How gender affects academic achievements David Rubio Psychology 141 July 25th 2017 Modesto Junior College 1. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS Abstract In almost every class that I have taken up to this point in college women have outnumbered men in the classes, this got me to ask why? Is it because they are smarter than men? This is the question that made me want to pursue creating this survey. From there I had to try and figure out what types of questions to ask. So I came up with these three categories to base my questions around. First was overall success in academics, the second was success on tests, and the third was success in certain subjects. One of the variables that affected my survey can be seen in the ratio of men to women in college. Another variable was the types of questions that I asked, I didn’t get in depth with them. Last my answers were based off of people putting in grades that that they thought they got, not grades that they actually received. Through the questions I asked I was able to figure out that women overall had better academic achievements, women also scored better on tests, and last women would overall do better in each individual subject. Introduction In our society there has always been competition in who has the best grades, especially between men and women. One good question to ask is who has better grades, men or women? In our society we look at an educated person as someone that achieves good grades in school, but there are other factors which help define people as being intelligent. Factors such as how well they do on test, or perhaps how a person excels more in one subject than they do in other subjects. There are many different theories on this issue, such as (Blume, 2011) found “There is evidence, however, that sociocultural factors may influence girls’ attitudes toward math and science. For example, parents tend to view math as more important for sons and language arts 2. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS and social studies as more important for daughters”. Does this have an effect on how children perform? There are differences in men and women in all areas from the way we think to the physical attributes that we hold. What makes us so different in our academic achievements? (Blume, 2011) has found “Girls continue to exhibit higher verbal ability throughout high school, but they begin to lose ground to boys after fourth grade on tests of both mathematical and science ability”. Although we may never fully understand why one gender does better in a certain academic achievements it is helpful to know what areas of academics each gender excels in. My hypothesis is I predict that women will overall be better in academics than men. I also predict that women will be overall better test takers than males. I don’t think that women are dominant in all subject though, I believe that men are probably better in math and science. Hopefully by the end of my study I will have more of a clear picture of how both males and female’s academic achievements differ. Literature review The Department of Psychology, Developmental and Cross-Cultural psychology, at the University of Konstanz in Germany did a study which examined whether different aspects of how a child’s emotional and behavior regulation accounts for gender differences in German and mathematical achievements. (Weis, 2013) “The main focus of the study was to see whether higher school achievements by girls in comparison to boys could be explained by selfmotivation. The study took 53 German fifth graders (19 boys, 34 girls) and used academic performance test in reading, writing, and mathematics”. Teachers were given the task of rating the children’s behavior using a self-control scale, also the children were given a self-control 3. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS study showed that girls out performed boys in German achievements and behavior regulation. Which in turn revealed the relations between gender and German achievement were mediated by behavior regulation. Through the study it shows that girls were more likely to use problem oriented study, rather than emotion oriented study. Problem oriented study is when a person uses strategies that aim to solve problem in order to feel better, causing a person to more likely study and plan their work. Whereas emotion oriented study is when a person emotionally disengages from a stressful situation causing them to not properly engage in the activity. These results are consistent with the results of some studies in literature, which have also found higher achievement in German or in other language subjects by girls, but no significant gender differences in mathematic achievements. The American Psychological Association took research that was from 1914 through 2011 that spanned more than 30 countries. The study found the majority of differences in gender and academic achievement were reflected in language courses and smallest in math and science classes. (APA, 2014) found “that female advantage in math and science did not become apparent until middle school or junior high. The researchers examined 369 samples from 308 studies, which reflected the grades of 538,710 boys and 595,332 girls. Seventy percent of the samples consisted of students from the United States, and the rest coming from various countries.” The studies included an evaluation of gender differences in teacher- assigned grades or official grade point averages in elementary, junior/middle, high school, undergraduates, and graduate university. The study revealed that female grades have been consistently better than male grades throughout several decades without any significant changes. As for why girls perform better than their male counterparts the author speculates that cultural and social factors could be a possible explanation. 4. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS The U.S Department of Education performed a data snap shot in the differences in educational opportunities for male and females from prekindergarten through higher education. (Elementary, 2012) found “The data shows 57% of students in postsecondary school are women, also that 8.1% of women participated in gifted and educational programs compared to 7.4% of men. Girls were also less likely to be held back a grade across all grade levels. Girls had a better pass rate in algebra 1 with 85% of girls passing and 83% of boys passing.” In science girls are evenly represented in biology and outnumber boys in chemistry, but are underrepresented in physics. In math courses girls are evenly represented a crossed all math subjects. Girls outnumber boys in AP science, language, and other subjects, but are consistently outnumbered in AP mathematics. Boys take AP test and pass AP test at a higher rate. 73% of boys enrolled in AP courses took an AP exam compared to 70% of girls. Also 60% of boys passed an AP exam compared to 55% of girls. In 2009-10 girls represented higher percentages in post-secondary degrees representing 60% in associate degrees, 57% of bachelor degrees, 62% of master degrees, and 53.3% of doctorate degrees. The data that was gathered shows that girls are out performing the boys in a most of the common core subjects, such as literature and science. It also shows how girls are becoming more evenly represented across the board in all subjects. However girls are underrepresented in AP mathematics and physics, and are not taking and passing AP tests like boys are. Method I created my survey on google forms and consists of 16 questions. The survey is made up of multiple-choice, and linear scale questions. There was a consent given before the survey which 5. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS notified the responders that they had to be at least 18 years of age. I sent the survey out for a 2 weeks period using social media, and email. I also asked friends if they could post it on their social media. About every other day I would repost my survey to get more posts. I tried to post it to equal amounts of men and women to get a good ratio. My questions asked if they were male and female as my variable. I also asked questions about total GPA, highest level of education, and grades in specific courses. I also asked question on whether the participants liked certain courses more than others, to see if this might have any effect on course grades. At the end of the survey I will tally up all the surveys. I will than add up all of the answers for each the questions according to male or female to see if there were any differences. I would conclude the study by checking if there were any advantages or disadvantages in any one subject, test taking, and overall GPA. I would also compare the questions that involve the participant’s comfortability and importance in each subject, and see how that compares to the grade in the subject, and see if there is any correlation. Results I stated in my hypothesis that I predict that women will overall be better in academics than men. I also predict that women will be overall better test takers than men. I don’t think that women are dominant in all subject though, I believe that men are probably better in math and science. 6. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS Highest level of education 46.0% 33.0% 27.8% 31.0% 18.6% 15.5% 15.0% 6.2% COLLEGE SOME COLLEGE TRADE SCHOOL Male 5.2% HIGH SCHOOL 1.8% SOME HIGH SCHOOL Female GPA at highest level of education 61.9% 56.7% 25.8% 19.5% 17.7% 12.4% 5.2% 4.0< 3.0< 2.0< Male 0.9% 2.0> Female Through my survey I was able to collect 210 surveys from 113 women, and 97 men. In my hypothesis I stated that women would overall do better in academics. I asked two question to try and prove this. The first question I asked the participant was “What is your highest level of education?” The second question I asked was “What was your average GPA at your highest level of education?” I put the results from the answers that I received from the participants into the two graphs seen above. I was able to compare the answers from men and women, and 7. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS through my survey I was able to find out that 46% of women actually finished college compared to 33% of men. I was also able to see that 19.5 % of women received a 4.0 compared to 12.4% of men at their highest level of education, women also received 61.9% of 3.0< compared to 56.7% of men. The graphs show that women reach a higher level of education on average, and that they receive higher grades at their highest level of education on average. From this data I would have to say that women overall do better than men in academics. Proving that the first part of my hypothesis to be correct. How well participant scores on test 32.7% 30.9% 26.8% 20.4% 1.0%0.9% 0.0%0.9% 3.1%1.8% 2.1%1.8% 1.0%6.2% 1 NOT GOOD 2 3 4 5 Male 19.5% 17.5% 11.3% 8.0% 6 8.0% 2.0% 7 8 9 10 VERY GOOD Female In the survey I presented a linear scale which asked the participants on a scale of 1-10, 1 being not very well, and 10 being very well how well they scored on tests. I put the results in the graph above. The majority of people whether man or women put themselves at a 7 or above. If you look at the percentages of each of the numbers men only have a higher percentage in the 7 rating which was at 26% compared to women’s which was at 20%. Women actually have higher numbers in 8 up to 10 which when combined have a percentage of 59% compared to men’s 53%. These stats help prove that women are better at taking tests than men. This helps prove the second part of my hypothesis which states that I think women will be overall better test takers. 8. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS Math Grades 59.4% 43.3% 39.3% 31.2% 26.8% 24.7% 24.1% 39.2% 32.4% 26.6% 25.5% 4.1% 4.5% 1.0% 0.9% HIGH SCHOOL A B C D F 12.5% COLLEGE Male A B C 2.0% 1.6% 1.0% D F Female In the survey I asked the participants on average what Grades they received in math in high school, and in college. I was able to put the percentages above in a graph to compare men and women. Women received A’s 39.3% of the time and received B’s 31.2% of the time. Compare this with men who received A’s 26.8% of the time, and B’s 43.3% of the time. Grades on average in math in college women received A’s 32.4% of the time, and received B’s 39.2% of the time. Compared to men who received A’s 26.6% of the time and B’s 59.4% of the time. These findings show my hypotheses to be inaccurate in the case that men do better in math then women. It clearly shows that women get higher grades in this subject. Women on average score A’s at a higher rate in math which helps provide proof that my hypothesis incorrect. Science grades 48.5% 40.7% 35.4% 27.8% 19.6% 19.5% 41.3% 53.1% 46.0% 29.6% 16.3% 11.1% 1.6% 1.0% 4.1% 4.4% HIGH SCHOOL A B C D F COLLEGE Male Female A B C D F 9. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS In the survey I asked the participants what grades on average in science did they receive in high school, and in college. I used this graph to show the data I received and it shows women received A’s on average at 40.7%, and B’s 35.4 % in the survey. Men on the other hand received A’s on average at 27.8% of the time, and B’s at 48.5% of the time in the survey on high school sciences. The graph shows grades in science in college are reversed compared to high school showing women receiving A’s at 29.6% of the time on average and B’s at 53.1% of the time. Men show a higher percentage in college science receiving A’s at 41.3% of the time, and B’s at 46% of the time in the survey on college sciences. The data that I received from the survey leads me to believe that women show better academic achievement in science in high school. For some reason they don’t get the same grades in college, and it would appear that men actually do better. In the end I would have to conclude that my hypothesis is incorrect because although men show better academics in college sciences they received lower academics in high school sciences. This would have me believe that they are not overall better in sciences. Language Arts Grades 53.1% 50.5% 38.1% 31.9%30.9% 33.9% 40.7% 33.7% 23.7% 18.6% 13.3%5.2% 1.8% 2.1% HIGH SCHOOL A B C D 9.5% 5.1% 6.3% 1.7% F COLLEGE Male A B C D F Female In my survey one of the questions I asked the participants was “what grades on average they received in language arts” in high school, and in college. This graph above shows my results. 10. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS Women on average received A’s at 53.1% of the time, and B’s at 31.9 % of the time. Men received A’s at 23.7% of the time, and B’s at 38.1% of the time in high school. In language arts in college women received A’s 50.5% of the time, and B’s at 33.7% of the time. Men received A’s on average at 33.9% of the time, and B’s at 40.7%. of the time in college. Through the survey I can conclude that women consistently receive higher grades than men in language arts. I didn’t state that women would receive higher grades in language arts but I hinted that they would do better by only saying men would do better in math and science. Conclusion I think the questions that I asked in the survey were relevant to the hypothesis that I was trying to prove. I don’t think that my finding are significant because they are purely based off of individuals putting in numbers that they believe are true. It would be very easy for someone to put in false data. It would be better to get grades off of report cards or even transcripts, to make the data more reliable. I received an adequate amount of people who participated in my survey. The problem lies in the balance of males and females who participated in a couple of the questions. Especially in the questions that involved the different college subjects. On one of the subjects there was a difference of 30 people in favour of women, which probably had a big impact on the percentage. Another limitation that was involved in my study was detail. I asked questions about primary subjects such as math, science, and language arts. To get more accurate results I needed to get more in depth in the primary subjects by including subjects like algebra, geometry, and advanced algebra for the subject math. This would have given more evidence to 11. