Developmental and situational correlates of achievement behavior in college females.

This article aims to test the specific hypothesis that girls with a male sex-gender identification, as defined by perceived similarity to their fathers, will experience motivational problems in direct competition with males. The article also explores the possible patterns of relationship between sex-gender identification, several role variables, achievement motivation variables, and achievement behavior. This study includes 51 female and 35 male undergraduates enrolled in an introductory psychology course at Emory University. The average ages of the females (18.5 years) and males (18.6 years) reflect the primarily freshman composition of the class. Emory students are almost exclusively white and from middle-class socio-economic circumstances. The one developmental variable Included in the present investigation was perceived parent-child similarity. This variable was found to be a significant index of the girl's susceptibility to vicarious experience of reinforcement imposed upon a male peer and is proposed to be an indicator of sex-gender identification of the daughter. Perceived parent-child similarity was measured by the Identification Scale, a psychometric procedure which determines the perceived similarity between the offspring and her two parents across 15 normal personality variables.