The Influence of Women’s Self-Perceptions of Ability and Effort Expenditure on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Field Persistence

38 pages. Presented to the Department of Psychology and the Robert D. Clark Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science June 2018Women in the United States consistently drop out of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields at various points along the career pathway. While discrimination is an important factor, women’s perceptions of themselves and their field may influence the decision to leave STEM at the undergraduate level. The current study used questionnaires to measure 121 male and female undergraduates’ self-perceived levels of natural ability, effort exertion relative to those of others in their field, domain motivation, beliefs about the relationship between effort and ability, and beliefs about the importance of high natural ability to success in their field to see if these variables predicted decreased likelihood of persistence in STEM. We found that domain motivation and self-reported ability predicted likelihood of persistence; however, self-reported ability unexpectedly had a negative relation with likelihood of persistence. Interestingly, we found no gender differences for likelihood of persistence. Taken together, these findings may represent positive news for women aspiring to work in STEM fields