Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Sexism--Language; Women--Public opinion;
Abstract
The current study examined how people’s perceptions can be affected by various terms used to describe women. Participants from a Midwestern university read a script describing 26-year-old Erin either as a “woman,” a “girl,” or “person.” Participants then rated Erin on eighteen different traits (e.g., mature, forceful). They also completed an ambivalent sexism scale and answered three questions about their use and interpretations of the terms “girl” and “woman.” It was predicted that the participants in the “woman” condition would rate Erin as more mature, responsible, warm, understanding, and successful than the participants in the “girl” condition. Also, it was predicted that those in the “girl” condition would rate Erin as more feminine, gullible, and childlike. A research question asked how differing levels of ambivalent sexism might affect the ratings of Erin. Only 34% of participants were able to correctly recall how Erin was described in the scenario (i.e., girl, woman, person). There were few effects of gender or interactions, with no main effects of condition. Overall, higher levels of ambivalent sexism did significantly correlate with a few trait ratings of Erin. The qualitative results showed that over half of the participants reported using “girl” and less than a third reported using “woman” as their main term for adult females. Additionally, “girl” is often interpreted as more childlike, whereas “woman” is often interpreted as more adult-like. Although the manipulation did not seem to be effective, there was some evidence that there is some sort of effect of whether a woman is referred to as a “woman,” “girl,” or “person.”
Year of Submission
2013
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Helen C. Harton
Date Original
2013
Object Description
1 PDF file (iv, 61 pages)
Copyright
©2013 Chelsae R. Huot
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Huot, Chelsae R., "Language as a social reality: The effects of the infantilization of women" (2013). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 72.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/72
