation and belonging through communal goals

Nevertheless, she persisted (in science research): Enhancing women students’ science research motivation and belonging through communal goals

Goal Congruence and Positivity Toward College Major: The Role of Self‐Connection

Promoting college student retention and career success remains a primary goal for higher education. Toward this end, we examined the role of goal congruity and self‐connection in the extent to which students feel positivity toward their major. Specifically, we tested the role of self‐connection in the relationship between goals and positivity toward college major among 188 college students. When we examined communal goals, a moderated indirect effect emerged, suggesting that communal goals related to self‐connection only when students' majors did not provide communal affordances. For agentic goals, an indirect effect emerged such that endorsing agentic goals (regardless of agentic affordances) promoted self‐connection. In both cases, self‐connection then related to views toward one's major. These results suggest that communicating the communal value of majors to college students might promote self‐connection and have positive implications for retention of college students. Furthermore, encouraging students to consider their communal and agentic goals might lead to feeling positively toward their major.

Agency, communion, and pubertal status: Separating between- and within-person associations to examine social goals development.

Agentic (status/independence) and communal (acceptance/connectedness) social goals are thought to shape how adolescents transact with their social environments. Despite their theoretical importance, little work has focused on the development of these higher order personality dimensions. Informed by developmental neuroscience and evolutionary psychology theoretical frameworks, the current study examined associations between pubertal status, a person's level of pubertal development at a single point in time, and agentic and communal social goals across early to middle adolescence. This longitudinal study consisted of 387 (55% female) adolescents (Wave 1M age=12.1) who were assessed annually across three waves. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine growth in pubertal status and agentic and communal goals and to distinguish between- and within-person associations between pubertal status and social goals. Within-person pubertal status was concurrently associated with higher levels of agentic and communal goals. In the cross-sectional and longitudinal models, between-person pubertal status was associated with higher levels of agentic social goals. No support was found for social goals prospectively predicting pubertal status. These findings provide support for the hypothesis that puberty, in part, may drive developmental shifts in the value adolescents place on close peer relationships and obtaining status and independence.

Transformative Practices to Support First-Generation College Students as Academic Learners: Findings From a Systematic Literature Review

ABSTRACT Literature on first-generation college students contains a range of practices that can support first-generation college students as academic learners. To synthesize these practices for higher education practitioners, we conducted a systematic literature review of 53 articles. We identified three types of transformative practices from the literature: (a) promoting an institutional interdependent learning culture, (b) providing explicit support for academic learning, and (c) creating learning experiences that center communal goals. Across these three practices, we demonstrate the importance of educational practitioners drawing on students’ lived experiences as a valuable source of knowledge for their collegiate learning experience.

Integrating communal content into science lessons: An investigation of the beliefs and attitudes of preservice teachers

AbstractDeveloping student capacity for the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce requires not only better preparation in specific content and skills but also better preparation in understanding the goals that STEM fields can afford. In particular, stereotypic views that STEM fields lack communal opportunities to work with and help others dampen interest in pursuing STEM careers. This research project investigated preservice science teachers' (PST) beliefs about whether science careers afford communal goals, and then employed experimental methodology to assess reactions to science lessons that integrate communal content. PSTs perceived STEM fields as less likely than other fields to fulfill communal goals. Yet lesson plans that integrated communal applications were perceived as more likely to engage students. The communally‐oriented lesson plans were then further developed for dissemination. We discuss the opportunities and obstacles to integrating communal content into science education instruction.