Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T04:04:09.817Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - At the Crossroads of Women’s Experience

Insights from and Intersections between Motivation, Emotion, Gender, and Culture

from Section 3 - Cognitive and Social Factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2020

By
Joyce S. Pang  and
Nicola Baumann
Edited by
Fanny M. Cheung  and
Diane F. Halpern
Fanny M. Cheung
Affiliation:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Diane F. Halpern
Affiliation:
Claremont McKenna College, California
Get access

Summary

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss research in motivation, self-regulation, and emotion that includes gender as a variable. Specifically, we propose using an intersectionality perspective and a culturally situated understanding of women’s motivational and emotional experiences, and describe data from our labs in Germany and Singapore in order to illustrate this position. Our findings indicate that women’s motivational experience in achievement domains is tied to avoidant motivation and their lower ability to self-regulate negative emotion in the face of goal difficulties or goal failure. Compared to men, women’s more fearful enactment of the implicit achievement motives is related to their adoption of a lower self-attributed achievement motive, which, in turn, lowers women’s well-being. We discuss how cultural norms and gender socialization lead to a complex interplay of parenting, social-normative, and personality systems and processes that contribute to a different motivational and emotional experience for men versus women.

Keywords

Implicit motivesexplicit motivesachievement motivationself-regulationemotion regulationgenderculturegender stereotypesintersectionalityPersonality Systems Interaction theory
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the International Psychology of Women , pp. 153 - 166
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Suggested Readings

Joyce S. Pang is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.  As a personality psychologist, she is interested in the assessment of individual differences and in making finer distinctions between personality dimensions in order to increase theoretical understanding of how personality affects behavior. Specifically, she adopts a person x situation perspective to understand how individual differences in motivation predict different reactions within different social contexts, which in turn lead to important personal and social outcomes.  She is particularly interested in the implicit motives for achievement, power, and affiliation: how to measure them, make differentiations between them, and determine how individual differences in these motives affect performance, health, and well-being. Pang was born and raised in Singapore. She attended Smith College in Massachusetts for her BA and obtained her PhD from University of Michigan.  She picked up Argentine tango in graduate school, and has danced ever since. After she obtained tenure, she took a short leave of absence to spend a couple months in Argentina learning more about the dance. She is currently living and working in Switzerland, and expects to be there for another two years.

Nicola Baumann is a Full Professor at the University of Trier, Germany. She did her diploma, PhD, and habilitation (the German postdoc qualification to gain tenure) at the University of Osnabrück. She has held research fellowships at the University of Rochester, New York (1999–2000), the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (2014–2015), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (2019). Baumann’s research on implicit motives, self-regulation, and self-determination is located at the intersection of personality, motivation, cognition, and social psychology. She investigates the “what” (what moves people to action) and “how” (how people regulate their action) of human goal striving from the broader perspective of Personality Systems Interactions (PSI) theory. In addition to her scientific achievements, she has worked as an applied psychologist and nurtures the exchange between research and practice.

Baumann was born and raised in Germany. She had four one-year stays abroad: 1983–1984 University High School of Northern Colorado, USA (at age 16); 1999–2000 University of Rochester, New York; 2014–2015 Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand; and 2019 University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado. At the University of Osnabrück, there was a good mix of colleagues from the USA and Russia, allowing the integration of very different approaches to science.

