College education and motherhood as components of self-concept

Discrepancies between implicit and explicit assessments

Bibliographic Data

ID15411389
AuthorsTon Devos (0000-0003-4546-7555, San Diego State University, corresponding author), Priscila Valdiviezo-Díaz (0000-0002-5216-8820, San Diego State University), Erin Viera (San Diego State University), Roger Dunn (0000-0001-6610-7626, San Diego State University)
Year2007
Volume6
Issue2-3
Pages256-277
Publication date2007-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSelf and Identity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1529-8868 • E-ISSN: 1529-8876
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15298860601118710
OpenAlexW1984333122
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited60

Three studies examined the explicit and implicit self-concepts of college women. Participants completed self-report measures and implicit association tests measuring identification with the concepts "college education" and "motherhood." Explicitly, participants identified more with college education than with motherhood. Implicitly, however, participants identified more with motherhood than with college education. The dissociation between mean levels of explicit and implicit identifications was more pronounced for students without children than for mothers (Study 2). In line with principles of affective – cognitive consistencies, the more motherhood was linked to the self, the stronger the correlation between attitude toward motherhood and self-esteem (Study 3). The findings show a clear discrepancy between explicit and implicit self-knowledge and reveal that motherhood plays a more important role in the self-concept of undergraduate women than self-reports would suggest. Notes 1. Four participants who had children were not included in the analyses because Study 2 revealed reliable variations as a function of whether participants had children or not. 2. Participants also completed two IATs assessing identification with "college education" and "motherhood" relative to a more neutral concept. Findings based on these IATs are not reported here because further investigations are needed to validate these tasks. 3. Data from this participant were also discarded for analyses conducted on the explicit measures. 4. For the multi-items scales and the ratings of the stimuli, difference scores were computed to parallel the format of the IAT. 5. In this paper, multiple pairwise comparisons were always performed using the Bonferroni adjustment procedure. 6. Because many items on the scale measuring identification with motherhood assumed that students were not yet mothers or took on a different meaning whether participants had children or not, analyses performed on the multi-item scales are not reported. 7. Participants also completed the set of explicit measures used in Studies 1 and 2. For the sake of brevity and because the findings were consistent with those reported for Study 2, analyses conducted on the explicit measures are not reported. 8. The small sample size prevented us from examining whether or not these patterns were moderated by participants' motherhood status. Additional informationNotes on contributorsRoger Dunn This research was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant 5T34MH 65183. Portions of this research were presented at the 6th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 2005; at the 84th Annual Convention of the Western Psychological Association, Phoenix, Arizona, April 2004; and at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Palm Springs, California, January 2006

Bonferroni correction · Cognition · Developmental psychology · Dissociation (chemistry · Identification (biology · Implicit attitude · Implicit-association test · Pairwise comparison · Self-concept · Critical Race Theory in Education · Psychology · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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