The current study explored gender differences in groups of boys and girls in a limited resource context. Forty same-sex groups of four children from kindergarten and grade four were observed during sessions in which groups played first with two different toys and then two different games. The toy and game sessions were constructed so children had to negotiate for a scarce resource (attractive toy and game winner's certificate). In the case of one of the toys the end of a player's turn was obvious to group members (explicit turn-taking toy), in the case of the other toy the end of a turn was not obvious to group members (nonexplicit turn-taking toy). Resource use (time with toy), group variability in resource use, positive affect and self-report measures were collected. Results of the toy sessions revealed both genders were very similar on all the measures; however, girls were significantly more likely to have greater group variance in distributing the nonexplicit turn-taking toy. The two games, one competitive and one noncompetitive, involved players trying to reach a finish line. For the competitive game, only one player could win, but for the noncompetitive game all players could win. During both games, a player could potentially interfere with another player's goal to win. Resource use (interfering), group variability in resource use, positive affect and self-report measures were collected. Results of the game sessions revealed both genders were very similar on all measures, however, during the competitive game, girls were more likely to have greater group variance in interfering. The results are discussed in terms of considering aspects of the context when investigating gender differences in competition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.36697 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Roy, Rosanne. |
| Contributors | Benenson, Joyce F. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001764970, proquestno: NQ64658, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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