Baumann, N., Chatterjee, M. B., & Hank, P. (2016). Guiding others for their own good: Action orientation is associated with prosocial enactment of the implicit power motive. Motivation and Emotion, 40, 56–68. doi:10.1007/s11031-015-9511-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan, L. E., & Peterson, B. E. (2010). Gender and motivation for achievement, affiliation–intimacy, and power. In Chrisler, J. & McCreary, D. (Eds.), Handbook of gender research in psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 41–62). New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1467-5_3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhl, J. (2000). A functional-design approach to motivation and self-regulation: The dynamics of personality systems interactions. In Boekaerts, M., Pintrich, P. R., & Zeidner, M. (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 111–169). San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Pang, J. S. (2019). Feedback as implicit motivational incentives: Approach and avoidant achievement motivated Singaporean university students’ responses to success versus failure feedback. In Liem, G. A. D. & Tan, S. H. (Eds.), Student motivation, engagement, and growth: Asian insights. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shields, S. A. (2013). Gender and emotion: What we think we know, what we need to know, and why it matters. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37(4), 423–435. doi:10.1177/0361684313502312Google Scholar
Wagner, L., Baumann, N., & Hank, P. (2016). Enjoying influence on others: Congruently high implicit and explicit power motives are related to teachers’ well-being. Motivation and Emotion, 40, 69–81. doi:10.1007/s11031-015-9516-8Google Scholar

