Presenter(s): Samuel Ryan Adcock – Psychology
Faculty Mentor(s): Sara Hodges, Kathryn Denning
Poster 106
Research Area: Social Psychology
Women in the United States consistently drop out of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields at various points along the career pathway. While discrimination is an important factor, women’s self-perceived levels of natural ability and effort exertion relative to those of others in their field may lead to decreased future persistence in STEM. To discover whether these factors influence the decision to leave STEM at the undergraduate level, the current study used questionnaires to measure male and female undergraduates’ future persistence, field identification, and self-perceptions of ability and effort expenditure. We expect to find that low self-perceived natural ability as well as high self-perceived effort exertion relative
to peers will be associated with low future persistence, moderated by gender. However, we also expect to find that field identification will act as a buffer allowing for future persistence in spite of self-perceived low ability and high relative effort exertion. If confirmed, these findings will speak to the importance of conveying to women that gender does not influence STEM ability