Abstract

Men generally hold higher status than do women, and status has been shown to affect both expectations for and actual behaviour. The present research investigated the hypothesis that many gender differences in social behaviour may actually be status differences. Coping, which encapsulates several social behaviours, was used as the domain in which to investigate the hypothesis. The overall hypothesis was that perceptions of the coping of high and low status individuals would correspond to perceptions of the coping of men and women (i.e., gender stereotypes) and to self-perceptions of coping (i.e., self-report coping). In Study 1, men and women completed a self-report measure of coping behaviour constructed to assess specific coping strategies of interest in the literature on gender differences in coping. Validation of the coping instrument was also established. Study 2 was a social perception study. Using a minimal instantiation of status, perceptions of the coping of high and low status individuals were assessed. Study 3 was another social perception study, this time with the perception of the coping of men and women as the variable of interest. Overall, there was a correspondence between perceptions of the coping of high and low status individuals, gender stereotypes of coping, and self-reported coping of men and women. The results have implications for the understanding of gender differences and for the effect of other status characteristics on behaviour.