References

Atkinson, J. W. (1957). Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. Psychological Review, 64, 359–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, J. W., & Birch, D. (1970). The dynamics of action. Oxford: Wiley.Google ScholarPubMed
Baumann, N., Chatterjee, M. B., & Hank, P. (2016). Guiding others for their own good: Action orientation is associated with prosocial enactment of the implicit power motive. Motivation and Emotion, 40, 56–68. doi:10.1007/s11031-015-9511-0Google Scholar
Baumann, N., Kaschel, R., & Kuhl, J. (2005). Striving for unwanted goals: Stress-dependent discrepancies between explicit and implicit achievement motives reduce subjective well-being and increase psychosomatic symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 781–799. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.89.5.781Google Scholar
Baumann, N., Kazén, M., Quirin, M., & Koole, S. L. (Eds.). (2018). Why people do the things they do: Building on Julius Kuhl’s contributions to the psychology of motivation and volition. Göttingen: Hogrefe.Google Scholar
Baumann, N., & Kuhl, J. (2003). Self-infiltration: Confusing assigned tasks as self-selected in memory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 487 Götingen 497. doi:10.1177/0146167202250916Google Scholar
Baumann, N. & Scheffer, D. (2010). Seeing and mastering difficulty: The role of affective change in achievement flow. Cognition and Emotion, 24, 1304–1328. doi:10.1080/02699930903319911CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cervone, D. (2004). The architecture of personality. Psychological Review, 111, 183–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cervone, D. (2005). Personality architecture: Within-person structures and processes. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 423–452.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chaplin, T. M., & Aldao, A. (2013). Gender differences in emotion expression in children: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 735–765. doi:10.1037/a0030737Google Scholar
Chatterjee, M. B., Baumann, N., Osborne, D., Mahmud, S. H., & Koole, S. L. (2018). Cross-cultural analysis of volition: Action orientation is associated with less anxious motive enactment and greater well-being in Germany, New Zealand, and Bangladesh. Frontiers in Psychology: Section Cultural Psychology. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01043CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaplin, T. M., & Aldao, A. (2013). Gender differences in emotion expression in children: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 735–765.  doi:10.1037/a0030737.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chusmir, L. H. (1985). Motivation of managers: Is gender a factor? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 9, 153–159. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1985.tb00868.xGoogle Scholar
Colman, R., Hardy, S., Albert, M., Raffaelli, M., & Crockett, L. (2006). Early predictors of self-regulation in middle childhood. Infant and Child Development, 15, 421–437. 10.1002/icd.469Google Scholar
Drescher, A., & Schultheiss, O. C. (2016). Meta-analytic evidence for higher implicit affiliation and intimacy motivation scores in women, compared to men. Journal of Research in Personality, 64, 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2016.06.019Google Scholar
Duncan, L. E., & Peterson, B. E. (2010). Gender and motivation for achievement, affiliation–intimacy, and power. In Chrisler, J. & McCreary, D. (Eds.), Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 41–62). New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1467-5_3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliot, A., Eder, A., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2013). Approach-avoidance motivation and emotion: Convergence and divergence. Emotion Review, 5(3), 308–311. doi:308-311. 10.1177/1754073913477517CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Institute for Gender Equality. (2016). EIGE in brief 2017. https://eige.europa.eu/publications/european-institute-gender-equality-eige-brief-2017Google Scholar
Gelfand, M. J., Raver, R. L., Nishii, L., Leslie, L. M., Lun, J., Lim, B. C., & Van de Vliert, E. (2011). Differences between tight and loose cultures: A 33-nation study. Science, 332(6033), 1100–1104. doi:10.1126/science.1197754Google Scholar
Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1997). Hostile and benevolent sexism: Measuring ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(1), 119–135. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00104.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hautzinger, M. (1994). Action and state orientation in the context of psychopathological disorders. In Kuhl, J. & Beckmann, J. (Eds.), Volition and personality: Action versus state orientation (pp. 209–213). Göttingen: Hogrefe & Huber.Google Scholar
Hayes, A. F. (2012). PROCESS: A versatile computational tool for observed variable mediation, moderation, and conditional process modeling [White paper]. www.afhayes.com/public/process2012.pdfGoogle Scholar
Hofer, J., & Busch, H. (2011). Interpersonal identity achievement accounts for the link between action control and self-informed realization of the implicit affiliation-intimacy motive. Identity, 11, 231–246. doi:10.1080/15283488.2011.560813Google Scholar
Jaramillo, F., & Spector, P. E. (2004). The effect of action orientation on the academic performance of undergraduate marketing majors. Journal of Marketing Education, 26, 250–260. doi:10.1177/0273475304268780CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, S. R. (1994). Need for power and women’s careers over 14 years: Structural power, job satisfaction, and motive change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 155–165. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.66.1.155Google Scholar
