2024/02/19 by Lois-lily Olivia Geal
#Belongingness #Career choice #Education #FOS: Psychology #Gender #Occupation #People-Things Paradigm #Psychology #Representation #STEM #Sense of belonging #Students #University #Vocation
paper · doi:10.5526/esj.288
Research has indicated that representation (belonging to a gender minority versus a gender majority) can impact one's sense of belonging, with consequences for academic achievement and occupation. Gender disproportion is a problem in the entire STEM industry. The gender difference in the people-things paradigm (a model that outlines the two dimensions of interests and preferences) has robustly accounted for variance in interest, which can predict career choices. In this paper, STEM is divided into the female-dominated subject, Psychology, and the core, more established, male-dominated STEM subjects. In total, 222 university students studying Psychology or STEM participated in an online self-report questionnaire to measure their sense of belonging and people-things orientation. As predicted, men were more things-oriented than women, while women were more people-oriented than men. STEM students were primarily things-oriented, and Psychology students were mainly people-oriented, as hypothesised. Unexpectedly, within STEM, women were less things-oriented than men. In further contrast to the hypotheses, representation did not affect belongingness. Instead, men showed the lowest sense of belonging, regardless of their study subject. Overall, gender had the most significant impact on students' sense of belonging and interest. Intervention programmes for universities and workplaces can use these findings to discourage gender disproportion in STEM and ensure all students can thrive in their environment.