Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Article Critique Example

An article by Stout & Dasgupta (2011) in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin addresses the significance of language that is gender-exclusive and how it impacts women as a form of ostracism. The researchers examined whether or not gender-exclusive language would create a reduced sense of motivation and a reduced sense of belonging versus the use of language that was more gender-neutral during a mock job interview (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). The concept of belonging is an important step in the socialization process; therefore, if individuals feel ostracized or rejected within a given situation, this is likely to reduce the ability to experience belonging within the context of the social environment in question (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011).

The article addresses three primary concepts: 1) ostracism and the feeling of being rejected; 2) social identity threat, which involves social stereotypes of specific groups that isolate individuals from their environment; and 3) linguistic communication, in which words are carefully chosen to exclude one gender (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). These factors demonstrate that gender exclusivity within language, most notably towards women, often contributes to harsh circumstances and negative forms of rejection that are difficult to accept, given the issues that women already face simply as being members of this gender (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). The study also explores a concept known as linguistic bias, whereby there are significant and notable exclusions of one gender from many typical conversations, much of which is passive in nature, but is perceived as active in its intent and purpose to the offended parties (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). Therefore, women may view these linguistic tendencies as sexism and will feel further ostracized in different social settings (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011).

The first study within the article examined a mock job interview in which gender-exclusive or gender-inclusive language were used, and 164 participants (92 females and 72 males) were part of the study (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). Gendered pronouns were used in conjunction with a general job description that would be attractive to both males and females, and randomly assigned measures of ostracism, motivation, and identification on a seven-point scale were also observed in a laboratory setting (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). Using ANOVA, the results indicate that women are likely to believe a point a view by which they feel more ostracized, less motivated, and have limited identification with the job when gender-exclusive language is utilized (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). In the second study, the language was manipulated with a participant population of 248 persons, and level of ostracism and motivation were also addressed in order to identify individual perceptions (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). An ANOVA analysis was also used for this study and demonstrated that language had a significant impact on participants, their perception of belonging, their level of motivation, and the ability to identify with the job in question (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). A third study examined women’s nonverbal and emotional responses to the interview using a specific coding method in order to determine the level of sexism and ostracism that was felt by these women (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011).

These studies provide further evidence of the validity of gender-exclusive language, particularly as it extends to entire social groups and not exclusively individuals (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). These studies also support the belief that social identity threat is definitive for some women when they are able to strongly perceive that they do not belong within a given setting (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). The article recognizes that social identity is not static and that many different perceptions of this concept are likely to occur among individuals as they experience different types of events and social situations (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011).

Article Analysis

With the three studies, the authors provide support for the belief that women who are exposed to gender-exclusive language are likely to feel rejected, ostracized, less motivated, and less enthusiastic (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). These are critical factors in determining how to address belonging in the context of social situations, particularly if males go out of their way to use language and actions to exclude females from a given situation (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). The study is effective in determining that individuals are likely to experience specific emotions and subsequent responses to different situations that impact their sense of belonging, but since the interviews were conducted in a mock fashion, a real interview situation may be entirely different, which suggests that the study is limited in this regard (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). Furthermore, the job interview is not the only setting in which women may or may not feel ostracized or excluded, perceptions of language are unique for each individual, the type of position may attract one gender over another, and Study 3 included a male interviewer (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011).

It is also important to recognize that in some environments, males may be the ones who feel ostracized; therefore, it is important to identify the potential for these situations and to examine how males might have similar experiences to females if the roles were reversed (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). Therefore, both sides of the sexism and/or ostracism arguments should be explored in order to determine if there is sufficient evidence to suggest that gender-exclusive language is a negative characteristics in a variety of situations and whether or not it limits motivation and a sense of belonging for individuals (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011).

References

Stout, J.G., & Dasgupta, N. (2011). When he doesn’t mean you: Gender-exclusive language as ostracism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(6), 757-769.