Johnston, A. M. & Diekman, A. B. (2015). Pursuing desires rather than duties? The motivational content of gender stereotypes. Sex Roles, 73, 16–28. Doi:10.1007/s11199-015-0494-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaschel, R., & Kuhl, J. (2004). Motivational counseling in an extended functional context: Personality systems interaction theory and assessment. In Cox, W. M. & Klinger, E. (Eds.), Motivational counseling: Motivating people for change (pp. 99–119). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kim, J. L. S., & Choo, S. L. (2001). Work–family conflict of women entrepreneurs in Singapore. Women in Management Review, 16(5), 204–221, doi:10.1108/09649420110395692Google Scholar
Köllner, M. G., & Schultheiss, O. C. (2014). Meta-analytic evidence of low convergence between implicit and explicit measures of the needs for achievement, affiliation, and power. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 826. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00826Google Scholar
Koole, S. (2009). The psychology of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 4–41. doi:10.1080/02699930802619031Google Scholar
Kuhl, J. (1994). Action versus state orientation: Psychometric properties of the Action Control Scale (ACS-90). In Kuhl, J. & Beckmann, J. (Eds.), Volition and personality: Action versus state orientation (pp. 47–59). Göttingen: Hogrefe & Huber.Google Scholar
Kuhl, J. (2000). A functional-design approach to motivation and self-regulation: The dynamics of personality systems interactions. In Boekaerts, M., Pintrich, P. R., & Zeidner, M. (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 111–169). San Diego: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhl, J. (2001). Motivation und Persönlichkeit: Interaktionen psychischer Systeme [Motivation and personality: Architectures of mood and mind]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.Google Scholar
Kuhl, J., & Baumann, N. (2000). Self-regulation and rumination: Negative affect and impaired self-accessibility. In Perrig, W. J. & Grob, A. (Eds.), Control of human behavior, mental processes, and consciousness (pp. 283–305). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kuhl, J., & Beckmann, J. (Eds.). (1994). Volition and personality: Action versus state orientation. Göttingen: Hogrefe.Google Scholar
Kuhl, J., & Helle, L. (1986). Motivational and volitional determinants of depression: The degenerated-intention hypothesis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 247–251. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.95.3.247CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhl, J., & Henseler, W. (2004). Entwicklungsorientiertes Scanning (EOS) [Development-oriented scanning (EOS)]. In von Rosenstiel, L. & Erpenbeck, J. (Eds.), Handbuch der Kompetenzmessung (pp. 428–453). Heidelberg: Spektrum Akademischer Verlag.Google Scholar
Kuhl, J., Kazen, M., & Koole, S. L. (2006). Putting self-regulation theory into practice: A user’s manual. Applied Psychology, 55, 408–418. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.2006.00260.xGoogle Scholar
Kuhl, J., Quirin, M., & Koole, S. L. (2015). Being someone: The integrated self as a neuropsychological system. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(3), 115–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhl, J., & Scheffer, D. (1999). Scoring manual for the Operant Multi-Motive Test (OMT). Osnabruück: University of Osnabruück.Google Scholar
Lee, S. K., Goh, C. B., & Fredriksen, B. (2008). Toward a better future: Education and training for economic development in Singapore since 1965. Washington, DC: World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liesenfeld, K. (2014). Authentische Selbstentwicklung als Funktion von emotionaler Regulation und Kindheitsstress [Authentic self-development as a function of emotional regulation and childhood stress]. Unpublished dissertation, University of Osnabrück. http://d-nb.info/1075198186/04Google Scholar
Liesenfeld, K. (2018). The supportive role of fathers for children’s development of the authentic self: A view through the PSI lense. In Baumann, N., Kazén, M., Quirin, M., & Koole, S. (Eds.), Why people do the things they do: Building on Julius Kuhl’s contributions to the psychology of motivation and volition (pp. 375–392). Göttingen: Hogrefe.Google Scholar
Mauzy, D. K., & Milne, R. S. (2002). Singapore politics under the People’s Action Party. London: Psychology Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdams, D. P. (1985). Power, intimacy, and the life story: Personological inquiries into identity. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.Google Scholar
McClelland, D. C. (1975). Power: The inner experience. New York: Irvington.Google Scholar
McClelland, D. C. (1987). Human motivation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McClelland, D. C., & Franz, C. E. (1992). Motivational and other sources of work accomplishments in mid-life: A longitudinal study. Journal of Personality, 60, 679–707.Google Scholar
McClelland, D. C., Koestner, R., & Weinberger, J. (1989). How do self-attributed and implicit motives differ? Psychological Review, 96, 690–702. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.96.4.690.Google Scholar
McClelland, D. C., Patel, V., Stier, D., & Brown, D. (1987). The relationship of affiliative arousal to dopamine release. Motivation and Emotion, 11, 51–66. doi:10.1007/BF00992213Google Scholar
McClelland, D. C., & Pilon, D. A. (1983). Sources of adult motives in patterns of parent behavior in early childhood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(3), 564–574.Google Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100(4), 674–701. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.100.4.674Google Scholar
