A Research Of Implicit And Explicit Gender Prejudice Of College Students

With the development of implicit social cognition and the theory of dual attitudesmodel, implicit attitude drew more attention of psychologists. The research of implicit andand explicit gender prejudice is a very important part of the implicit social cognition. Theresults of this research have a role in the education of personality and development ofcollege students.It is necessary to develop explicit measurements with high reliability and validity, andsensitive implicit methods to meet the need of understanding gender prejudice thoroughly.The relationship of expression of gender prejudice and the motivation to respond withoutprejudice should be comprehended in order to realize the impact of willpower on theexplicit and implicit gender prejudice, which may lead to bias of cognition and behavior,and the situation that may be an important variable of gender prejudice. So we shouldanalysis the relationship of gender prejudice, situation and the bias of cognition andbehavior. Stereotype threat may lead to lower self-esteem and performance, so we are alsointerested in prejudice results for the gender prejudice victims.With implicit and explicit paradigm, using the methods of self-report, IAT andsituational experiment, the author investigated the status of explicit and implicit genderprejudice of college students, the relationship of explicit and implicit gender prejudice,the relationship of the expression of gender prejudice and the motivation to respondwithout prejudice, the impact of gender prejudice, motivation and situation on thecognition and behavior, the prejudice threat to the self-esteem, mood and behavioraltendency of the gender prejudice victims. The results were as followings:1. The General Gender Prejudice Scale developed by the author was composed of fivesubscales. They were subscales of family and marriage, parent role, occupation, socialbehavior and education. It had high reliability and validity, and can be used to test theprejudice of college students.2. The expression of gender prejudice of college students shifted from hostility to benevolence, and the benevolent gender prejudice was universal in college students. Thesubjects held more gender prejudice toward women in the field of social behavior andeducation than the other three fields. Male college students held more gender prejudicetoward women than female students.3. The college students held implicit gender prejudice toward women universally.Male college students held more implicit gender prejudice and gender-occupationalprejudice toward women than female students. Male and female college students heldimplicit gender prejudice mutually, and it demonstrated the effect of inside and outsidegroup. The explicit and implicit gender prejudice was isolated, but somewhat associatedwith each other.4. The implicit motivating to respond without sexism (IMS-S) of college students washigher than the explicit motivation to respond without sexism (EMS-S). The IMS-S offemale college students was higher than that of male students. The IMS-S had asignificantly negative impact on the explicit and implicit gender prejudice, and it showedthe influence of willpower on the reduction of gender prejudice.5. The situation was an important variable to the cognition and behavior. Genderprejudice holder showed more negative attitude toward women in competitive situationthan in the noncompetitive situation. Male students showed more negative attitude thanfemale students. The benevolent gender prejudice had a significantly positive impact onthe attitude of prejudice holder. The implicit attitude had a significantly predictive abilityto the behavior. Women in workplace were confronted with glass ceiling.6. Perception of gender prejudice had a significantly positive relationship withself-esteem. It demonstrated that when a female student was confronted with stereotypingthreat, she promoted her self-esteem through revaluing herself or identifying with highersocial status. Stereotyping threat would weaken her attitude and positive stereotype wouldstrengthen her attitude and behavioral tendency.