DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF AUTHORITY VERSUS PEER EVALUATORS ON SEX DIFFERENCES FOR SELF-EFFICACY EXPECTANCIES AND DEFICITS IN LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

In order to examine the effects of agent of evaluation on sex differences in response to failure for self-efficacy expectancies and learned helplessness deficits, a 2 (authority versus peer evaluator) x 2 (male vs. female evaluator) x 2 (male versus female subject) factorial design was employed. Adjunct professors--actually advanced PhD or completed PhD clinical psychology volunteers--served as authority evaluators, and undergraduate work-study students--actually psychology undergraduate volunteers--served as peer evaluators. Subjects were administered a series of anagrams identified as a test developed to determine college suitability. Graphs were presented in an intervention phase, consisting of 10 difficult anagrams, showing that other college students did well on them. Self-efficacy expectancies and affect were measured at critical points. Performance deficits were measured in a post-intervention phase consisting of 20 easily solvable anagrams. Attributions for success and failure were assessed in a post-test questionnaire. Sex differences in response to failure were found in college students. Type of evaluator and sex of evaluator interacted to account for differences. Females in the female authority condition suffered the greatest deficits. They became more depressed and were less able to recover from exposure to failure than subjects in other groups. They reported wanting to give up more often than their male counterparts and responded more negatively to the female authority evaluator. Males in this condition also suffered smaller, but significant, learned helpless deficits. Males and females in the male authority condition both resisted learned helplessness deficits. All subjects tested by peer evaluators suffered learned helplessness deficits and rated these evaluators more positively than authority evaluators were rated by their subjects. As expected, self-efficacy expectancies were significantly correlated with performance. Previously reported findings of self-efficacy as a mediator of learned helplessness were confirmed. No significant sex differences in attributions made for success or failure were found. Implications of these findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.