Moran, C. M., Diefendorff, J. M., & Greguras, G. J. (2013). A comparison of emotional display rules at work and outside of work: A multinational investigation. Motivation and Emotion, 37, 323–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mowrer, O. H. (1960). Learning theory and behavior. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Mukhopadhaya, P. (2001). Changing labor-force gender composition and male–female income diversity in Singapore. Journal of Asian Economics, 12(4), 547–568, doi:10.1016/S1049–0078(01)00102-6.Google Scholar
Nolen‐Hoeksema, S., & Jackson, B. (2001). Mediators of the gender difference in rumination. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25, 37–47. doi:10.1111/1471-6402.00005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pang, J. S. (2019). Feedback as implicit motivational incentives: Approach and avoidant achievement motivated Singaporean university students’ responses to success versus failure feedback. In Liem, G. A. D. & Tan, S. H. (Eds.), Student motivation, engagement, and growth: Asian insights. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pang, J. S., & Schultheiss, O. C. (2005). Assessing implicit motives in U.S. college students: Effects of picture type and position, gender and ethnicity, and cross-cultural comparisons. Journal of Personality Assessment, 85(3), 280–294. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa8503_04CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramsay, J. E., & Pang, J. S. (2014). A simplified measure for the assessment of approach- and avoidance-related implicit achievement motivation. Unpublished.Google Scholar
Rodan, G. (1992). Singapore’s leadership transition: Erosion or refinement of authoritarian rule? Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 24(1), 3–17.Google Scholar
Schlüter, C., Fraenz, C., Pinnow, M., Voelkle, M. C., Güntürkün, O., & Genç, E. (2017). Volition and academic achievement: Interindividual differences in action control mediate the effects of conscientiousness and sex on secondary school grading. Motivation Science. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/mot0000083Google Scholar
Schultheiss, O. C. (2008). Implicit motives. In John, O. P., Robins, R. W., & Pervin, L. A. (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology: Theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 603–633). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Schultheiss, O. C., & Brunstein, J. C. (2001). Assessment of implicit motives with a research version of the TAT: Picture profiles, gender differences, and relations to other personality measures. Journal of Personality Assessment, 77, 71–86. doi:10.1207/S15327752JPA7701_05.Google Scholar
Schultheiss, O. C., & Pang, J. S. (2007). Measuring implicit motives. In Robins, R. W., Fraley, R. C., & Krueger, R. (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in personality psychology (pp. 322–344). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Shields, S. A. (2013). Gender and emotion: What we think we know, what we need to know, and why it matters. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37(4), 423–435. doi:10.1177/0361684313502312Google Scholar
Spangler, W. D. (1992). Validity of questionnaire and TAT measures of need for achievement: Two meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 140–152. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.140.Google Scholar
Thrash, T. M., & Elliot, A. J. (2002). Implicit and self-attributed achievement motives: Concordance and predictive validity. Journal of Personality, 70, 729–755. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.05022Google Scholar
VandeWalle, D., Cron, W. L., & Slocum, J. W. (2001). The role of goal orientation following performance feedback. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 629–640. doi:10.1037//0021-9010.86.4.629Google Scholar
Veroff, J., Depner, C., Kulka, R., & Douvan, E. (1980). Comparison of American motives: 1957 versus 1976. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(6), 1249–1262.Google Scholar
Veroff, J., Reuman, D., & Feld, S. (1984). Motives in American men and women across the adult life span. Developmental Psychology, 20(6), 1142-1158.Google Scholar
Wagner, L., Baumann, N., & Hank, P. (2016). Enjoying influence on others: Congruently high implicit and explicit power motives are related to teachers’ well-being. Motivation and Emotion, 40, 69–81. doi:10.1007/s11031-015-9516-8Google Scholar
Winter, D. G. (1973). The power motive. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Winter, D. G. (1988). The power motive in women – and men. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(3), 510–519.Google Scholar
Winter, D. G. (1994). Manual for scoring motive imagery in running text (version 4.2). Ann Arbor: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Winter, D. G., & Barenbaum, N. B. (1985). Responsibility and the power motive in women and men. Journal of Personality, 53(2), 335–355.Google Scholar
Winter, D., John, O., Stewart, A., Klohnen, E., & Duncan, L. (1998). Traits and motives: Toward an integration of two traditions in personality research. Psychological Review, 105, 230–250.  doi:10.1037/0033-295X.105.2.230Google Scholar
World Bank. (2017). GDP per capita, PPP (current international $), International Comparison Program database.Google Scholar
World Health Organization: Regional Office for Europe. (1998). Well-being measures in primary health care: The DepCare Project. Consensus Meeting, Stockholm, Sweden.Google Scholar
Yarrow, J. (2012). Sheryl Sandberg’s Full HBS Speech: Get On a Rocketship Whenever You Get the Chance. www.businessinsider.com/sheryl-sandbergs-full-hbs-speech-get-on-a-rocketship-whenever-you-get-the-chance-2012-5?IR=TGoogle Scholar
Yeoh, B., Huang, S., & Willis, K. (2000). Global cities, transnational flows and gender dimensions: The view from Singapore. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 91, 147–158. doi:10.1111/1467-9663.00102Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×