Some psychological aspects of committee work

Abstract

Continuation of an article in the previous issue (II: 2885). Mixed committees tend to be less efficient than those all of one sex, especially in concrete and personal tasks; women are quicker than men and more or equally accurate in judging English compositions and solving bridge problems; relative speed and inaccuracy, probably reflecting lack of interest, pertain to the men in judging emotions from photographs and to the women in multiple choice problems; the women's superiority in their own field is more marked in small than in large groups, as is their inferiority in the men's field; the favorable effect of a time limit is also less pronounced in the women. The latter factor definitely conduces to increased speed without marked loss of accuracy. Introverts (so rated by the Laird-Thompson questionnaire) were clearly inferior on concrete and personal problems, but equally superior on abstract material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)