(Minnesota's MinnPost.com, Selix)
Minnesota's MinnPost.com website reported that "a Miami University team of researchers
found that girls may avoid STEM careers because they are 'perceived as less likely
than careers in other fields to fulfill communal goals (e.g., working with or helping
other people),' according to the abstract in Psychological Science, the journal
of the Association for Psychological Science." Psychologist Amanda Diekman, who
led the research, said, "We found that STEM careers, relative to other careers,
were perceived to impede communal goals." The researchers "took surveys of 333 introductory
psych students, 193 of whom were women," and "asked about their career interests,
their abilities in different academic areas, and the importance they place on certain
personal objectives." The more strongly respondents approved of "helping others,
serving humanity, intimacy, spirituality," the "less likely the participant was
interested in a STEM career."
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