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS support my hypothesis. On the linear scale I asks how well the participants score on test, this question is very general. I could have ask more specific questions to get a better sense of the participants test taking ability. I could have asked what grade did you receive on average on algebra tests, and could have made it a multiple choice question. I also could have asked more questions on this subject so I could have received more data on the subject. I am glad to have done this survey because some of the results did surprise me. I would have thought that men did better overall in math. I was also surprised to see such a difference in the ratio of women to men in college, I knew women would have more but I didn’t think it was over 10%. In conclusion my hypothesis was semi correct. I was correct in the two first questions I asked involving women having higher academic achievements than men, and women being better test takers. In the last part of my hypothesis when I said that men would be better in math and science I was wrong. It turns out women are better in math, and men are only better in science in college. 12. HOW GENDER AFFECTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS References Blume, M. Z. (2011, January 26). Gender and Academic Achievement. Retrieved July 25, 2017. https://www.education.com/reference/article/gender-academic-achievement/ Weis, M., Heikamp, T., & Trommsdorff, G. (2013). Gender differences in school achievement: The role of self-regulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 442. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00442 American Psychological Association (APA). (2014, April 29). Girls make higher grades than boys in all school subjects, analysis finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 6, 2017. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140429104957.htm Elementary, P. (2012, June 01). June 2012 Gender Equity in Education - ed.gov. Retrieved July 25, 2017. http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=495BFA3DD00C46018FC03B5137E10021&CID=2CD 486D44B176AF626F08C1F4A116BD1&rd=1&h=JIJxzYiyPhH3q3iUcbseizQrJCaUS7RjQ3 25M1Ma0ro&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fwww2.ed.gov%2fabout%2foffices%2flist%2focr%2f docs%2fgender-equity-in-education.pdf&p=DevEx,5060.1 SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIPS Social Media and Relationships Study Vanessa Martinez 06/10/2018 Psych 141 Section 2581 1 SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIPS 2 Social Media and Relationships Study Introduction The ways we interact as human beings have changed over time. As technology keeps on improving each day, our communication and interaction methods as a community keep on changing (Chambers, 2013). For example, since the introduction of the Android operating system, so many people got access to the internet enabled phones due to their low prices. This increased the number of social network users since these gadgets have the ability to support various social media applications. Different researchers all over the world provide different viewpoints regarding the impacts of the social media platforms to human societies. These platforms include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Some say they are good while others perceive them to the platforms which have facilitated the breaking of relationships. It is interesting to study the existing connection between the social media and relationships since it is part of our life. The social media is now our culture. It has facilitated the way we communicate with others, thus strengthening our relationships. With everything good, comes a negative consequence too. The social media has also negative impacts on the relationships. Some cultural variables to observe in this research include: ➢ Attitudes. Different people have different attitudes towards the use of social media in relationships. For instance, the way the females use the social media as far as relationships are concerned is not the way the male will use. ➢ Patterns of thought. What do different people think about when using the social media that will ruin or improve their relationships? Individuals have their pattern of thoughts. For example, the Youths who are not in a relationship will not think mostly like the married SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIPS 3 couples. However, their effect on relationships is felt greatly since they are looking for life partners on the social media. In the process, they might end up chatting with husbands and wives, thereby causing problems for other families. ➢ Nonverbal communication. Different pictures, sign languages on YouTube videos, graphics, and written words depict different meanings (Kostić & Chadee, 2015). The way people perceive these nonverbal communication is likely to affect their relationship. What kind of nonverbal communication does affect relationships? In this variable, pictures and texts will be focussed on. Literature Review In the year 2013, Princeton Survey Research Associates conducted a study on two thousand, two hundred and fifty-two (2,252) American citizens to find out the effects of the social media on their relationships. This was a cross-sectional study that analyzed information via cell phone lines (1, 127 people and 571 with no landline phones), and landline phones (1,125) by landline. The interviews were conducted in Spanish and English. According to the research, couples decide when to use the social media technologies. Some couples end up in quarrels as a result of technology use. From the research, a higher percentage of couples use their own social media accounts. There are very few cases of shared accounts like the email accounts. Approximately seventy-four percent (74%) of the interviewed couples said that the internet had a greater positive impact on their marriage relationship. For twenty percent (20%), it is bad