Review: Are television commercials still achievement scripts for women - Article Example

? Article review: “Are television commercials still achievement scripts for women?” 7 July The topic Yoder, Christopher, and Holmes (2008) studied how TV ads affected the motivations and goals of college women and men. They wanted to know if women stereotyping in the media continue to influence female audiences, the way it did when Geis and her peers (1984) conducted a similar study. 2. Scientific and/or clinical importance This topic is scientifically important, because it is crucial to determine if and how much the media affects the “gendering” of women’s achievement. Yoder et al. (2008) called this the “achievement script,” or how achievement goals and dreams are made. An empirical analysis on the relationship between TV ads and women’s achievement aspirations can help psychologists understand underlying work and life motivations, as it lends some insight on the psyche of women when it comes to work and home goals. It is also clinically important, because the study can reveal how the media can negatively impact women’s self-image and self-esteem. If TV ads that stereotype women’s social and home roles greatly impact female achievement scripts, then it will provide psychologists greater understanding of women’s self-images. 3. Author’s literature review and the authors’ hypotheses The authors did not provide a separate section for the literature review. However, they did provide a comprehensive introduction that discusses an overview of the topic and previous studies. They cited the works of Davies, Spencer, and Steele (2005) and Geis and her peers (1984), because they provided the concepts, tools, and relevant studies. Davies et al. (2005) showed that short exposures to gendered commercials influenced women’s goals with regard to leadership, since the former triggered gender stereotyping among female subjects. Yoder et al. (2008) also used the “lexical-decision task” to determine “implicit stereotype activation” as it mediates ads and how they stimulate stereotyping and achievement endeavors (p.304). Geis and her peers (1984) arbitrarily divided their sampling of mixed-sex college students to groups that viewed either “four role-traditional or four role-reversed ads” (p.304). Then they asked their participants to imagine what they would be doing a decade from now. Findings showed that women who saw the role-reversed ads communicated a more balanced view of achievement and homemaking than women who saw role-traditional commercials. These studies demonstrated that TV ads can impact how women see themselves and their working aspirations. 4. The experimental hypotheses The authors’ primary hypothesis was that they believe that there is a relationship between gender and three achievement scripts: “net achievement aspirations, aspirations for career and family (partner and children), and implicit achievement motivation” (Yoder et al., 2008, p.304). They determined gender differences for these dependent variables, as well as in-group differences, which ad exposure can diversely impact. 5. Independent and dependent variables The independent factors are gender and TV commercials. The dependent variables are “net achievement aspirations, aspirations for career and family (partner and children), and implicit achievement motivation” (Yoder et al., 2008, p.304). 6. Operational definitions of the variables Davies et al. (2005) employed the lexical-decision task to determine if traditional ads activated gender stereotyping more than nontraditional ads (Yoder et al., 2008, p.305). “Aspirations” were measured using Geis et al.’s (1984) process as guide and Kerpelman and Schvaneveldt’s (1999) measures of students’ expectations that included upcoming career, relationship, and parental roles. The Multi-Motive Grid - Short (MMG-S) measured achievement motivation that follows the projective techniques that can expose implicit motivation through a survey format. 7. Research subjects A pilot study included 66 women and 28 men from a mid-sized, state university. For the final sampling, it consisted of 185 women and 96 men from two different colleges. Some of them came from the same college where the pilot testing was made. The two samples had different ages and aspirations in life. 8. Apparatus (if any) Two individual differences apparatuses were used. The Rosenberg (1965) Self- Esteem Scale was made of 10 items with a scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly disagree); higher scores showed stronger self-esteem. The Personal Attributes Questionnaire consisted of 16 semantic differential components with a 5-point scale. 9. Design The design is considered experimental. 10. Specific experimental design Authors combined Davies et al.’s (2005) procedure with the basic 2 (gender) ? 3 (no-ads, traditional ads, or nontraditional ads) design. They also used three contemporary achievement measures. 11. Procedure Authors employed modern commercials and tested them for stereotyping of women’s competence. They used the lexical-decision to determine if traditional ads activated gender stereotyping more than nontraditional ads (Yoder et al., 2008, p.305). They asked the participants about their typical hours of daily television viewing, and added this measure in their main analysis as a covariate. They further assessed three variables that may have gender differences: self-esteem, personal agency, and communion, and which can also lead to individual differences in achievement and relational goals. 12. Results support or fail to support the hypotheses. The results did not entirely support the hypotheses. Findings showed that there was no significant interaction between gender and three dependent variables. Female participants who viewed traditional ads had no difference in their achievement scripts compared to women who viewed non-traditional ads and men. It is possible that TV ads no longer have the same impact on female achievement scripts like they once did twenty five years ago. There were differences among men and women, however, in terms future planning for career and children and achievement motive to avoid failure and loss of power. More women dedicated more time for family than careers. 13. Theoretical and/or practical implications of the findings (what future studies, if any, should be done?), and The theoretical implications of the findings are: 1) Gender activation may still be involved when mothering or parenting goals are considered. This can show social and cultural factors of gendering in how people see parenting and 2) TV ads may have less impact on women, but media, in general, may still have impacts on achievement scripts. There should be future studies that assess the kind of media channels and forms that may impact women’s achievement scripts. The practical implications of the findings are: 1) Domesticity is still present among women and can impact their self-esteem. Clinicians should also determine how TV viewing can shape women’s self-esteem, especially in psychological problems that concern self-image and self-confidence; and 2) Additional experimental studies are needed to determine the impact of the media on how women shape their dreams and goals in life. Different media channels should be tested in determining how they affect achievement scripts and to determine if gender stereotyping continues to dominate some channels. 14. The possible flaws or limitations of the study. The weaknesses of the study are: 1) It lacked a more definite chapter for its review of literature and research design; 2) Authors did not fully define their operational concepts; and 3) Authors did not explore actual clinical importance of their study’s results. The limitations of the study are first, it focused on college-educated participants and college education or exposure may have decreased the impact of TV ads on women’s achievement scripts, and second, a larger and more diverse sampling is needed to test the media’s impact within women and their diverse groups, and how social class, urban/rural upbringing, and level of education mediates media effects and how media, in general, or in particular forms, shape their dreams and goals in life. References Davies, P. G., Spencer, S. J., & Steele, C. M. (2005). Clearing the air: Safety moderates the effect of stereotype threat on women’s leadership aspirations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 276–287. Geis, F. L., Brown, V., Jennings, J., & Porter, N. (1984). TV commercials as achievement scripts for women. Sex Roles, 10, 513–525. Kerpelman, J. L., & Schvaneveldt, P. L. (1999). Young adults’ anticipated identity importance of career, marital, and parental roles: Comparisons of men and women with different role balance orientations. Sex Roles, 41, 189–217. Yoder, J.D., Christopher, J., & Holmes, J.D. (2008). Are television commercials still achievement scripts for women? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32 (3), 303-311. Read More