Research Design Coursework
Hypothesis
It is hypothesised that solitary males or females within a group comprising members of the opposite sex will develop stronger gender self-categorisations than will majority males or females, following a co-operative gender-neutral group task. When groups comprise unequal proportions of socially-salient categories (e.g., gender and race), group processes are affected, with the behaviour and self-identities of minority members shifting towards their expected stereotype via a process of role entrapment (Johnson & Schulman, 1989). These behavioural changes become more pronounced with decreasing numerical status and where the token/minority member is normally disadvantaged or subordinated (Saenz, 1994). One explanation suggests that individuals who participate in activities where their social-group membership is made explicit are likely to depersonalise and thereafter self-categorise at the group-stereotype level (Turner et al., 1987). However, existing research on group composition has typically used quasi-competitive activities. This may account for the shift in self-categorisation, especially when there are current, historical or perceived inequalities in the status of group-members, resulting, for example, from race or gender. The current study, then, uses a co-operative group task to investigate the impact of being a single or majority-member of a group on gender self-categorisation.
Experimental Design A between-participants 2 × 2 experimental design will be used, with two independent factors (gender and set-size), and two levels of each (male vs. female; single member vs. majority member), giving four conditions (single-female, single-male, majority-female and majority-male).
Procedure
Ten confederates of the experimenter (five male and five female) and 40 female and 40 male volunteer participants