and for four (4%) it is both good and bad. For the fully committed adults, seventy-two (72%) said that the social media technology has no impact at all in their marriage relationships (Lennart & Duggan, 2014). SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIPS 4 In another research carried by the University of Texas at Austin’s Population Research Center, a population of one thousand, one hundred and sixty (1,160) couples in Chile who are married between age eighteen to thirty-nine (18-39) were surveyed. The research focussed on the happiness in marriage in relation to social networking. Based on a scale of ten (10), the couples were to state whether they were in a good relationship. The social network extent was also measured for each individual involved in the research. From the research, the growing use of the social networking sites was found to be highly correlated with unhappiness in marriages. Most people said that the social sites were the contributing factors to the thoughts of relationships breakups such as divorce. Furthermore, this research found out that between the year 2008 and 2010, with the increased use of the social sites across the U.S, for instance, Facebook, the rates of Divorce went high. These statistics were obtained from family lawyers (Nowinski, 2014). Is excessive use of the internet responsible for unhappiness in marriages? The Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at Amsterdam's VU University carried on a research which took four (4) years on three hundred and ninety-eight (398) married individuals in the US. The researchers began their study on the couples a month after they got married. The couples had to gauge their use of the social media and their happiness in marriage. Different psychological variables such as Loneliness, happiness, stress, and selfesteem were assessed. The research revealed that use of internet over time for those couples decreased their well-being, hence affected their happiness (Nowinski, 2014). Most couples at some point felt jealousy of their marriage partners and started losing their trust in them with the most time they end up spending on the internet rather than on building their relationship. They end up being stressed, feeling lonely, depressed and ended up divorcing. SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIPS 5 Methodology Interviewing, Questionnaires, and survey will be the major data collection methods. Interviews will be done via telephones, social media (we will create Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts), and Face to face conversation to those physically available. The information for all the methods will be obtained from different genders, age groups, races, and ethnicities. About sixty percent of our research will be based on social media sites where we will collect different communication messages from couples. Both rigid and open-ended questionnaires will be employed in this study. Some of the questions which our questionnaires will help to answer include: Question Question Response Number 1 I am at least 18 years old and agree to participate. 2 How Old are You? A. Yes, I agree to participate. A. 18-24 years B. 25-31 years C. 32-38 years D. 39-45 years E. 46 and above 3 4 Did you meet with your significant A. Yes partner via online dating? (Rigid) B. No How do you rate the Social media Scale of 1-10 addictiveness? SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIPS 5 6 How do you feel when your significant A. Very happy. other posts something about you? B. I don’t mind it. C. Would rather keep our feelings private. 6 6. Do you at all feel insecure if Rate 1-10. your significant other "likes" pictures or "follows" people of the opposite sex? (Rate 1 for “not at all” and for Yes.”) We will select one specific state to conduct our research in, for instance, New York. With the large population, we will be in a position to get more opinions and results. Both the qualitative and quantitative research analysis will apply in this study. We will employ simple methods of data recording such as tabulation and voice recording. Recording the conversations will be crucial for review and analysis for final presentation. Sorting the data will be done based on the study populations involved. Then the information will be combined to provide the final results of the study. Our major participants will be the married couples since these are the people who are in very sensitive relationships and it is hard for them to evade the use of the social media at home since for some, their work demands. Take an example of a news anchor or reporter. Their pictures, as well as everything they do in the studios, is exposed all over the social media sites. What do their partners say regarding their non-verbal communication in the social media? How will it affect their relationship? SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIPS 7 References Chambers, D. (2013). Social media and personal relationships: Online intimacies and networked friendship. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Kostić, A., & Chadee, D. (2015). The social psychology of nonverbal communication. Nowinski, Joseph (2014) Can Excessive Social Networking Harm Marriages? Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-almost-effect/201405/can-excessivesocial-networking-harm-marriages Lennart, A., & Duggan, M. (2014, February 11). Couples, the Internet, and Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/02/11/couples-the-internet-andsocial-media/
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