The popularity gender divide : what male characteristics are important?

The popularity gender divide : what male characteristics are important?

Adolescent psychology

Interpersonal relations in adolescence

Popularity

Success in adolescence

Teenage boys -- Psychology

Multunas, Nichole K.

2006

Abel, Millicent H.

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

application/pdf

manuscripts (documents)

Text

61741

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/61741

Limited to on-campus users

Based on the memories of college students, characteristics most predictive of male popularity in late adolescence were examined. In addition, memories of differences in personality and behavioral attributes between popular, average, and unpopular males were investigated. There have been both consistent and inconsistent findings on the characteristics related to male popularity. According to the literature, athleticism, aggression, dominance, social skills, body type, and socioeconomic status appear to be the most important characteristics related to male popularity. Using a Questionnaire Research Design, 174 southeastern college students (54 males and 120 females) participated for course credit. A demographic questionnaire and a popularity questionnaire designed for this study were completed by the participants. It was hypothesized that appearance, athleticism, aggression or dominance, and social ability would predict male popularity. Also, differences in perceptions of popular, average, and unpopular boys in their personality and behavioral characteristics were explored, in addition to examining whether there were gender differences in these perceptions. Logistic regression analyses, multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA), and univariate tests were conducted to test the hypotheses. Results of the first logistic regression indicated that personality attributes which were most predictive of a male's popularity type were: being athletic, handsome, dominant, and having a good sense of humor. In the second analysis, behavioral attributes most predictive of a male's popularity type included: use of drugs, participation in sports, going to parties, and popularity with the opposite sex. These findings were supported by previous research indicating that appearance (Boyatzis, Baloff, & Durieux, 1998), athleticism (Kinney, 1993; Suitor & Carter, 1999), aggression or dominance (Lease, Kennedy, & Axelrod, 2002; Lease, Musgrove, & Axelrod, 2002), and social skills (Coleman & Byrd, 2003; Erwin, 1994; Prior, et al., 1993) are important aspects of popularity. One result of the MANOVAs was that there were no significant findings involving gender. These results are consistent with some previous findings, but inconsistent with other findings. Univariate tests comparing popular, average, and unpopular ratings resulted in significant differences in popularity status for all personality attributes except �being smart.� The univariate tests also resulted in significant differences in popularity status on all behavioral attributes except for �uses drugs,� �bullies others� and �helps others.�

2014-09-11

All rights reserved. For permissions, contact Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina U, Cullowhee, NC 28723

7144 KB(file size)

vi, 47 pages(pages)

Western Carolina University Restricted Electronic Theses and Dissertations